Chicken and Roots

This slow cooker experiment came out pretty good:

5-ish lbs carrots, baby turnips, and red-skinned potatoes cut into bite sized pieces
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
ground pepper to taste
1/2 tsp dried ground thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried ground sage
1/4 tsp dried ground marjoram
1 cup chicken broth
1 chicken cut into pieces (with skin on)
olive oil
2 cups tomato puree

I placed the veggies on the bottom of the cooker, sprinkled them with all the herbs, salt and pepper, and poured the chicken broth over that.

Then I rubbed the chicken pieces with olive oil, and placed them on top of the veggies. The breasts I left together connected to the sternum in one large piece and put it in skin side down.

Last I poured the tomato puree over top of the chicken and cooked it on Low for 8 hours.

I removed the chicken and veggies from the liquid, and reduced it to make about 2 cups of gravy to serve with the meal. This could go well with some sauteed greens, or other green veggies.

The Best Card Ever

Peace in Pittsburgh

On the afternoon of All Hallows' Eve I went on what was billed as a spooky tour of the largest and oldest cemetery in Pittsburgh. The guide wasn't all that knowledgeable, and the stories weren't very frightening, but the cemetery is full of interesting structures and history.


Allegheny Cemetery was opened in 1845 and contains more than 100,000 memorials. The grounds cover 300 acres and contain about 15 miles of trails. The oldest graves are from the French and Indian War, and the cemetery is still growing.

Some notable residents include Lillian Russell, Don Brockett (Chef Brockett on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood), John Baptiste Ford (founder of PPG), Stephen Foster, Thomas Mellon (founder of Mellon Bank), several US Congressmen, generals, and Pittsburgh mayors.

More pics here.