Halloween Review

Well, Halloween has come and gone and my house has returned to a state of normal.  No more haunted stairwells or skeleton candles.  This year for Halloween, I granted my husband a special Halloween wish:  the return of the orange jack-o-lanterns.  I made this treat for the first time when we had only been married for a month.  I can't claim that I came up with the idea (totally Martha Stewart) or that it's local.  In fact, I have never so guilty as I did when I picked up the oranges from South Africa!  I don't even want to think about the gas it took to ship them here in such perfect condition.  Anyway, I was able to make them 50% local.  Once I hollowed out the oranges, I filled them with local orange sherbet.  In fact, the previous evening, we had some friends over and were eating ice cream and sherbet.  My friends said it was some of the best ice cream they had had and asked me where I got it.  I proudly said, "It's all local!"  I was also pleased to be able to tell them that it was less expensive than any other ice cream in the store.  Next time you buy ice cream in Ohio, I highly recommend Heinen's, Pierre's, or Toft's.  

   Back to the South African oranges.  Once I hollowed out the oranges, I wanted to use at least some of the insides and not let it go to waste.  You can of course make orange juice, but I decided to use some of it for roasting a chicken  (of course, Gerber's local, vegetarian fed, chicken).  Here's my recipe (tweaked a bit from a recipe on allrecipes.com):
    
ORANGE ROASTED CHICKEN
One Roasting or Frying Chicken - whole or cut in parts
1/2 cup butter (or less), cut in small cubes
the flesh and juice of 2-3 oranges
salt and pepper to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp.  rosemary
 1/2 tsp.  thyme 
1/2 tsp.  marjoram

Slip cubes of butter under loosened skin of chicken.  Mix together garlic, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, salt and pepper,  and rub all over chicken.  Poor orange juice and flesh over and around chicken.  Roast at 350 degrees in a Pampered Chef Stone Covered Baker for about 20 minutes with the lid on.  Remove lid and bake another 1 hour (longer if chicken is not cut up).  *** Note*** If you are not using stone cookware, you may need to add chicken broth and melted butter to the recipe.  Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't dry out.