Tonight I felt like cooking again for the first time since Christmas.  I wanted something that would make for a hearty, yet relatively healthy dinner tonight and yield me enough leftovers to make several meals during the week. 

Unfortunately, during the winter, I am relegated to the grocery story to shop.  Most of the farmers’ markets are closed.  The one organic farm that remains open has good, but limited produce, and I have to custom order my organic, local, free-range meats in advance.

So, if I want something that I haven’t planned for, I have to take my chances in the supermarket.  After wandering around aimlessly looking for a protein for tonight’s dinner, I settled upon an organic, free-range chicken.

I brined the bird in a simple salt-water bath for about two hours.  While soaking, I peeled and chopped some carrots; celery and garlic, then lined the bottom of my copper roasting pan with them.  I peeled several cloves of garlic and placed them whole in the bottom of the pan along with rosemary, sage and thyme sprigs and half of a lemon.  I placed some of the rosemary, sage, thyme and lemon inside the bird’s cavity, tied off it’s legs and then dusted the top of the bird with paprika, salt and pepper, then drizzled olive oil on it and placed it (with a probe thermometer) in a 500-degree oven. 

After the first 10 minutes, I dropped the heat down to 350 degrees.  While the chicken roasted, I diced an onion and halved a quart of Brussels sprouts. 

In a hot cast iron skillet, I sautéed the vegetables until they developed a golden brown color, and then added some apple cider vinegar and reduced the liquid until it all but evaporated.  Then I added about a cup of chicken stock to the pan and put braised the sprouts until the liquid all but evaporated.

Separately, I heated up some homemade chicken stock and prepared a multi-grain couscous.

I also opened up a bottle of Boggey Creek Rose from down under in the King Valley is made from a blend of Barbara, Sangovese and Shiraz grapes.  It had a surprisingly intense minerality, decent acidity and a lovely floral and calky nose.  I am thoroughly enjoying it!

Voila!  I have a balanced, tasty Sunday night dinner that will yield leftovers, and leave me feeling good about my food choices (once the chicken is rested, I'll make a pan gravy from the drippings).