Hey ya'll

I have been a really terrible blogger. In general, I am really bad at keeping in touch with people, so imaginary people that read my blog? Not good.

Luckily, I have tons and tons of recipes sacked away to make up for lost time.

Let's start with something super easy. If you happen to be a nut about edible gardens like me, then you will have most of the herbs for this recipe. Or, if you're normal and don't have 3 kinds of thyme, basil, oregano, etc. you probably have the basics on your spice rack.

I'm talkin' about a whole roasted chicken.

The beauty of this recipe, is that it's really easy and you can get anything from a tiny little chicken to a large chicken, so whether you are single, coupled or living in a house with 10 people, this works for all of them!

Just mix up your favorite fresh or dried herbs (or a combo), garlic powder and some salt (optional) and pepper (NOT optional). Get creative. Looking to use up the last of your Herbs d' Provence? go for it! You can give the chicken a light coat of olive oil or butter. I will not tell you which one to use, nor will I tell you what I use :) For fear of judgment...

Once your chicken is greased up, rub in your herbs and spices. Be super generous. So generous. Generous like when you pour yourself a drink Friday night after a long week at work. But I digress.

Once you've rubbed down your chicken (I like to use rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil, lots of garlic and sometimes a little sage or lavender), you're ready to stuff it. Remove what's inside the cavity. Try not to gag. Now, add slices of onion, chunks of garlic, carrots, celery even lemon or orange wedges. Just to give it moisture and flavor.

Now stick it in the oven. The package usually tells you how much time per pound it should cook for. While it's cooking, don't forget to baste. Basting makes the world go round. I have this excellent silicone brush that I like to use to baste, but you can you anything from a spoon to a gravy ladle. If I were you, I would cook it in a deep dish to avoid making a huge mess. But I'm NOT you, so I don't have a deep dish and have a messy oven. Which is OK, because I rent.

When it's done, you get this:




Keep the bone and extra meat for soup. Serve your chicken with an array of veggies and biscuits. I really love biscuits, so I like to incorporate them into meals as often as I feel I can get away with....

Until next time, BAKE STUFF.

Bake These.

These are baked apples and they are really great. Yes, very descriptive. So, try them and come up with your own description. I think they make a nice dessert during the fall, especially after a heavy meal where perhaps oh, let's say chocolate cake, seems like overkill. You can use any kind you like - these were from when I went apple picking back in early October.

All I do is slice them in half lengthwise and remove the core. Then I sprinkle cinnamon and a bit of sugar (brown or white, whichever you prefer - I use brown). I also like to add ground clove and nutmeg (you can use apple pie or pumpkin pie spice too!).

Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes. They should be tender, yet still have a slight crunch to them. Serve warm (you can add a little vanilla ice cream if you had a light supper :)

Molasses Cookies are SUPREMELY addictive

This is a recipe I have not tampered with and have taken straight from the Joy of Baking (yes, Joy of Baking, I am giving you full credit, I promise...because BAKING SHOULD BE JOYFUL!). I highly recommend it for your holiday baking, your dead-of-winter-god-it's-cold treats to go with hot drinks, and anytime you need a taste of home. The Joy of Baking is a really great website to dig up great cookie recipes, especially at the holidays (try the Snickerdoodles too, they were a big hit last Christmas!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable, canola, or safflower oil
1/3 cup unsulphured molasses
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Garnish:
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar for covering the cookie balls before baking

Directions:

Molasses Cookies: In a large bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Add the oil, molasses, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. Beat in the flour mixture mixture until well incorporated. Cover and chill the batter until firm (about 2 hours or overnight).

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place about 1 cup of white granulated sugar in a medium sized bowl. When the dough has chilled sufficiently, roll into 1 inch balls.

Then roll the balls of dough into the sugar, coating them thoroughly. Place on the baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart and, with the bottom of a glass, flatten the cookies slightly.



Bake for about 9-10 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies have crinkles yet are barely dry. They will look a little underdone, so be sure not to overbake! Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies, depending on size.

Roasted Vegetables

These roasted vegetables are an easy and tasty way to add a side dish to your dinner.

I chose to use a colorful combination of potatoes, carrots and onions for this, but you could use any number of veggies (though I would say root vegetables work best).

Dice up the potatoes into bite size pieces - I chose purple potatoes and charlotte potatoes. Next cut up the carrots, and slice the onions. I season it with rosemary from my garden, a bit of salt and pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Bake at 350°F for about one hour.

Potato Leek Soup

My favorite soup. Simple, tasty and smells excellent while cooking.

2 tbs butter or olive oil
3 leeks (or more if you like)
4 medium potatoes
2-3 cloves garlic - I used 1 large clove of fresh garlic, much too strong to use any more, you may not want the garlic to steal the show from the leeks!
1 qt. chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
milk or half & half to desired consistency

Slice the leeks and soak out dirt. Strain and set aside.

Dice garlic, set aside.

Cut potatoes into thin slices. Add to pot with butter or oil. Saute until they start to brown.


Add garlic, saute for 1 minute, be sure not to burn! This alters the flavor, and not in a good way.

Add the leeks and saute until they soften up.

Next, add the chicken stock.

Simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes, until potatoes are well cooked.

After turning off the heat and allowing the soup to cool a bit, add half to the blender, blend until smooth (or a bit chunky if you like it that way) then set aside. Add the other half and blend, then mix in with the other half you set aside. Add milk or half & half to your desired taste/consistency. You may not even want to do this, depending on your taste. You can also add salt and pepper as desired, and I like to add chives as well.

Serves about 4.

Stuff and Things

First of all, I haven't posted in forever because I have been making stuff like crazy so I would have things to post here when I don't have time to cook/bake/craft. I also forgot my password and Google was not as helpful recovering it as one might think, so it's taken me a while to guess enough to get it right.

Moving on.

A delicious cinnamon raisin bread...a perfect breakfast treat for those cold mornings we have had all week!


The recipe can be found here

Be warned though, this recipe makes at LEAST 3 loaves. I finally used rapid rise yeast for this and was so much happier, it took so much less time to rise the first time, and a fraction the second time. But I only have two full size bread pans...so I had to wing it, there was SO much extra dough.

I actually liked the alternative better! Little muffin sizes!


Side note: my boyfriend enjoys this so much in bread pudding! This bread can also be frozen.

So get to it. Now.

More to come. Lots more.

Pumpkin Soup

I have no pictures for this post (amended 12/7/09!), because I forgot to take them while making this soup last night, but that's ok. We all know what a pumpkin soup would look like (yellow to orange..and soupy).

I really winged the recipe, didn't use anything but a few hints from recipes I sort of liked, but nothing really got my attention. I wanted something simple, and everything I found had too many flavors that I wasn't looking for. The only thing I would change would be to either use two small pumpkins or a larger single pumpkin.

Ingredients:

One medium sized pumpkin (I used a pumpkin on the smaller side, probably only about 2.5 lbs)
1/2 large onion (I used one small Walla Walla onion)
2 tbs olive oil
4 cups chicken stock - adjust according to how thick you would like the soup
splash of milk or heavy cream (I had neither so I used half & half)
salt and pepper
dash of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of nutmeg

You need to roast the pumpkin first. Cut up and 'gut' the pumpkin, saving the seeds to roast later if you like them (I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!)

After you cut it into large chunks, peels off the outer skin. Cut up into small pieces, about an inch or two.

Spread out on a baking sheet and cook at about 250°F for about an hour, but this really depends on how much you have and how small the pieces are. I probably needed about an hour, but mine was small and I cut it into very small pieces.

Once the pumpkin is done, add olive oil to large pot. Saute onions until they start to brown, and then add the pumpkin. Cook for about another minute, and add the chicken stock. Add salt and pepper as desired, and cover while simmering for about 30 minutes.

Allow the soup to cool a bit, and then blend until smooth (do this in a least two batches, unless using an immersion blender...which I did not). Add a bit of milk or cream to taste, and add a pinch of cinnamon and about 1/2 tsp of nutmeg.

Simple, easy and delicious. If you chose to roast the pumpkin seeds, you can add these on top as a garnish when serving.