My new favorite toy

I bought a meat thermometer, and love it a lot. Its the kind that you stick the pokey thing into the meat in the oven, and the reader goes on the counter. You choose what kind of meat you're cooking, or what temperature you are looking for, and it beeps when it is almost done, and again when it is done. I always worry about getting sick from meat. For some reason, food poisoning from meat seems much much worse than food poisoning from anything else. I don't know why. It was $20 at Meijer (we bought a roasting chicken and I didn't want to cook it without help) but I think they have the same thing at Bed Bath and Beyond. Here are some of the many ways that I have used my new favorite toy, whom I have lovingly named "Roasty"

















































The chicken in the first picture was actually my very first whole chicken I've ever cooked. It feels horrifyingly similar to a baby...I didn't like feeling theshoulder and hip bones...eew. But it tasted delicious!!! I washed it, patted it dry, stuffed itwith onion chunks and lemon juice, and rubbed it with olive oil and salt. Then I stuck Roasty into it and baked it until the beep. I even made gravy! We got a small chicken, but it was still pretty big and I was afraid we would have trouble eating it all, but it was gone in 3 days!!!

The steak we tenderized and marinated it in fat free vidalia onion dressing and grilled it on the George. Since we used the meat thermometer I didn't worry about the pinkness, so we had a nice tender medium rare steak! Yum. I served it with some warmed vidalia onion dressing on the side.

The other day I wasn't feeling well and Eric thought I felt warm, and until that point we didn't even think about not owning a thermometer, so I grabbed Roasty! Eric thought it was hilarious and took a picture, and said "I think it only works on meat" to which I replied "what do you think I am??"