"Posted by foodonastump Annie - The laying flat thing has me thinking your boss has ceramic? Aluminum doesn't work on induction. " Sometimes desperation is the mother of invention. A friend invite me for a dinner party, she planned a couple of dishes which needed a PC, which she did not have one. She asked me to bring mine so that she could use it. When I got to her house, I realized that she had an induction cook top and my PC was aluminum. Here was how I solved the problem: I used a large induction frying pan of hers, put some cooking oil in the pan and put the PC in the pan. It worked. A very crazy way to use an aluminum PC on an induction cook top. Not recommended, and will not be posted in the cooking tips thread :-). dcarch

I, too, roast my carcass and veggies. I crack all the big bones so the marrow can leak out easier, add whole cloves of garlic, onion, celery, carrot, a smear of T paste and toss it all with a bit of oil and S&P. Hot oven, 400* and stir often. I let it get pretty dark before I dump that into the stock pot, deglaze the pan and continue. So our chicken stock is multi use, soup, pot pies, gravy all come from my stock and here is my "secret method" to a great stock. We go through a lot of chicken wings, favourite meal of my boys and their friends and I don't section the wings but I do clip the tips off. These I save in the freezer and while the carcass is roasting off I simmer a few baggies of wing tips in the stockpot. So, I'm using chicken wing tip stock to make roasted chicken carcass stock. Its wonderful stuff, deep brown tho, if you are a purest, but terrific mouth-feel, silky and flavourful.

I have a small standard dachshund (20 pounds). You can give your mini chicken wings - the whole wing, not those drumettes. Just always supervise as you would with any chew toy or bone. If your dog has never been presented with a raw bone, you may encounter a "are-you-crazy" look from him. Also, if you have always fed kibble that is just swallowed up and your dog is not used to chewing food, and he tries to swallow the whole piece - hold one end and give him the other. He will quickly "get it" that he needs to chew and break the bones with his teeth. If he has never had a raw bone, he may not have the jaw strength to break the bone. That's okay, the scissor action he will need to use to chew through the skin and flesh will also clean his teeth and give him a little workout. Another thing that may happen is that your dog will think you are giving him a great prize and he will go looking to bury it somewhere or eat it hidden in a quiet corner. So give it to him outdoors or on an old towel and make him stay there and not carry it around the house. When a friend fed raw to a new rescue dog, the dog wanted to hide his bones in the houseplants, LOL. Not so funny though, is that the dog thought it was "prize" enough to start growling - food guarding. So he had to be trained not to do that. Give us a followup - I am curious about how dogs who are not used to it react and adjust to their first raw meaty bone. People ask me from time to time, and all dogs are different so it helps to have more information. If he takes to his wings well, one day try cutting the bone out of a raw t-bone steak and giving it to him. He will think he has gone to doggy heaven. (Any harder pieces he is not able to chew in one sitting take and throw away.)

I'm sure those techniques are delicious, but ever since I ran across Marcella Hazan's recipe for chickens with two lemons inside, that's the only way I've been roasting chickens. Foolproof and delicious. It's from Marcella Hazan's 'Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking'. IMO this recipe alone is worth the price of the book, along with her recipe for Pork Loin braised in Milk. If this were a still life its title could be "Chicken with Two Lemons." That is all that there is in it. No fat to cook with, no basting to do, no stuffing to prepare, no condiments except for salt and pepper. After you put the chicken in the oven you turn it just once. The bird, its two lemons, and the oven do all the rest. Again and again, through the years, I met people who come up to me to say, "I have made your chicken with two lemons and it is the most amazingly simple recipe, the juiciest, best-tasting chicken I have ever had." And you know, it is perfectly true. For 4 servings Ingredients # A 3- to 4-pound chicken # Salt # Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill # 2 rather small lemons Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out. Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Let the bird sit for about 10 minutes on a slightly tilted plate to let all the water drain out of it. Pat it thoroughly dry all over with cloth or paper towels. 3. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper on the chicken, rubbing it with your fingers over all its body and into its cavity. 4. Wash the lemons in cold water and dry them with a towel. Soften each lemon by placing it on a counter and rolling it back and forth as you put firm downward pressure on it with the palm of your hand. Puncture the lemons in at least 20 places each, using a sturdy round toothpick, a trussing needle, a sharp-pointed fork, or similar implement. 5. Place both lemons in the birds cavity. Close up the opening with toothpicks or with trussing needle and string. Close it well, but dont make an absolutely airtight job of it because the chicken may burst. Run kitchen string from one leg to the other, tying it at both knuckle ends. Leave the legs in their natural position without pulling them tight. If the skin is unbroken, the chicken will puff up as it cooks, and the string serves only to keep the thighs from spreading apart and splitting the skin. 6. Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. Do not add cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so you need not fear it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over to have the breast face up. When turning it, try not to puncture the skin. If kept intact, the chicken will swell like a balloon, which makes for an arresting presentation at the table later. Do not worry too much about it, however, because even if it fails to swell, the flavor will not be affected. 7. Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, then turn the oven thermostat up to 400 degrees, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Calculate between 20 and 25 minutes total cooking time for each pound. There is no need to turn the chicken again. 8. Whether your bird has puffed up or not, bring it to the table whole and leave the lemons inside until it is carved and opened. The juices that run out are perfectly delicious. Be sure to spoon them over the chicken slices. The lemons will have shriveled up, but they still contain some juice; do not squeeze them, they may squirt. Ahead-of-time note: If you want to eat it while it is warm, plan to have it the moment it comes out of the oven. If there are leftovers, they will be very tasty cold, kept moist with some of the cooking juices and eaten not straight out of the refrigerator, but at room temperature.