Sara’s Roasted Chicken with Lemon & Thyme

Yesterday we did an employee profile on Sara, our Web Production Assistant, and found out that one of her hobbies is cooking! So today, Sara has shared with us one of her favorite recipes, which aside from being easy to try on your own, is sure to hit the spot if you like chicken!
Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Thyme
You Will Need:
1 Roasting Chicken (5-6 lbs)
Salt
Black Pepper
1 large bunch of fresh thyme (some for inside the chicken, some will get tossed with the veggies)
1 lemon (cut in half)
A few cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 tablespoons of butter (melted)
Olive Oil
Vegetables – 1 large yellow onion, 1 bulb of fennel cut into wedges, 4 carrots cut into 2 inch pieces
You can also add various veggies to your taste! Some suggestions include squash, zucchini, broccoli – any veggies you like, as they will all roast in the bottom of the pan.
To Begin:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Remove the chicken giblets.
Rinse the chicken inside and out and pat dry.
Salt and pepper the inside of the chicken.
Stuff the chicken with a bunch of thyme, the lemon cut in half, and all the chopped garlic.
Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper.
Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.
Place the onions, carrots, and fennel and veggies in a roasting pan.
Toss with salt, pepper, some sprigs of thyme, and olive oil.
Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.
Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh.
Remove the chicken and vegetables to a plate and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes.
Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.
So tasty and easy to make!
Here is a picture of the finished product from the last time Sara made this dish, for her mother!

employee profile – Sara

Meet Sara, our Web Production Assistant!
Please tell us about your job and duties:
I work on the Free People website, updating it with new product. I also work with the images on the site, and copy on the product pages.
How long have you worked for Free People?
I started March 2008, 3 months.
What do you like best about working for Free People?
I love working with the great merchandise! It is exciting to see what is going to come out next and fun being at a company that has unique products. Also all the great people I get to work with!
Your favorite current Free People item?
The Crosshatch Printed Dress! It is so cute for summer and the print is really eye catching! It is a good piece to layer in creative ways as well.
Do you have a pet?
Yes! I have a cat named Rosie. She is looks like a tiger and has grey and black stripes. She is very fun and has lots of attitude! Some of her favorite things are cheese, hanging out in the bathtub and looking at birds out the window.
What inspires you?
I think traveling and being outdoors are some of the most inspiring things. Traveling always opens my mind to new things and different kinds of people. I love being outside too, enjoying a nice day and watching thunderstorms in the summer time.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work?
I like going to yoga and cooking. I love watching the Food Network and the Discovery Channel. I go to concerts as much as I can, and spending time with my friends going to the beach or on trips. I also really love going shopping!
Have you a favorite artist?
I don’t know if I have a favorite but I really love art in general. My favorite kinds are contemporary and modern art.
Is there a current trend you wish would go away?
Well, I’m not sure if this is a trend, but I really hate Crocs. They can be cute on little kids but besides that I think they are awful!
Is there a current trend you wish would stay forever?
Right now I really like wearing summer scarves, which is something I haven’t done much in the past. I also love longer length tops and tunics over skinny jeans. I think dark wash jeans are great too because they are so flattering!
What are your favorite books? Movies? Websites? Music?
My favorite books are 1984 and A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett.
Right now I am reading The Time Traveler’s Wife, which is really interesting so far.
Movies I have always loved are Empire Records and Spaceballs, which always makes me laugh no matter how many times I have seen it.
I also love gossip websites, like People.com and celebrity gossip blogs.
The music I have been listening to right now includes the new Coldplay album Viva la Vida, and the new Weezer too!
Where did you grow up? Love it or hate it?
I grew up in Verona, New Jersey, which is in North Jersey. It is a suburb of New York and a very small town. I love it there, but I am happier to be living in Philly on my own! Though I do like going home to spend time with my family and friends.
What did you want to be as a child?
I actually wanted to be an author! I would write stories in 4th grade that were a few pages long, and think about when I would grow up and write big novels. The funny thing is I was the worst speller in the class!
What superpower would you most like to have?
Well, sometimes I wish I could read people’s minds but that could also be a really bad thing! So I would have to say being able to teleport where ever I wanted to go; it would make traveling a lot easier!
Where are your favorite places to hang out?
I like going to New Deck Tavern with my friends because it is a ten minute walk away and they have the best cheese fries! Also, The Bubble House is near there, and I like getting bubble tea and going for lunch. There is also a café down the street from my apartment called the Green Line Café and I love to go there on the weekends for iced coffees!
Lastly, here’s a picture of Rosie to brighten your day!

before my fp job interview

I confess, I am somewhat hesitant to post the following video, for a few reasons. It’s not the highest quality video we’ve taken here at Free People, and also, I don’t want to be too self-promoting. However, I have had much encouragement from everyone at the home office to post it up, as everyone here finds it pretty hilarious – and it is kind of funny…
So here it is, me, very nervously getting myself ready for my interview at Free People trying to get the internship I have now. Cutting up one of the shirts I made and putting some finishing touches on it is my big sister Doub.

georgie

Georgie is the dog of Doub, who is the Senior Designer for knits and pants and the Creative Director.
Name: Georgie
Nicknames: gorgeous georges, georgie georgie puddin in pie
Breed: frenchie
Likes: to secretly go to web shoot shh! don’t tell anyone
Dislikes: the rule about no dogs at web shoots
Favorite friends: Stella her big sis of course and the web team
How did you meet? we met on the internet
Anything else you want to share? georgie likes to do imitations of Yoda. She is very talented and is considering a voiceover career since her web shoot modeling career ended quite abruptly.

employee profile: dana!

*First name: Dana
*How long have you worked at Free People? A year and a half
*Tell me about your job: I work on the FP knits team, designing for alternating seasons (Holiday, Spring, Summer 2/ Fall1). I get to sketch and design things for each trend, select fabrics and work with our color team to chose prints for each style. And then we travel to our overseas vendors to check up on the product and help them out.
*What do you like best about working at FP? I love the people I work with! I love having creative freedom, and the ability to design things that are unique and hand crafted. When we get to see our styles for the first time before we show them to the sales team, it’s like Christmas. Everyone gets so excited opening the boxes, and looking at the product that we’ve all worked so hard on.
*Favorite current FP item? I love the Seashore Dropwaist Tank in white because it’s great to wear with jeans, and it’s a cute stripe which is always fun if you just want something to throw on.. and you can layer it or wear a cute belt. OH And I LOVE the Chubby Change Purses!! They are so tiny and cute and fabulous.
*What do you do when not at work? I hang out with my son Asher, go thrift shopping, sew stuff, bake pies, watch movies in the winter, go camping in the summer, shop ebay like an addict
*Top 5 favorite things (books, movies, websites, music, artists etc)? WOW i have a ton! I just finished the last Harry Potter book – it might be nerdy but I love them! I have also read Watership Down a thousand times, I like the Steven King Gunslinger books and any sort of biography/ autobiography. Some good movies are Moulin Rouge, Footloose, and Urban Cowboy. I heart art by Elizabeth McGrath and Audrey Kawasaki.
*What did you want to me when you were a kid? I wanted to be a ballerina until I was 12, and then I wanted to be a veterinarian until I did a job shadow and realized it wasn’t for me.
*Favorite places to hang out? The shore, the woods and Pennypack Park. I’m from Seattle, and when I’m there I love the Bleu Bistro on Capitol Hill, vintage shopping in the University district, Lincoln Park in West Seattle, Moses Lake for camping, Ocean Shores for vacation.

map dresses

Chelsea girl,© Elisabeth Lecourt, www.elisabethlecourt.com Photo: © onepom/London

Reglisses roulees,© Elisabeth Lecourt [year], www.elisabethlecourt.com Photo: © onepom/London [year]
I discovered these works of art over on labour of heart. These paper map dresses are crafted by French artist Elisabeth Lecourt. She has made over 60 garments from cut up maps (each garment represents only one region) folding and ironing them to beauty. Check out her site for more info.

may catalog is here!

Enough with all the suspense. The May catalog drops today, so check yer mailboxes, or check it out online.
A little about this month’s book…
Our May 08 catalog was based on a “by the seashore” concept… We’d been hitting up a lot of beautiful sandy beaches lately, so we wanted to explore something a little different.
Our senior stylist pointed us to the rocky beaches of central/northern California, especially the Big Sur area.
Anyone I’ve ever talked to about Big Sur has said nothing short of amazingly beautiful things about the place…so we packed up and headed west.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t very cooperative – it was quite cold and rainy a lot of the time.
And to boot, our brunette model got sick during the first day of shooting, so we brought in a 2nd girl at the last minute.
But it was great using 2 different faces…
We took a 12-passenger van out on 17-mile drive, starting off each morning near our hotel in Monterey and then driving through pebble beach (we ate lunch each day at a deli in the middle of the golf course), then onto Big Sur.
Spent a lot of time looking over cliffs at what we thought were sea lions, only to realize quite late in the game that they were really giant pieces of seaweed.
We were a little bummed…
This was our first all-girl outing, by the way…photographer, assistants, stylists, etc. very exciting!!!