Roasted Chicken Dinner

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite chicken dinners, Roasted Chicken. I love this dinner because I get to make broth for my pantry, and one other chicken meal. I like to make a whole chicken last as long as possible. Plus I ran out of chicken broth and needed to make more.

I use Jamie  Oliver's Roasted Chicken recipe as the foundation but you know me I always change things around. You can find his recipe here http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/perfect-roast-chicken. Don't worry you can convert the recipe into pounds. This is a great Chicken recipe to get you started if you have a small fear of the whole chicken.

This is the same chicken. When you are picking a chicken look for some key words in the grocery store Organic, free range, and no antibiotics. Of course If you can buy from a local farmer who takes pride in what they do. Because Happy Chickens make for a healthy meal and a happy mama.

We made this salad from our garden and the CSA Basket. It is so nice to eat a fresh salad. What? Oh yes, those are flowers in our salad. It is nice to have something pretty to eat. Nasturtiums (the flowers) have a slight pepper flavor that goes nice with the sweet carrots and other vegetables.

Roasted brussel sprouts. I mix these babies with a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper then roast them at 400 degrees for about twenty minutes. My kids love brussel sprouts and I am very sad that they are out of season soon.

I already made 6 quarts of chicken broth. The jars look so pretty standing in a row. I also want to encourage you to make your own broth it has a wonderful flavor. I am going to make Chicken tortilla soup or Chicken florentine artichoke bake. Either way it is going to be yummy.

I hope that you try something new for dinner, and your day is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well Friends.





Philosophy Bites

Officially my computer is no longer in working condition. In fact I have to replace it. I am sharing my husbands temperamental laptop which occasionally gets to hot and shuts down randomly. He has been home for the last eight days so doing school work has been fun, considering he is also in college and was studying for his next rank test. He is taking the test right now, I hope he is doing better than he thinks he was going to do. I am taking a Philosophy class, I was so excited to take this class when I started. I was filled with hope that I could learn a new way to look at the world. In truth 30% of my grade is based on weekly tests. Every week I am assigned at least six chapters, 3 articles, 3 podcast, youtube videos, and several power point lecture notes, the quiz only has 10 questions and they could be on anything that was assigned. I am not good at testing. I can write a paper that clearly shows that I read and understood the material. When I am taking a quiz I second guess myself, I change answers, I generally freak out a little, and it is starting to show. I think I am going to squeak by with a B despite by best effort. It is disappointing. At least now I know I am not a philosopher and I do not have to take another philosophy class.

On another note, I have Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes and we are loving the recipes of course. In this book he puts the meals together on the same page starting with the Main dish all the way to the desert. I still spend about 30-45 minutes making these meals but it is nice to have everything go together. I recommend this cookbook if you are in the market for a new one. The other day I realized that I talk about how much I totally love Jamie Oliver and I told my husband that I don't mean the person, (I don't know him and as far as I know he is happily married with four kids. He talks about them in his books.) but as the chef who loves to share his recipes. He laughed at me and told me he never thought anything of it. Yes friends, I am a bit of a nut case. 

I hope that your week is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Recipe Tuesday

Yesterday when I uploaded a bunch of pictures from my camera I found my food pictures and decided to post an easy recipe that is both photogenic and tastes just as good as it looks. Trust me my three year old asked for more. Is there any other critic as hard to please as a toddler? I don't think he is a toddler anymore. My baby is growing to fast! Today's recipe comes from Jamie Oliver's food revolution cookbook. Warning I went a little crazy with the pictures! Maybe saying a little crazy is an understatement but once I added the bacon to the peas I was inspired. I hope it inspires you too. This meal is really, really yummy.

Mini Shell Pasta With A Creamy Smoked Bacon and Pea Sauce

 I love Jamie Oliver. I love easy his recipes are to read and follow. I love that he is a family man, not that it makes the food better. He seems like he really cares for people in the community. So I feel good about supporting him by paying full price for the book, okay I got 10% off.

 So while I was making this I thought nothing was as pretty as the green peas and bacon.

 So I got the camera and started taking pictures. Hello yummy peas.

 I couldn't stop. I wanted to show you how pretty this dish is. I wanted you to want to make it too.

 I thought these pale little creatures needed to be shown before it became a wonderful, unforgetable dish.

 I made my poor husband grate the cheese, he grated more just in case I wanted to make it super cheesey. He loves cheese.

 I love fresh mint from my garden. It smells fresh and wonderful.

 Mix in your cream and mint.

 Then add in the shells. Do you see their transformation as they get dressed up for a night out?

  Cheese always makes the everything better.

 Then finally you dish it up on a plate and just look at it. It smells like heaven.

 So I just wanted to take a bigger picture with my red table cloth and here you see my not trained eye and know that my hobby is a hobby not a career. Really a little extra cheese on top never hurt anyone. It is a healthy dish for all.


Mini Shell Pasta With A Creamy Smoked Bacon and Pea sauce

Ingredients:
10 slices of bacon
a small bunch of fresh mint
salt and pepper
1 pound dried mini shell pasta
a pat of butter
2 cups frozen peas
2 tablespoons of creme fraiche or heavy cream (in a pinch use milk)
1 lemon
6 ounces Parmesan cheese

To prepare your pasta:
Finely slice the bacon. (I suck at cutting raw meet. So I just just do the best I can and I like the thicker chunks of bacon) Pick the mint leaves and discard the stalks. (If you don't happen to have a ton of mint growing outside, you should. Once the mint takes root it grows like crazy all you do is water it.) Finely grate the Parmesan cheese. (Or buy the cheese shredded from the deli. Use the good cheese it makes the difference.)

To Cook Your pasta:
Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. Add the mini shells and cook according to the package instructions. Get a large frying pan over a medium heat and add a good lug of olive oil and the butter. Add the bacon to the pan, sprinkle a little pepper over and fry until golden and crisp. Meanwhile, finely chop your mint leaves. As soon as the bacon is golden, add the frozen peas and give the pan a good shake. (Or stir it to mix it all up) After a minute or so, add the creme Fraiche (or heavy cream, or the milk if that is all you have)and chopped mint to the bacon and peas. Drain the pasta in a colander over a large bowl (you are just saving some of the cooking water so just take a cup of it out and drain the rest). Add the pasta to the frying pan. Halve the lemon and squeeze the juice over the pasta. When it's all bubbling away nicely, remove it from the heat. It's really important that the sauce is creamy, silky, and delicious but if it's too thick for you, add a splash of the cooking water to thin it a bit. Add the grated Parmesan and give the pan a shake to mix it in. (Or just stir it like me. I use a heavy cast iron pan and when that thing is full of food there is no shaking it up. I tried but I could barely lift it with two hands much less shake it. Really the pan weighs almost five pounds on it's own. That might make me a weakling but I do not mind. Lesson here use a light pan. But I love my cast iron pan and won't so I just gently stir.)

To Serve Your Pasta:
Divide your pasta between plates or bowls, or put it on the table in a large serving dish and let everyone help themselves. Lovely with a simply dressed green salad.


Here is the link to his website, and to this recipe. http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/mini-shell-pasta-with-a-creamy-smoked-ba this is his UK Website. Here is the link to his USA Website which doesn't have the recipe converted for us. He has a ton of amazing recipes available http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/recipes/pasta-recipes. Dear Jamie Oliver Thank you for cooking and sharing your talent with the rest of us. Love me.

Now I must study for my science mid-term or start the stew for dinner. I hope that you house is filled with a lovely scent of comfort food that draws your family in to the table, and as always may you be blessed with love and laughter.