In Case You're Headed to the Kitchen Soon

We were running low on chicken stock, which means it was time for a roast chicken supper.  I made this Jamie Oliver Perfect Roast Chicken recipe.  It really is perfect.  I added potatoes and green beans and they were super good.  Not the green beans, because green beans are generally not good; but the potatoes were fab.

I also made Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread  for sandwiches for the leftover meat.  Even though I can never get bread to rise as high as the recipe says it's supposed to, I think this one has turned out pretty well every time I've made it.  At least we haven't had to have any awkwardly tiny sandwiches yet. (Don't tell me it's never happened to you.) (I leave the cinnamon out of the recipe most of the time.)

Between the actual supper, the leftover sandwiches, and the chicken stock in the freezer, roast chicken suppers are like magical meals.

Speaking of chicken stock, I finally got smart with how to freeze it.  I used to measure it out into mason jars, but now I freeze it in ice cube trays and then put the frozen cubes into baggies.  7 cubes make a cup of stock, and because the cubes are so small, I don't even have to thaw them before adding to a recipe.  Probably everyone in the world already does this, but it really has been quite revolutionary for me.   

The other amazing thing we've made this week are these Very Vanilla Cupcakes.  I used plain yogurt because I didn't have vanilla flavored, and I did not add a vanilla bean, but they are still SO yummy.  Daphne doesn't always love chocolate so I made these vanilla cupcakes for her, but then paired them with this VERY EASY Chocolate Buttercream frosting for Christian because chocolate is his favorite.  But after licking the frosting beater, Daph declared that she actually does like chocolate after all. 

They found the photos of themselves licking beaters very hilarious.

And then they took a bath.