Since I discovered Marcella Hazan's technique of roasting chicken, I haven't done it any other way. It involves putting a couple of small lemons in the cavity to provide moisture to the bird as it cooks. As Linda has noted, organic chickens don't have all the solutions pumped into it so the meat probably is a little drier to start with and hence more prone to dry out. I have used the lemon technique successfully on organic chickens with great success. It has been posted a few times here before. Give it a try. I'm amazed at how simple and good it is: Roasting chicken is one of those allegedly simple tasks which a lot of cooks can't do right. Here's a great recipe from Marcella Hazan's 'Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' which is foolproof and absolutely delicious: 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.

I've only cooked a goose once....in the culinary way of speaking that is! LOL! Greasy is an understatement!....you will need a rack for sure....then stuff the goose with something herbey and fruitey ( dried apples a few wedged of lemon a few sprigs of thyme or sage and a couple of bread crusts to absorb still more of the grease) and salt the inside. Prick it all over with a fork....to release the grease, smear on some concentrated frozen orange juice, cover and roast at 325 until the leg is loose...about 160. About 2 1/2 hours, depending on size. Baste every half hour with the pan juices and prick the skin more. Remove lid after 2 hours in the oven. Drain and let the bird rest while you try to separate any juices from the fat in the pan. Deglaze with chicken broth or white wine add some current jelly and thicken with cornstarch if you like a sweet sauce....if you prefer sour....use broth to deglaze and some rice vinegar. I think you are supposed to save the grease but I don't know what for!! Linda C

My mother separates mixed frozen veggies she gets on sale. Dad does not like the 'blends'. She has a table next to the freezer in the breezeway shed and takes a bowl with her and takes out a bowl full of frozen and takes what she wants...they don't eat much because they eat small snack meals. He likes his roasted sweet potatoes with cauliflower rice. Broccoli with a small steak. The rest in soups. In their late 80's now they don't garden much but i gave them seeds for a compact variety of zucchini and some mixed micro salad greens they have planted and are very happy with that. I did not see anything trite, self-centered or food snobby discussing frozen peas...many on a cooking food forum are just putting out there what they do and hope for some ideas for their pantry/freezer. Initially i did not see a mention of poverty or the elderly. Just a sharing of a good basic freezer stock. I stock baby peas and baby limas in the winter. Frozen spinach is just a good bargain any time of the year. Other veg frozen are from my garden. Or the farm stand like corn i cut off the cob, then freeze. I have a big freezer because of my garden and over 100 tomato plants. I keep forgetting about nutmeg! Such a special flavor and i need to try it with beans. Artichoke hearts frozen i forget as well. We have one great dish and artichokes in season are 2 for 5 dollars so it is a seasonal treat. Not very often. Frozen is often a better option for out-of-season veggies. Or those that do not grow well as Annie mentioned. I had great years for broccoli and cauliflower and nothing the past five or so with so much heat...basil was destroyed once again...bunnies maybe. No fruit on the trees from a late frost but tomatoes are gorgeous. Beets gone from a critter but radishes and garlic are beauty. Early peas are now leathery but inside are good shelled. Hoping string beans will be good this year. I plant sooo much as seeds are cheap and always get something great.... Leeks are expensive here so i grow a big bed of them and freeze. I spent high school frozen cold with a kerosene heater in a small kitchen/tv room and grandparents that layed out paper towels on the counter to dry and recycle and Pop pounded on the bathroom door to remind not to flush and only use a sprinkle of water to wash hands...with a sign that read "drips dribble dimes down the drain". I've worked very hard to not have a food budget as an adult but got up this morning at 5am and made stock from smoked organic chickens from the weekend and made salad for DH lunch and three meals and froze 4 pints for future soups not because we are food poor but because it just tastes so much better. And i just enjoy it. (then worked a 14hr day). Like every day. I bet my food budget if i cared to keep track is so much lower than most by not buying processed foods.

Well, I did it--and I'm still around to tell the tale. Everything was so wet down there, I scrapped the plan to use a hair dryer. I kept remembering something that happened many years ago: A friend's housekeeper was electrocuted in their wet basement when she plugged in an iron. I was able to stand on a dry rock slab to unplug the freezer. and I covered the food with an old, clean comforter. Instead of the hair dryer, I microwaved some wet (but not dripping) microfiber cloths to get them hot, and laid them over the worst of the ice on the rim of the freezer. They cooled off quickly but still worked like a charm! I also removed some of the built-up frost inside the freezer. One nice thing about having a dungeon is that I could take chunks of the hard frost and toss them into the "river" that runs through the dirt floor. :-) I dried the rim before closing the lid and plugging the freezer back in. I hope the lid doesn't freeze shut! The alarm buzzer is going non-stop now; I'll be glad when the temperature gets down to zero. Thanks for all your good advice!