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Zuni roast chicken with bread salad. A bolognese I developed with duck, chicken and turkey. Green chicken enchiladas and spinach lasagna are frequent dishes. We also have grilled cheese and tomato soup about once or twice a month and tortellini soup once or twice a month as well. We love shrimp and anaheim peppers over tagliatelle (which I think I got from Mario Batali). We've had orzo risotto 3 or 4 times in the last 6 weeks (it's a great dish because you can toss in most anything, including leftovers). As we move into the summer fish tacos (made with halibut) will start to become more popular. The weekends are different only in that we add brunch to the mix and always pancakes on Saturday morning (though the type of pancakes changes week to week).

Virginia ham (especially on pumpkin bread at Eppie's in Charlottesville, VA).

I'm still unclear as to what's wrong with pasteurized shell eggs. I've made various sauces, egg nog, eggs of all varieties of preparation and found them to be as tasty as any egg from a supermarket. (They're not as good as the farm fresh ones we're able to get; but then neither are the ones from the supermarket or restaurant suppliers.) If a restaurant is using fresh eggs from an identifiable farm then I can understand not wanting to switch (or at least I'll concede the argument) but if they're using regular old eggs then why not get pasteurized shell eggs?

It is, to be fair, also a multi-ply stainless steel pot. So it's not just $80 for a lid, you're getting the pot as well. I'm not clear whether these are clad like All-Clad but if so then $80 isn't out of range for a high quality pot with a lid.

That said, from what I do see, I don't think this is worth bothering with.

@kimberlymac - I won't be the the one shooting you. I do often make enchiladas starting from raw chicken and cooking the chicken and sauce together but I also frequently make a version starting with already cooked chicken and when we can get the rotisserie chicken from one of the two stores we really like it from we definitely use that. They're a great time saver and, if you find a place that does a good job, they're really delicious and there isn't anything funky in them. Pretty brilliant in my mind.

Use it as a base for Pho or other noodle dishes that are wonderful in the summer (or any time of year) with all of the fresh herbs you can put in the broth.

Use it for light soups (with tortellini) or as a brothy sauce for something like chicken breasts or thighs. One of my favorite dishes is to flatten out some chicken (usually breasts in this case, one of the very few times I choose them over thighs) and put something like roasted peppers, spinach or arugula or sauteed kale and maybe even a bit of cheese of some sort, roll it up and toothpick or tie it together. Then poach the chicken rolls in broth with lots of fresh herbs (basil and thyme are great) and, if you like, some fresh peas (early summer/late spring) or fresh green beans and some small new potatoes. Take the chicken out and slice it and then serve it in a shallow bowl with the vegetables, potatoes and some broth. Not quite a soup, more than a sauce and a wonderfully flavorful and light summer dinner.

Our favorite restaurant in San Francisco, Chenery Park, did a weekly family night every Tuesday. They were ideally suited for it with a large seating area up a set of steps and a small bar (5 or 6 seats) and maybe 5 tables downstairs. It was well publicized and the place was packed every week. One way they encouraged non-baby toting diners to come along was that Tuesday was also Fried Chicken Night. Thus, my wife and I were often at Chenery Park on Tuesdays despite not having children. From our vantage point it looked like everyone was really enjoying themselves. The managers had stickers and metallic star stickers for the kids and coloring books and crayons and such. The service was just as professional and efficient as always, the food was great and the whole thing just worked.

If both chickens fit in the pan with some space around each of them then it won't take any longer than your normal method. If the chickens are pressed together to fit into the pan then those spaces where they touch may take a little longer to cook.

Which All Clad pan is it that you think doesn't have any aluminum core?

As for roasting a chicken, I use my 10 inch All Clad stainless skillet fairly often and on occasion use my 10 inch cast iron skillet. I also use my 5 qt oval enameled cast iron dutch oven. It depends on what's easy, whether I feel like dealing with cleanup and whether I intend on making a sauce and/or want to roast vegetables along with the chicken.

She apparently has to live with someone who puts peanut butter on their hamburgers and dips their Frito's in vanilla ice cream. Everyone's got their food quirks, as dbcurrie notes, including ourselves.

I bet you've come up with ways around it!

I'm basically in line with the above commenters, we don't go out on major holidays as a general rule (and when we break it, we remember why very very quickly). We very much enjoy both eating at home and eating out at restaurants but certainly as we've had to pay more attention to our discretionary income (such as it is) we eat out less than we used to.

On balance, if this were a random Saturday, I'd say there would be a good chance we'd go out this weekend. As is, we'll stay home and roast a small chicken and watch something on our too full TiVo.

How long did you cook the bechamel after you added the liquid? I find that if it's getting cooked only on the stove top (as opposed to going into a baking dish and into the oven for, say, mac and cheese) I need to simmer the sauce for a good 30 to 45 minutes to really get rid of the flour-y taste you describe. I'm also a big, big fan of grating a little bit of nutmeg into the bechamel toward the end of cooking. It really works with just about any recipe and isn't identifiable as nutmeg, it just sort of wakes up the sauce a bit in a way that feels similar to a squeeze of lemon juice does in many cases.

Last question; is that 4 teaspoons or 4 tablespoons of flour? If it's 4 tablespoons, then the amount of liquid seems low by about half (ie, I'd double both the milk and water for that amount of flour and butter).