Chicken… There are so many ways to cook chicken. Roasted chicken is something that is great for this time of year because it takes enough time in the oven to really warm up your kitchen. Sometimes I choose the lazy way to make a whole chicken, which is just to throw it in a crock pot, but it really does make a difference to take the time and roast it in the oven. If a chicken is cooked correctly, than the skin will be nice and crisp and the meat with be nice and tender.
I have one goal anytime I cook a chicken, maximum juiciness!No matter which way I cook it, I ALWAYS use an herbed butter to make it very juicy. You want to place the herbed butter between the skin and the meat to get the best results, but if I have extra, then I always put it on top of the skin also.
If you are roasting the chicken in the oven, you want to make sure the temp is set at 350, and allow a cooking time of 20 minutes per pound.You also want to remove anything that may be inside the chicken before cooking, and rinse the bird out with a little bit of salt water.
Ingredients:
4 tbsp butter
1/8 tsp dried rosemary
1/8 tsp dried Thyme
½ tsp Garlic powder
Pinch of salt and pepper
¼ tsp parsley
4lb chicken
Preheat oven to 350.Clean out chicken and rinse with some salt water. In a small bowl combine herbs and butter,mix until incorporated. Then, gently massage the herb butter between the skin and meat. Place in the oven for 20 minutes per pound of chicken. Make sure to baste the chicken at least once half way through the cooking process. Remove from oven when it’s completely cooked and let rest for about 5 minutes to give it time to redistribute the juices. Then, carve and eat J
Vegetables....I am always trying to eat more of them, and to find different and tasty ways to get the vitamins and nutrients that I need on a daily basis. Side dishes are a great way to spruce up any meal, and to also get some of the key nutients that your body needs. I tend to fall into trends where I eat a lot of the same foods on a weekly basis, so I try to find either different ways to cook them, or different items to pair them with to keep them exciting.
Mushroom and Spinach Saute is an easy and fast way to get a good portion of vegetables on the plate, but combining them with wine and garic makes them super delicious.
Ingredients:
1 bunch spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
1 pint mushrooms, chopped
1 -2 tsp garlic
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup white wine
Melt butter and olive oil in a large skillet. Add mushrooms and saute for about 2 mins, then add spinch. Stir in white wine and garlic. Saute until most of the wine has evaporated and the spinach is wilted. Serve beside your favorite main course.
I had never had bark until last Christmas when my friend Amy gave my peppermint bark and I fell in love. This year, I will be making my own for holiday gifts, but I decided that it might also be quite tasty to make a chocolate and peanut butter bark with Reese's Pieces.
Bark is quite easy to make. All you need to do is melt whatever types of chocolate, or in this case, chocolate and peanut butter, that you want in different bowls. Simply place about 2 cups of semi sweet chocolate into a bowl and place it into the microwave for 1 minute at a time, stirring between minutes until its just melted. I used semi sweet chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips. Once your chips are melted you want to place a peice of wax paper onto a sheet pan and then drizzle your chocolate and peanut butter until its nicely coated. Then top with Reese's Pieces and place in the refrigerator until solid. After its set, than you can remove it and break the bark into pieces.
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and I was too busy preparing and eating to do very much blogging, and unfortunately, I forgot to take a lot of photos of the amazing food that was cooked on my favorite holiday.
We have a family tradition where my mom cooks the turkey and the sweet potatoes and I cook just about all the other sides. This year our table had a wide variety of vegetables, including green bean cassorole, summer veggie medley, cheesy double baked potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, and rolls. Everything was so delicious and I am happy to say that my green beans, zuchinni and squash and my cheesy double baked potatoes went over wonderfully.
I am sure most of you have heard of twice baked potatoes, and I am known in my family for my rendition of them. I like to include parmesean and a Sharp New York cheddar cheese, along with my secret ingredient (sour cream) to really make mine stand out. You may be saying to yourself that sour cream isn't really a secret ingredient to potatoes, but in my family, I have to keep with a secret because they say that they don't like the taste of it...I happen to beg to differ, since they LOVE my potatoes, but I am not going to ruin it by telling them why they like it so much :)
Ingredients:
6 large Russet potatoes
1/4 cup of milk
2 heaping tbsp of sour cream
healthy pinch of salt and pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp parsely
Grated Parmesean cheese
Freshly grated cheddar cheese
Rinse potatoes well to get rid of any excess dirt. Dry off, and prick with a fork (so they don't explode while cooking) and then wrap in foil. Place potatoes into a 425 degree oven for 1.5 hrs. After they come out of the oven, unwrap potatoes and cut lengthwise. Scoop out potato from their shells and place potatoes into a big bowl, and the skins onto a cookie sheet. After all of the potatoes have been separated, add milk, salt, pepper, sour cream, garlic powder, parsely and parmesean cheese into the bowl with the potatoes, Mix with beaters until smooth. Once the mixture is smooth, spoon back into the potato skins. Then top with cheddar cheese and place back into the oven until the cheese has melted. Remove and serve.
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