Garlic Clove Roast Chicken

Friends, do not fear cooking a whole chicken!  This recipe is so tasty and easy,  (well except for peeling the garlic, that was a pain in the butt).  Chicken on the bone is so tender and moist; plus you can have both dark and white meat!

Like I said peeling 40 cloves of garlic is a pain.  Thank goodness I had a buddy over to keep me company!  Next time I make this, I might be alone for the 30 minutes.  I think I will have to invest in this neat little gadget from Williams-Sonoma.  It might be worth the nine bucks. 

Anyway, on to the recipe!

Garlic Clove Roast Chicken
* adapted from Taste of Home

 Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken (5-6 lbs)
1 small onion, quartered
40 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions: 
1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.
2.  Place chicken breast side up in shallow roasting pan.  Stuff onion in chicken and tie drumsticks together with cooking twine. Arrange garlic cloves around chicken.
3.  In small bowl combine remaining ingredients.  Drizzle over chicken and garlic.
4.  Cover and bake for 1 3/4 hours.  Uncover and bake for 30-45 minutes longer or until thermometer reads 180F.  While uncovered bast occasionally with pan drippings.
5.  Cover and let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

Notes:
-If chicken browns too quickly while uncovered, cover loosely with foil.
-If you don't have a roasting pan (mine is at my Mother-in-law's house) you can improvise!  Use two disposable foil roasting pans.  Use one as a lid, and one as a pan.  Seal the edges with tin foil. These pans are flimsy so make sure to place it on a cookie sheet.

Indoor Herb Garden; Day 22

Sorry I have been slacking on the herb garden updates.  But the long time since the last update makes their growth all the more dramatic!  I am also shocked that I have been remembering to water them, and that they are all still alive!

Check out these chives!  They are growing like weeds!

Cilantro is starting to resemble something familiar and edible!

 

Parsley is making up for lost time in a big way!

Sausage, Peppers and Pasta

This is a great recipe for many reasons, but most of all  two of the main ingredients are practically free at Aldi!

The pasta is only $1.29 and the tomatoes are only $0.49!

  Have I mentioned how much I love Aldi? 

I digress, this is an uber quick, filling, cheap, and yummy meal!  The recipe originally made 6 servings, but I adapted it to 3 servings.  It is just the right amount for dinner for two, and one lunch the next day.  Also this way you can get two meals out of your package of pasta, and sausage.

Sausage, Peppers and Pasta
* adapted from Kraft Foods

 Ingredients:
3 cups rigatoni pasta (I used half of the 16oz package)
2 - 3 Italian sausage links, sliced (see notes)
1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 can (14.5 oz) Italian style diced tomatoes, undrained
Italian blend shredded cheese for sprinkling


Directions:
1. Cook pasta as directed, omitting any salt called for.  Meanwhile cook sausage in large skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently for 10 minutes.
2.  Stir in peppers, cook for approximately 7 minutes, or until sausage is cooked through and peppers are crisp-tender.
3.  Stir in tomatoes and cook until heated through.
4.  Drain pasta, add to sausage mixture, stir well.
5.  Place on plates, and top with cheese.


Notes:
- Sausage usually comes in packs of 5 or 6 links.  Just use 2 1/2 or 3 links.  Then freeze the other half of the package for use at a later date.
-Rigatoni takes longer than you think to cook.  Make sure you allow enough time, so everything is done at the same time.
-

Indoor Herb Garden; Day 8

We have life!

I am so excited I can hardly sit here and type!  My herbs have sprouted!

Look how cute they are!

 

 Cilantro is leading the pack.  Just look at that healthy sprout!

 

Chives are a close second.  So many tiny little chives!

 

Parsley is being a slacker though.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

I know this is my second chocolate covered post, but I couldn't help myself!  I made these for my book club meeting this week and I was just so proud!

 

Isn't this so fancy?  And it was totally easy!  I used my awesome Chocolate Treat Maker, but you can easily rig up a double boiler!  Although I would suggest buying a gadget for melting if you plan to do a lot this sort of thing.  It's are great, it keeps the chocolate a a nice even temp for a long time!  I saw the Wilton version on sale at Home Goods the other day.

Well here is how to rig up you double boiler.  You will need a small saucepan and a bowl that can fit over it without falling in.

Put some water in the pan, but make sure it is not touching the bottom of the bowl.  We are going to use steam to melt our chocolate, not the water.  You want to heat up the water, not boil it.  (contrary to the name)  If the chocolate gets too hot it will burn and that's yucky.  If the water starts to bowl just turn off the flame  There will still be enough steam heat to keep the chocolate melted.

Now to the fun part; dipping!  For the strawberries make sure to wash and dry them ahead of time.  You need them to be absolutely dry for the chocolate to adhere.  After you dunk them, place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Then put the filled sheet in the fridge to set.

You do the pretzels the same way.  I broke mine in half to get a better chocolate to pretzel ratio.  Just make sure to dunk the jagged edge!

Of course they will taste just as good without decoration, but I think it adds a little something.  It makes them look more professional. You can just drizzle the dark and white chocolate with a spoon, which leads to varying stripe width.  If you are more OCD you can put the chocolate in a Ziploc, snip the end off, and then use that to add the lines.

I would not recommend ever microwaving real chocolate, it can burn too easy.  But zapping those candy melts is fine. 

Candy melts are quick way to add a pop of color.  You could do green stripes for St. Patty's Day, red and pink for Valentines and so on.  I think they taste kinda funny, but if used in small quantities you don't notice.

Indoor Herb Garden; Day 1

I cannot tell you amount of fresh herbs, not to mention money, that I waste while cooking.  recipes always call for a fraction of the herb that you have to buy!  This saddens my greatly.  :(  So I decided to start my own indoor herb garden, which should be quite the adventure. I have heard a lot of herb garden horror stories.

Nonetheless I have been very excited to plant mine!  I found this great little kit on Olive Barn. 

It is a great kit, it comes with everything you need to start growing right away; pots, seeds, even dirt!  It is even uber cute to boot!  Plus you can choose which herbs you want to grow.  I decided to start with chives, cilantro and parsley since those seem to be the herbs I use the most.  If this all work out well I plan to expand my garden.

I was so eager to get started!  It seemed like to took forever to get my package.  When it finally came I had to work the next three night shifts!  So I was very excited when I finally got to put it all together!

I bought some extra dirt, fearing I wouldn't have enough. I mixed the potting soil in with the dirt provided by the kits.  I had more than enough dirt.  I also had Kevin write my little tags in nice architect handwriting.  Here is the end result:

The seed packets say it will 10-15 days to germinate.  I will post an update around then, if they germinate.

Chili

The weather is starting to get warmer, which is a good thing, but it also means I need to hurry up and post this chili recipe!  Pretty soon it will be way too hot and humid out for chili.  This is a very simple and tasty recipe, just plop the ingredients into the pot and before you know it  you've got some delicous chili with just the right amount of heat.

Chili
* adapted from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients:
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 (46 ounce) can tomato juice
1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 green bell pepper chopped
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper ( I usually add a pinch more)
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup chili powder

Directions:
1.  Place ground beef in a large skillet and brown.  Drain cooked meat.
2.  In large pot combine all ingredients.
3.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 1 1/2 hours.

Notes:
-I like to top my chili with cheese and sour cream.  I also like either oyster crackers or corn bread, depending on how lazy I am feeling.
-Draining and rinsing the beans is an important step; it improves taste and reduces the sodium up to 41%!
-You can get  most of the canned goods from Aldi, which makes this chili very good and very frugal.