England Bangla-mangled, India Saffied Silly, Cooked Gooses and Roasted Chicken

What a grand old time in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup!  Sorry I haven't been updating as often as I should, but here we go.

 Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe by 139 runs on Thursday, March 10.  Sri Lanka's batting was plain old magnificent with Tharanga scoring 133 big'uns and Dilshan scoring a dumbfounding 144.  Awesome stuff, but I want to mention Ray Price of Zimbabwe...does anyone else think he's a better-looking version of Russell Crowe? 


Ray Price, Being Grumptastic.

Anyhoo, he's just fabulous when he gets grumpy and gives batsmen a bit of attitude.  Right on Ray Price, can't wait to see ya in the Test Cricket.

Ok ok ok, back to the serious stuff.  On Friday, Bangladesh banglamangled England in one thriller of a match; thrilling because Bangladesh suffered such a humiliating loss to the West Indies on March 4.  Great come-back, chaps, and good on ya for showing England that their goose was cooked!  *

Andrew Strauss's England Goose waiting to get cooked by Bangladesh

And then last night, after one of the most extraordinary batting collapses I've ever seen, India got saffied silly by South Africa.  The batting was going so well for India; Sehwag bashed out 73, Tendulkar hit a gorgeous 111, and Gambhir got a very saucy 69.   But then, all heck broke loose, with Pathan pummeled and gone for a duck,
Yuvraj gone for 12, cute Kohli gone for a single, Harbhajan Singh gone for 3, and then Khan, Nehra and Patel gone, gone, gone for ducks...all three of them!!! YIKES!

Pathan and Zaheer Khan yesterday.  Cute to look at, but kinda useless at the batting crease.

 Well, South Africa literally got all their ducks in a row and cooked India's goose.  Final score:  The Saffy-side won by 3 wickets and 2 balls remaining.  Right on, S. Africa!

Now talking about geese that got cooked in the World Cup has reminded me of a nice little dish I make every now and then; a greek-style roasted chicken.  I've never made a literal cooked goose (although my goose has been cooked in many life situations), so you'll have to settle for chicken, I'm sorry kids, that's just the way it's gotta be.  Right, so go get a chicken and let's show the kitchen who's boss.

Ingredients
1 chicken
a couple of tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt (use less if you wish)
black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon oregano
some  chopped dill
juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons flour or cornstarch (for gravy)

Preheat your oven to 375F or 190 C.
Melt the butter and oil in a pan on low heat, and then pour half into the bottom of the roasting pan.
Put the chicken in the roasting pan, breast side up, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, oregano and dill.
Add the lemon juice to the remaining butter and oil mix, and stir.
Pour over the chicken.
Bake 1.5 hours at 375 F and baste 3 or 4 times. (Basting means pouring the liquid which accumulates at the bottom of the roasting pan over the chicken so that the meat doesn't dry out.)

Now once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the roasting pan to make the gravy.
Add some boiling water to the roasting pan where all the drippings are.
Add flour or cornstarch to the pan, and stir so that all the lumps are out.
Bake for 5 minutes at 450F or 220 C
Pour some gravy on top of the chicken when you serve it.

Serve the chicken either carved in slices, or cut the chicken into quarters.  Serve with veggie rice, tsatsiki, and pita bread.  And have no fear, I'll be showing you how to make the veggie rice and tsatsiki tomorrow!

Right, enjoy the roasted chicken, and have a good one.  In the meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy watching the cricket and seeing many more geese get cooked!

Happy Cricket!  Happy Cooked Goose and Happy Chicken!

*The expression "Your goose is cooked" means "you are in big trouble".