Chickened Out . . . And In

Wow, thanks for all the interest and support on yesterday's post.  I had no idea this little dilemma was so relatable!  I was thinking that maybe I was needing a slap across the kisser to snap me out of it.  Well, once again, thanks for "gettin' me."

What did I make??

Excuses.

I am a lucky girl that I have such an understanding husband.  He just laughed and shook his head and told me how funny I was.  Yah, I'm a laugh a minute.

Then my sweet boy presented his thing-of-beauty report card and we celebrated by taking him out for dinner.  He picked the place, Noodles & Co.

Now, today I put on my big-girl panties and committed to a meal.  Here's what cooking . . .

My Roast Chicken

1 7.5 lb roaster chicken
4 large onions
8 potatoes
4 slices bacon, cut in half
4 TB butter, cut into pieces
fresh thyme
fresh rosemary
salt & pepper
1 8oz carton baby bella mushrooms, quartered

Preheat oven to 350.

Wash and half or quarter potatoes and onions, put in bottom of 9 x 13 pan.  Rinse chicken and place on top of potatoes.  Place one more cut up onion inside cavity along with one half slice bacon and one piece butter. 

Run hands between skin and meat.  Salt and pepper in there and push in several sprigs of the fresh herbs.  Arrange bacon on top of breast skin.  Sprinkle bits of butter over the chicken and vegetables in pan.

Place chicken in oven, uncovered, for 30 mins for every lb. of chicken. *When there is 15 minutes of cook time left, sprinkle in mushrooms and return to oven for final 15 minutes. 

Allow chicken to rest, covered with foil, for 10 minutes before carving.

And:

Spicy Cranberry Chutney**

1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup water
3 cups fresh cranberries
1 Granny Smith apple - peeled, cored and chopped
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, raisins and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and stir while simmering for 5 minutes. Stir in cranberries, apple and lemon zest; simmer for 10 minutes more.

Stir lemon juice, ginger and pepper flakes into the mixture before removing from heat. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

***

I was going to bake something for dessert, but the oven seems to be giving off a lot of "newness" smell (yes, I washed it out first), so I covered my chicken and have decided to forgo the baking for a while longer until it is broken in.

It's beginning to smell yummy!

Dilemma

I'm hiding.

This is one of the stupidest things I've ever done.

Supper is in one hour.

And I have no idea what to make.

That's not that unusual.

But it is when you consider that I got a lovely, brand-spanking new stove today.  Brand-new.  Blue-plastic covering the door-front new . . .

And it's so pretty!


And it's so clean.

I cannot decide what would be the best thing to make for her maiden voyage.

A simple, basic supper doesn't seem fitting . . . but it is only a Monday night.

Perhaps a cake?

My husband suggested a roast chicken, but it's too late for that now.

Now I'm down to easy, I-didn't-put-much-thought-into-this kind of meals.

But that doesn't seem right.

And I can't very well put some sort of ghastly frozen thing into it for the first time.

A cake then?

But what about supper?

Would you all laugh if I ended up getting takeout?



Okay, okay  . . . never mind.

 

Snow and Bananas

It's snowing . . . and the old man is snoring . . . or something like that.

We have 10" of snow on the ground this morning.

Everyone is at work, no one is at school, and it looks like a Christmas card outside.

There's nothing better on a day like this than baking and warming up the house with the smell of bread and cookies and whatever else I can scrape together the ingredients for.

Here's what I just popped in the oven -- the best banana bread, ever, and it's whole wheat!

Whole Wheat Banana Date Bread

2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c. mashed very ripe bananas (about 4)

1 c. packed brown sugar

1 c. chopped dates

2/3 c. plain (or vanilla) nonfat yogurt

2 eggs

1/3 c. canola oil (or applesauce if you really want to be *good*)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix it all up however you want and put it in 2 greased loaf pans (1 if you have a 9 x 5 x 3 pan).

Bake at 350* until a toothpick comes out of the center clean, which, in my oven, is approx. 1 hour.

Cool 5 minutes on a wire rack and then invert to de-pan, if you desire.

You're welcome!

Carrot Cake Jam

I heard from a dear old friend of mine today.

She said she'd been thinking of me, because she has pears, ripe pears . . . lots of ripe pears.

See, a few years ago, I gave her a recipe for Carrot Cake Jam . . . and it's that good.

Give it a try:

(By the way . . . as to the music . . . sorry, I couldn't resist!  Who remembers this little gem?  Oh, the good ole days!  I remember rollerskating to this -- strobe light, disco ball, the whole thing . . . :)

Carrot Cake Jam

1 ½ c. finely grated peeled carrots
1 ½ c. chopped cored peeled pears
1 ¾ c. canned pineapple, including juice
3 TB lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cloves
1 pkg (1.75 oz) regular powdered fruit pectin
6 ½ c. sugar

Prepare canner jars and lids.

In large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine carrots, pears, pineapple, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  Bring to boil over high heat, stirring frequently. 

Reduce heat, cover, and boil gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Remove from heat and whisk in pectin until dissolved.  Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. 

Add sugar all at once and return to full rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. 

Remove from heat and skim off foam.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot jam. 

Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. 

Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store. 

(Makes approx. 4 cups.)



This, slathered on a warm bagel along with a bit of cream cheese . . . yum!

Enjoy!

Hi C!

Nothing-to-Say Day

My new friend, Jabacue at Ocean Breezes has done me a great service and shown me just how to handle that "nothing to say" mood today. If you haven't checked out his relatively new blog, you should. It is warm and soothing and enjoyable. Say hi to Sophie if you do visit.

So, since I have nothing to say today, I'll just talk about my day as it happened. . .

It was a half-day for my kids. (One more half day left and then they're all mine.)

They bickered all the way home, but they bonded over the decision of what to have for lunch. I told them I would cook nothing until they came to a consensus on their choice. I hereby nominate Chef Boyardee for a peace prize. ;)

After lunch, we colored. I love to color and so does my daughter. My son? Not so much. And his handwriting shows it; his lack of artistic patience is evident. So I did what any understanding mother would do. I forced him.

My daughter colored a lovely picture of a giant yo-yo. She took many risks with her color palette and was rewarded with a bold image of neon pink and forest green with red highlights. It sorta strobes if you look at it too long. 

I colored a picture of a little bear painting the word, "NOEL", on the page . . . I got "stuck" with the Christmas coloring book. (Cry no tears. Secretly, that's the one I wanted and I played it just right. ;) I took great care in selecting predictable colors for the letters and surprising pastels for the bear's hat and scarf.  Quite daring.

My son, begrudgingly, took on a picture of two giraffes. He went with a very uninspired three-color palette and less than careful technique to preserve the contrast in the giraffes coats, I thought. In fact, the second giraffe was colored in all brown, except for the strawberry pink ears. He was finished -- and snacking -- in 5 minutes flat. You can bring art to the kid, but you cannot bring the kid to art. Oh well, I tried.

I am now the proud owner of the highly desirable plastic dog from my kids PlayMobil set. Ongoing bickering brings me lots of goodies. Said dog is now resting next to the giant rubber ball with a pig in the middle on my kitchen windowsill. Said ball was confiscated over a year ago. Unfortunately for its previous owner, I like it and it goes with my kitchen.

Not surprisingly, the confiscation of this prized possession brought on bonding between my two lovely children. I am the common enemy and the one thing they seem to share in common this afternoon. That's a deal I will take any day.

Now that they've played out every policeman/bad guy scenario, they have commandeered my television. Rather than the financial news show I usually have on at this time, it is now tuned to The Electric Company. If anything important happens, someone email me, because after The Electric Company comes Arthur.

And to think summer hasn't even begun yet.

Eggducation

As you know, my family has been in the middle of a neighborhood controversy over keeping our chickens.  (If you need background, please see Chicken Fight and Chicken Fights On.)  As our neighbor lobbies the City to disallow chickens in the city, we have been conducting our own charm offensive on behalf of chickens everywhere.

This past Friday, we ran a little lemonade stand in our front yard and, along with the free lemonade, we also gave away some eggs from our lovely hens.  We wanted to share with our neighbors the benefits of having such efficient and generous little beings amidst them.

We never realized the learning curve we would face.

We had several -- several! -- neighbors look quizzically at the eggs and ask us how to make them.  When we dismissed their silly question with a flippant answer, "like any eggs," the situation grew more alarming.  "But how?  I only know how to make the ones from the store."

"So I should boil them?" one said while holding the eggs with a fully-extended arm. 


I fought back my incredulity and explained that these are exactly like the eggs they buy at the store, except that they come from healthier, happier chickens.  I reminded them that they could bake with them or scramble them, poach them, whatever.  Still, at least 3 neighbors left holding the eggs at a distance from their bodies, not sure what they would do with them.

Others asked what flavor the green ones were. 

Really.  

It was then that we realized we had a long way to go on behalf of city chickens.

 

Lavender Jelly & Hand-Knitted Washclothes, Oh My!

Good Day, My Blogger Lovelies!

Last summer was a wonderful summer for the lavender in my garden.  It bloomed and flourished and almost crowded out the roses next to it.  No bother, I find those roses tedious anyway.  It was such a lovely, lush, fragrant cloud of cooling silver-gray and blue, it inspired me to capture it for seasons ahead.  And here is the product:

Lavender Jelly.

I made a beautiful batch of lavender jelly.  I'd never made anything like it before, but had complete faith in my beautiful lavender, and it did not disappoint.  Each time I open a jar, I am greeted with the sweet and spicy aroma of that fresh lavender.  When you open your jar for the first time, you'll find a sprig of once-fresh lavender from my garden; remove it and proceed to enjoy this wonderfully flowery yet spicy jelly.  No worries, my garden in completely chemical and pesticide free.  I think this jelly is especially wonderful on a faintly lemon-flavored poppyseed muffin, but I'm sure you'll find your own favorite combinations.

You may also notice a hand-knitted washcloth there in the picture.  That comes along with the jelly . . . just because.  I really enjoyed knitting this, and hope you enjoy using it.  It is 100% cotton and is completely usable as either a facecloth or even a dishrag -- that's how I use mine.  It makes doing the dishes and wiping the counters so much more pleasant.

A little bit of lady-like indulgence is good for the soul.  It can turn the mundane into something beautiful, even if only for a moment.

Now, be sure and join up as a follower and do have a look around.  Hopefully, you and I will find lots to say to one another.

All the followers go into a hat Monday night, 9pm EST; one will be drawn . . . so comeback here late Monday night and find out who has won.  Thanks and good luck!

R~

The Sweet Sounds -- and Flavors -- of Family Life

Well, life continues to improve. 

Still didn't sleep that well, but due to having the living room all to myself, I could keep the tv on all night.  I am now an expert on the biographies of Valerie Bertinelli, Melissa Gilbert, and Mackenzie Phillips.  Yah, it was a long night.

However, things have perked up since then.

I picked up both kids from school with a sneaky new trick I learned to bypass the carpool line (only to be used in instances like this, mind you.)  Both kids were ready.  No really.  Even the girl!

Obviously, I was being smiled upon today.

We needed to get out of there promptly in order to make it to the speech therapist for my daughter's first appointment.  She is at an age where the "F" sound no longer passes for S, TH, T, or anything else but F.  This speech therapy practice is highly recommended and extremely hard to get into.  Things seem to have gone well and, already tonight, my daughter, if she concentrates, can say "suck" without raising any eyebrows.  More blessings. 

Home to a wonderful supper I had thrown into the crockpot earlier in the day.  Here's a super easy supper for whenever you don't have the time, but still want to look like a culinary genius:

***

Pepperoncini Beef Roast

1 approx. 3 lb. beef roast
1 jar (approx. 16 oz/473 ml) of pepperoncini peppers
garlic as desired

Put roast in crockpot.  Before doing so, of you desire, cut slits into the roast and insert sliced garlic cloves into the slits; as much or as little as you like.  Sometimes I just throw the jarred minced garlic into the pot, though; and sometimes I ignore it altogether -- it's still good.) 

Poor entire jar of pepperoncinis over roast, juice and all. 

Cook on high 4 hours, or on low for 7 hours.  Then pull the roast apart using two forks and stir around to immerse in sauce.  Cook on low another 30 minutes or so.

Serve on rolls, with peppers on the side if desired.

Note:  Tonight I used stew meat and the jarred minced garlic and served over brown rice.  Still pretty good. 

***

I burned the rice a little -- added nutty flavor! -- because I got so immersed in reading The Poky Little Puppy with my daughter.  I just love that book and the illustrations.  And I can just never get enough of a six-year old voice saying, "puppy."  Nothing sweeter.

So, as I said, life is good.


 

Sweets for My Sweeties

Well, they've been and back.  The first day of school is always a half day.  A lot of hassle for just a half day, but I suppose it makes the transition easier for some.  For others?  Well, some of us are ready for whole days, let's just leave it at that.

This afternoon, my kids and I will observe the ancient (okay, 4 year old) family tradition of making cookies for the first week of school. 

Each year, for the first week of school, I like to send along homemade -- made together -- healthful cookies for their snack/lunches.  I think maybe they don't feel so far away from home that way.  I remember that, "I wanna go home" feeling.  (Honestly, I still get that feeling.  Often.  But that's another post for another day.)  Suffice it to say, it's my way of sending a little of myself along with them.

As wonderful as this all may sound, to be honest, I almost talked myself out of it this year.  I didn't think they really noticed it, and it's been a lot of work getting ready for school this year.  But, just as I had that thought, my son came around the corner yesterday and asked me when we were making "those school cookies."  He did remember.  Silly me.  To the store we went for the seemingly 900 ingredients.  But it will be worth it.  It already is -- he remembers.   


School Cookies

I always make these particular cookies for this occasion, because they taste great, they are nut-free out of regard for any allergy-ridden classmates, the recipe makes a big batch, and they are relatively nutritious, for cookies. 

2 sticks butter (I know, but it makes a lot!)
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs

Cream the above and then add and stir:

1 c. whole wheat
1 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. corn flakes
2 c. oatmeal
1 c. raisins
1 cup coconut (optional)
6 oz. chocolate chips (I usually substitute cinnamon chips)

Drop by heaping tablespoons and flatten a bit on greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes or until done.

There they go.  My Sweeties.

Yeah, But Mine's Crunchy

It's fair week.

Every year, I help my kids bake up something to enter at the fair. My son had success the first year he ever entered. He got first place for his oatmeal-coconut-raisin cookies. He's now become a bit of an oatmeal-cookie snob and insists on making the same thing each year. He's puzzled by the differing results. How can the same recipe that was judged the best last year only be third best this year? Cynicism roots early.

This is my daughter's first year. She's six, highly enthusiastic, and somewhat messy. She's not yet ready for the detailed task of cookie making. She's more of a dump and go kind of girl. Great. So am I.

I've got a killer whole wheat banana-date bread recipe. It's great. Always gets raves. I never even tell people that it is whole wheat. No need for them to adjust their expectations because it's relatively healthy. It's that good. We ground our own dates, for added moistness. And even ground fresh nutmeg -- a secret addition that makes it all her own.

It was all going so well, until . . .

Another stealth ingredient snuck in there.

Egg shell.

Yup, I should have expected this and had her break the eggs into a separate bowl. I know. No need to point this out. I know. She was just so excited about cracking the eggs herself . . . Well, sure enough a big chunk of egg shell went right in. And I couldn't find it for the life of me. I dug and dug in the batter trying to find the dime-sized piece of shell. It seems to have disintegrated. One can only hope.

Perhaps I'll check and see if there is an "Added Calcium" category for the "under 7" sect.

***

In case you're interested, here is the recipe, but I've been sworn to secrecy about the nutmeg.

Banana-Date Whole Wheat Bread
Prep Time = 15 minutes ~~~ Bake Time = 75 minutes, approx.

2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. ripe bananas, mashed (about 4)
1 c. brown sugar, packed
1 c. dates, chopped
2/3 c. plain, nonfat yogurt
2 eggs
1/3 c. canola oil
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Move oven rack to lowest position. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease bottom only of 9x5x3 loaf pan.

Stir together all ingredients until smooth. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean from center. Cool 5 minutes in pan on wire rack.

Remove from pan, continue cooling on rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Store at room temp up to 10 days, as if it will last that long; 10 days in the refrigerator.

You'll thank me, and you're welcome. :)