Roasted Chicken

I love to get things ready ahead of time. I start Christmas crafting before it gets hot each year, and am a sucker for a good crock pot recipe. This one isn't for the slow cooker, but it can be prepared ahead of time, left in the oven while you are out, and be ready to eat when you get home.
I used a local chicken from the grassfed place at the Central Market, local new red potatoes, local onions, local Brussels sprouts, and local celery in this, and it turned out wonderful. I have also used beets, turnips, sweet potatoes, and eggplant (and probably other things I can't remember) with good success. I would encourage you to use whatever is fresh and local in your future roasts!

Roasted Chicken With Vegetables
whole chicken (about 5 lbs.)
1 lb. carrots
1 lb. potatoes
1 lb. Brussels sprouts
3 stalks celery
2 large onions
salt and pepper

Wash chicken (remove any "parts" from inside), and place in a roasting pan. Wash and chop veggies coarsely. Arrange them around the chicken. Salt and pepper chicken and vegetables. Cover and cook at 275 F for about 2 1/2 hours. (- or until you get back home. Really, anywhere from 2 to 4 hours has worked for me. At low heat, it is less risky to leave it for a long time.) Serve chicken and veggies dressed with pan juices and olive oil.

Earth Day Recipe

Owen and I cleaned the bathroom this morning - exciting news, I know! You are most likely feeling a bit apprehensive since the title of the post promised a recipe and now I'm telling you about cleaning bathroom; it must be a gastronomic disaster, right?
No.
We try to use the least toxic cleaners we can, and whenever possible, I make my own. My favorite all purpose cleaner, the one Owen sprayed all over the bathroom for me :o), is from Carolyn, and in honor of Earth Day, I thought I'd pass it along. It is really quick to make and works really well. I haven't done any math, but it is quite inexpensive too! I actually double the recipe and keep it in a reused Febreeze bottle (which must be ancient since I haven't used Febreeze in probably 5 years).

Carolyn's All Purpose Cleaner
2T. vinegar
1t. borax
hot water (about 1 3/4c.)
1/4 c. liquid soap (Dr. Bronner's or the like)
essential oils (if desired or use scented Dr. B's soap - I agree with Carolyn and like peppermint for cleaning; she also recommends citrus or lavender)

Mix vinegar, borax, and hot water in a 16 oz spray bottle. Add soap and essential oils last. Use as a spray on cleaner.

Okay, I just noticed that the copy of the recipe I have has no units for the soap - just 1/4. I have been using 1/4 cup for a few years now. Is that right? Hmmm? Well, at any rate, it works quite well. I do usually use it on things that get a second water-only wipe or a rinse.

Happy Earth Day!

Heavenly Deviled Eggs

Owen has been requesting boiled eggs since Easter. Today, I cooked up a bunch so I'd have some on hand. I decided to make deviled eggs to see if he'd like them. They aren't exactly a thing of beauty:

but Owen didn't mind:

He at 2 1/2 halves. (How's that for complicated?) Abram and I each at 4 halves (much simpler math!).

Deviled Eggs
6 eggs
~1/4 cup homemade mayonnaise (see recipe below)
small pickle, chopped finely
~1T. chives or green onion, chopped

Hard boil eggs. (For smallish, pullet eggs: Cover eggs with water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, and boil 2 minutes. Turn off heat, and wait 5 minutes then cool with cold water.)
Peel eggs, slice in 1/2, and remove yolk.
Mash yolks with mayonnaise. Stir in pickle and onion. Fill egg whites with yolk mixture, and serve.

Home Made Mayonnaise
2 egg yolks at room temperature
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground mustard
1 cup olive oil

Add all ingredients to blender. Blend until it is thick. (~30 seconds-2 minutes - It will take longer if the eggs are not warm.)

Trout With Vegetables

Abram cooked up this tasty dish Saturday night. It is based on a pan-fried trout recipe from Martha Stewart's Entertaining. She suggests using whatever veggies you have one hand. This combination was good, but I'm sure that there are lots of other great ones. We used a wild-caught, steel head trout with the skin (vitamin D!). Yum.
Here I have an opportunity to share one of my favorite kitchen tricks: When preparing asparagus (which is coming into season in this hemisphere), the best way I have found to remove the tough ends without wasting any more than necessary is to bend the ends and snap them off. I have never gotten tough stringy bits in the asparagus preparing it this way.

Trout With Vegetables
1.5 lbs trout
1 onion, peeled and sliced
3 potatoes, sliced thin
2 small bunches of asparagus, chopped into 2" pieces
lard or bacon drippings
salt and pepper

In a large cast iron pan, saute onion and potato until they are tender and slightly browned. Add asparagus and fish and cook until asparagus is tender and fish flakes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Tracy came for a visit this weekend. We went out the to farm to get milk, eggs, cream, and yoghurt. For dinner, we served a corned beef that had been soaking (or, is it corning?) for a while. It was really quite tasty, and we will definitely do this one again. The hardest part is getting a beef brisket; it's a large, tough cut, so you don't seem them all that often. We got one from the grass-fed place at the market.

Corned Beef and Cabbage With Veggies
Corned Beef. . .
1 gallon water
1 cup sea salt
12 cloves garlic, crushed
3T. pickling spices (mustard seeds, juniper berries, crushed bay leaves, etc.)
6 bay leaves
beef brisket

Bring water to a complete boil, and dissolve salt. Let cool. Place brisket in a very large, non-reactive (non-metal) pan, add garlic, pickling spices, and bay leaves. Pour cooled brine over meat and seasonings. The meat should be completely covered (or floating) in brine. Cover and refrigerate for approximately 2 weeks, turning periodically

. . . . with Cabbage and Veggies
Corned beef from above
3 potatoes
3 turnips
8 carrots
large onion
small head of cabbage
water

Discard brine and spices. Place brisket in a pot, and cover with water. Bring to a boil; reduce and simmer about 2.5 hours. Peel and chop potatoes, turnips, carrots and onion. Add to pot and continue cooking until veggies are tender - about 1/2 hour. Chop cabbage and cook with some of cooking liquid from other pot until cabbage is tender. Reserve the broth for later cooking. Slice brisket across grain, and serve hot with cabbage and veggies.
Serves: an army

Fennel Soup

Okay, it doesn't look like much, but you get a picture anyway. It was really tasty. We have added another food - potatoes, and Owen and I seem to tolerate them just fine. This soup was especially satisfactory for someone who's been hankerin' for some creamy goodness. It would have been even better with some real cream, but for now, that creamy texture will tie me over. This is based on a recipe from Nourishing Traditions, but as you all know, I only take recipes as suggestions. Here's what I did:

Fennel Soup
1 bulb of fennel, washed and chopped
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 T. ghee (or butter)
1 t. fennel seeds
3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 quarts of stock
1/2 t. pepper
salt to taste

Bring to a boil and cook ~3o minutes until all vegetables are tender. Blend soup, and salt to taste. Serve hot. Makes ~5 servings.

Up To Speed #3 Plus a Recipe

Here's Owen in the adorable little gnome hat Aunt Lauren made him for Christmas; Roman and Keiko look on. Looking through the Christmas pictures from the Ring family, they are mostly blurry. I think people really were moving that fast. I also think we need to learn a bit more about our new (used) camera. Owen really loves his little hat. Today, we were almost ready to walk out the door to head to he natural history museum when I ran back to the bathroom to get a band-aid. Owen followed and looked through the drawer for a comb, took off his hat, very carefully ran the comb through his hair a few times, and placed the hat right back on his head.

Tonight I made a new recipe, coconut flounder, and we were almost through it before I decided y'all might like it too. So, I snapped a couple of pictures before it was gone. We also had a watermelon radish cut up with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. I just discovered these this week. They are fresh and local and organic. That's saying a lot when the temps are less than hospitable to life. They are about the size and shape of a turnip, and look rather like a green-tinged turnip. Inside, they are pink - like a watermelon. They taste like a very mild radish. We all love them.


































Coconut Flounder
2 lbs. flounder fillets (or similar)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup coconut, dried and shredded (unsweetened)
1/2 bunch cilantro
1T. coconut flour (wheat flour would probably do just as well)
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
coconut oil for frying

Cut fish into ~3" squares. Blend coconut, cilantro, flour, salt, and pepper in blender or food processor. Dip fish into egg then coat with dry coconut mixture. Pan fry in hot coconut oil. Serve hot.
(Coconut oil is a great oil for cooking because it is stable at higher temperatures than olive oil. I think lard would work just as well.)