Absolutely delicious dinner tonight.

First, before I even begin with my supper, I know you're all asking the same question. Who and how many people pissed off Rosie today by parking in her personal space? The answer: only 2 subs today on the job site actually parked in my yard. I sent them packing immediately.

When Ed drove up this morning at 7:30 I was outside. First thing he said was, "I hear you went major badass on people yesterday afternoon!" My, word gets around quickly. Funny thing was, it wasn't me yesterday. It was Mr. H. and neighbor Bob.

Now, on to the meal.

Dixie is very daintily listening to everything her Daddy is saying. I love how she has her widdle paws resting on the kitchen towel.
Actually, she's waiting patiently for Mama to finish cooking. Good smells are emanating from the Hawthornes' kitchen tonight.

I'm 54 years old. Can you believe I've never eaten a pomegranate before?

Well, I cut the pomegranate in half, scooped out some seeds, then squeezed out as much juice as I could.

Then I got some fresh rosemary from my garden.

Mr. Hawthorne and I found this chicken on sale the other day at our regular groshery shtore. After setting the bird on top of rosemary sprigs, I sprinkled salt in the cavity, then I stuffed the inside with a head of garlic, a few sprigs of rosemary, and the pomegranate seeds. I poured the pomegranate juice over the top, then salted and peppered it and sprinkled chopped rosemary on top. Then popped it INto a preheated 450 degree oven.

I love my trusty Weber thermometer. I inserted the probe in the bird and set the gadget for "chicken." It wants to heat it up to 180 degrees. At about 165 degrees, I take the chicken out of the oven. It will still cook some more.

I started out at 450 degrees, then about 30-40 minutes INto cooking, I reduced the heat to 350 degrees.

TA DAH!!! And here's my beautiful bird. The chicken was about 4 1/2 pounds. Cooking time was probably about 1 1/2 hours give or take. After cooking, I transfered the bird to a serving dish, saving the cooking pan for later.

Please go out and buy a thermometer meat probe. They're really not that expensive and they're well worth it.

While the chicken was cooking, I sauted the neck in a combination of olive oil and butter (I use Bertolli Extra Light Olive Oil and Land o' Lakes Unsalted buttah.) When that was done, I added the chopped up giblets.

While the giblets were cooking I took the pan I had cooked the chicken in, set it over heat, and started to deglaze. Here, I'm adding some chicken stock.

Now, I'm adding a wee bit o' sherry to continue deglazing. The aroma is intoxicating.

Now, back to the pan with the giblets. The giblets have cooked and I've just added
some flour to make a roux.

Here are the two pans. Giblets and roux on right. Deglazed pan drippings on left.

Now, I'm adding the deglazed pan drippings to the giblet roux. Heated it up and thickened it up. Then I added a few pomegranate seeds from the chicken cavity. This was delicious. Sodalishush, in fact, that I didn't even bother to plate it. I just pulled off the chicken meat and dipped it INto the gravy.
I definitely know how I'm doing my Thanksgiving turkey now.

This bird was juicy and flavorful as could be. I cooked it perfectly. The giblet/pomegranate gravy was "perfection," as girlfriend Sandy would say, although she wouldn't know perfection if it bit her in the ass.

I will definitely be buying pomegranates again.

I just need to figure out more uses for these wonderful under-utilized fruits.

Carnage. Carcass. Mr. H. and Littlest H. did a job on this bird. Nothing left for tomorrow. They like my food. They really like my food. Sniff. Sniff.