Not my usual Maple Glazed Chicken

This last weekend was Coudersport's "Maple Festival". We spent about $40. The kids rode the Ferris Wheel, bounced in the inflatable castle, and, of course, ate "festival food". I bought maple candy, shaped like little leaves. I must be getting old because it tastes too sweet. 

 

Anyway, this is one of my favorite maple-involved recipes.  To anyone who says huh? My response is "It's like honey glazed chicken, but with maple instead of honey."  And then there's the "oh", which I interpret to mean "oh, that's not as freaky as it sounded at first, I guess".

I still guestimate, and just pour it on, but the ratio is 2 parts maple syrup to 1 part vinegar, mixed in a larger cup.  Shake salt and pepper on the raw chicken, then pour on the vinegar/syrup mix.  In order to save money, I usually use maple-flavored syrup, which, yes, is cheating if you live in Potter County, but I don't usually advertise the fact.  And I use real syrup if I happen to recieve it as a gift, which I occasionally do, since I live in Potter County.  I put the chicken in my ceramic pot and put it in the oven at 350 for an hour and a half.  In other words, I followed the directions on the package.

These chickens are on sale right now for 88 cents a pound at Costas Sure Fine Foods on Rte 6 in Coudersport, so I bought a 6-pound chicken for under $6.  My family only ate half of the chicken tonight (actually a little less than half) so we will have extra chicken meat to use in another recipe.  I strip the extra meat from the bones, cut it into chunks, and use it in stir-fry, or soup, or chicken salad sandwiches (my daughter's personal favorite use for leftover chicken meat)  I will calculate that I cooked $5.49 worth of chicken tonight, though, and consider the leftovers "free" when I use them.

For a side dish I usually serve peas, but the broccholi/cauliflower mix that I served before was on sale when I bought the chicken, at only $1 a bag (it's usually $1.79), and the peas were $2.49 a bag.  Since I was out of peas, and the broccholi was so cheap, I bought 2 bags for my freezer.  Last time, I only used half of a bag, so tonight I used the other half.  For dessert, I usually serve apple crisp, but my kids ate all the apples in my fridge, so I made peanut butter no bake cookies.  The recipe I use is as follows: 

Mix 2 cups of sugar, 1/4 cup margarine, and 1/2 cup milk in a saucepan.  Measure out 3 cups of oats and set aside in a largish bowl or cup (Hint: leftover Sheetz or Fast-food plastic 36 oz cups hold just about exactly 3 cups of oats)  Also measure out 1 cup of Peanut Butter and 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract and set aside in a smallish bowl.  If you're lazy, like me, you can just leave the peanut butter in the measuring cup and the spoon of vanilla in the measuring spoon until you're ready to use it.  Put a sheet of waxed paper down on a cookie sheet.  This is where you'll be scooping the molten cookies at superhero-level speeds.  Now, if everything is ready, heat the sugar, margarine, and milk in a pan over medium-high heat (7 out of 10) into a "rolling boil": that is, until it's boiling and the bubbles can't be "stirred down".  It usually takes my stove 4-6 minutes to get to this point.  When it's boiling, now is when you move fast: remove it from the stovetop, stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until it's melted (just a few strokes, remember, this stuff will cool into dessert ROCK quickly.) and stir in the oats.  Now scoop it onto your waxed paper in cookie-sized lumps.  It will harden fast.  Also, fill the pan up with hot water immediately.  Same reason.  My kids eat them while they're still warm.  In the kitchen.  Before they're technically "served".  But then again, they're freakin delicious.