Category Archives: cooking

August 22, 2012 · 3:50 pm

Perfect-Every-Time Roast Chicken

I’m calling this Perfect-Every-Time Roast Chicken for a reason: it’s perfect.  Every time.

I’m a big fan of roasting a chicken early in the week, serving it for dinner with some veggies on the night I roast it, and then using chicken for one or two more dinners the rest of the week – in fajitas, in a chicken pot pie, whatever you fancy.

This is the recipe I use for perfect, juicy, delicious roast chicken, and I’m sharing it with you because I want you to know how easy it is to roast an amazing chicken.  (It’s a very slightly adapted version of this recipe.)

Here we go.

Perfect Roast Chicken

First things first.  Get yourself a nice chicken.  I get free range, because they’re treated better when they’re alive, and that makes for fewer weird hormones in the meat.  They’re only a tiny bit more expensive than a non-free range chicken, and that’s worth it to me.  I normally get between a 3 and 3.5 pound chicken, and that does what I talked about above – you know, 2-3 meals.

 

Ingredients

3-3.5 pound chicken

2 onions 

2 carrots (or parsnips.  I love a good parsnip.)

1 bulb of garlic 

1 Lemon

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

A sprig of fresh rosemary (or sage, or bay)

Start by preheating the oven to 475 F (240 C).

Roughly chop the onions into big chunks.  Cut the carrots in half vertically, then again horizontally.  Break the garlic up into cloves.  Throw all of this into a roasting tin or onto a large baking tray with a rim.  Drizzle generously with olive oil, and toss the vegetables around a bit to coat it in oil.

Now take your chicken and place it on top of the vegetables.  If it’s tied together, remove the string.  Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt and freshly cracked ground pepper.  Rub all of that into the chicken.

Take your lemon, stab it a few times with a fork or sharp knife, and stick it in the microwave for 30 seconds to get the juices flowing.  When it’s done, stick the lemon inside the chicken, along with the herbs. I use rosemary from a bush in my back garden (except in this photo…I think this was coriander).

Stick that beautiful baby in the oven, and turn the heat down to 400F (or 200C).  Roast it for 1 hour 20 minutes.

Halfway through, drizzle some of the oil and juices from pan back onto the top of the chicken (that’s called basting).  If the vegetables start to get a bit dry on the pan and looking like they’re burning, add 1/4 cup of water.

Once it’s finished roasting, take it out of the oven.  It’ll look and smell so beautiful, you’ll want to cry.

You’ll want to rip into it with your bare hands, but it’s not time yet.  You must be patient, Daniel-son.

Cover the chicken with aluminum foil, then lay a tea towel over it, and let it rest for 15 minutes.

At that point, you can uncover it, and let it cool for a few minutes until it’s cool enough for you to touch, so you can carve it with a giant knife.

I highly recommend eating a few skin-covered pieces of dark meat.  Don’t judge.  Just do it.  It’s a spiritual experience.

 

4 Comments

Filed under cooking, recipes

Tagged as , ,

December 22, 2011 · 11:58 am

Christmas Granola

I promised you a Christmasy recipe, and a Christmasy recipe you shall get!  I was inspired to make Christmas granola by some granola I had from this bakery back in North Carolina.  My recipe is very different than that one, but just as delicious (if I do say so myself).

Here’s what you need (this is for 10 cups of granola – feel free to cut it in half or double it as needed!):

6 c. oats

2 1/2 c. dried cranberries

1 1/4 c. hazelnuts, chopped

1 c. sunflower seeds (hulled, obviously)

5 tsp. freshly grated orange zest (I found three large oranges gave me about the right amount of zest)

2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/4 c. honey

3 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. salt (I prefer coarse sea salt, but table salt might just do the trick)*

Start by preheating your oven to 160 degrees celsius, or 320 fahrenheit.

Then, combine all your dry ingredients – oats, cranberries, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, orange zest, cinnamon, and salt – in a large bowl.  Just dump it on in there, like this:

Now, put the honey in a saucepan on LOW heat (listen to me – LOW heat) for about 45 seconds, just until it starts to get runny.  Add the vanilla, stir it around a bit, and then pour that over your oat mixture.

Stir it up.

For a minute you might think, “This is not enough honey.  It’s not going to touch all my oats and nuts and fruits.”  You’re wrong.  Keep stirring.

See?  Told you.

Now, spoon that gooey goodness onto a baking tray or into a roasting pan.  Don’t pile it too thick, but you don’t have to spread it paper thin either.

Stick it in the oven for 20-30 minutes (oven heats vary – mine took more like 30).  Every 10 minutes, take the pan out and give it a little stir, and then spread it out again, so every bit gets toasted. When it’s golden and lovely, it’s done.  (But don’t let it get dark brown.  Dark brown = burnt)

When you take it out, you might think it’s not done because it still seems gooey.  But it is done.  Set it on the counter and let it cool completely, and once it’s cool it’ll be crunchy and delicious and perfect, like this!

I had to make several batches, because 10 cups is actually quite a lot.  Once they’d all cooled, I scooped the granola into glass jars, which I covered with a circle of brown butcher paper, and tied with some red yarn.

Voila!  Christmas Granola and delicious gift for all your nearest and dearest.

*I put salt in EVERY sweet thing I make, ever.  The tiniest kick of salty makes sweet treats and baked goods that much sweeter. 

1 Comment

Filed under cooking, recipes, seasons

Tagged as , , , ,

October 19, 2011 · 9:20 am

Cameo Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Since posting a photo of the cake I made for my friend Karen on Monday, I’ve been inundated with emails and facebook messages asking for the recipe.

It’s always a little bit difficult handing out recipes here, because half of you are American and speak the language of cups and teaspoons, and the other half are British, and want to know how many grams of everything you need.  I’ve got cookbooks from both sides of the pond, and I’ve found a really helpful tool when I bake – this online conversion calculator.

My Cameo Cake recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks: The Blue Willow Inn Bible of Southern Cooking.  Simon bought me this book for Christmas in 2009 (which happened to be the day after we moved back to England).  I maintain it’s one of the best gifts he’s ever gotten me.  In fact, that Christmas morning, I’m pretty sure I sat staring at it, running my fingers over the pages, excited about all the Southern cooking possibilities, for at least an hour.

I. Love. This. Book.

Obviously, being that The Blue Willow Inn is in Social Circle, GA, this recipe is written in American, so that’s how I’m going to type it out here.  Where I’ve made changes, I’ll let you know.  If you’re British and are hankerin’ for some measuring cups, I like these; they’re sturdy, cheap, and hooked together so you won’t lose any if you’ve got a messy utensil drawer like I have.

Now, let’s get down to business.

Wait, one more thing: before we got started, I must warn you that the writer of this cookbook, Mrs. Billie Van Dyke, tells us at the beginning of the recipe that this cake is “worth the special effort.”  As that phrase implies, it’s a bit of a job, but you can totally do it.  Seriously.  It’s tougher than a basic pound cake, but don’t get intimidated.  Just follow the recipe and you’ll be fine.

Cameo Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Original recipe by Billie Van Dyke for the Bible of Southern Cooking

Adapted slightly by yours truly

For the cake:

3 plus 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup chopped toasted pecans*

2 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt**

1 cup (2 sticks, if you’re American) butter

3/4 cup water

4 oz. white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.  Grease and lightly flour three 9-inch round cake pans (I only did two, because I only had two – so my layers were just fatter).   In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the flour with the pecans(this keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the cake when you add them to the batter).  In a large bowl combine the remaining 3 cups flour, the sugar, baking soda, and salt.  In a saucepan on medium heat bring the butter and water to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the butter melts.  Remove from the heat and stir in the white chocolate until it is melted (don’t be scared).

Stir in the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla until blended.  Gradually whisk the white chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients until the mixture is smooth.  Fold in the pecan mixture.  Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (no, wait, before you do that – taste the batter.  OMG.) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.  The tops will be nice and golden.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.  Remove from the pans and place the cakes on the racks to cool completely.

For the frosting:

4 oz. white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 (8 oz) plus 1 (3 oz) packages cream cheese, softened (if you’re British, this is pretty much just 1 full package of Philadelphia and about a third of a second package)

5 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, cut up

3 cups confectioners’ sugar (or icing sugar, Brits), sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Chopped toasted pecans for garnish (optional, but look how pretty!  Hello Southern Living cover cake!)

Microwave the white chocolate in a small microwavable (duh) bowl on high for 1 1/2 minutes until it is almost melted.  Stir until it is smooth.  Cool slightly for 10 minutes.  While the chocolate is cooling, in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer (or, if you’re like me and don’t own an electric mixer, your arm and a whisk) beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.  At this point, I would like to say that if, like me, you do decide to use your arm and a whisk, it’s going to take you quite a few minutes to achieve “light and fluffy”.  But you can do it.  Or get your husband to do it.  Whatever.

Beat in the melted chocolate.  Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar and the vanilla.  Beat, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until the frosting is completely smooth. (Taste it now.  Weep.)

Refrigerate for 1 hour until the frosting is firm and spreadable.  Frost between the layers and on the top and sides of the cake.  Garnish with the chopped pecans.  Cover the cake loosely *** and refrigerate 6 to 8 hours or overnight.****

*If you buy pecans that aren’t already toasted (which I do), just throw them on a baking sheet, making sure they’re in a single layer, and stick them in an oven set to 35o (F) and toast them for 5 minutes.  Easy peasy.  Don’t over-toast them though, because burnt pecans taste like tree bark.  And pecans are expensive.

** I always, always add a tiny bit more salt than a recipe calls for when it comes to baking sweet things.  But that’s just me.

***To cover my cake loosely, I stuck a clothes pin in the top and rested aluminum foil over it so as not to mess up my beautiful toasted pecan display. 

****I did not refrigerate my cake for 6 to 8 hours, because I made it the morning of a party and didn’t have 6 to 8 hours.  But I can see why Billie thinks you should.  The frosting will hold up much better, and cake always tastes better when it’s had a little time to sit and soak up its frosting.  Although, to be honest, if this cake had tasted better, I might have literally died.

Good luck!  Let me know how it goes.

…

Also, just as an aside, this is my 300th post on Great Smitten. I feel a celebration is in order.  Yay!  Celebration!  Cake!

6 Comments

Filed under cooking, food, glorious food, recipes

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

May 15, 2010 · 7:46 pm

I am so mad at England today.

Because I wanted to make salsa.

Because I went to two grocery stores to buy supplies.  Because cilantro was nowhere to be found.

Because, when I got home, I said to my mother-in-law, “No one had cilantro”…

…and she answered, “I’ve never heard of that.”

*Update: I learned today that cilantro is the Spanish word for coriander, which is just a little bit confusing, since we have coriander in the US, too, but it’s the little seeds.  So ok, England, I forgive you.  For not having cilantro.  Since, technically, you do.  But I don’t forgive you for trying to sabotage my salsa by using confusing terminology.

6 Comments

Filed under cooking, England

October 24, 2009 · 10:12 pm

Tea with the Queen…

…of baking.

My friend Emily (of teaching-me-to-make-sourdough-bread fame) and I get together almost every Wednesday for a play date during which we play, and her 5-month-old Evan watches us from his Soothing Vibrations chair.

Because we both love all culinary pursuits, and take great pride in our roles as Domestic Goddesses, we always incorporate cooking into our hangout sessions.  We also usually incorporate a film, often one set in Europe, because, well, we love Europe.

Last time, though, we just made scones, and had tea like English ladies, and were ever so proud of ourselves all day long, and for several days after because, let me tell you: Best. Scones. Ever.  I’ll admit we were a little intimidated before beginning, but somehow we pulled it off.  Here’s how:

Ingredients

scant 4 cups white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

2 medium eggs, beaten, plus 1 egg, beaten, for egg wash

scant 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1.5 tbsp baking powder

3/4 stick butter, softened

1 cup milk

generous 1/2 cup golden raisins (or just regular raisins)

1. Go ahead and stick all the ingredients – except the egg for the eggwash, duh, and the golden raisins – into a bowl and, using a big spoon, mix for about 5 minutes.  (You can also use a kitchen mixer with a paddle blade, but we’re not that fancy.)

2. Add the golden raisins into the dough and tip out onto a lightly floured countertop.  Now, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 2 inches thick, then, using a round cutter – or, if you’re less fancy, like us, a jar – cut out the scones.

3.  Put the scones on a greased baking sheet and brush with the eggwash.  If you have time – and I suggest you make time – chill the scones in the fridge for half an hour before baking.  It helps them to rise straight up in the oven.  Go ahead and preheat the oven now, while you’re waiting.  425 degrees Fahrenheit, please.

4.  Finally, take the scones out of the fridge and brush the tops again with eggwash, being careful not to let it dribble down the sides.  Apparently, if it does, it will hinder their rise in the oven.  But I’m here to tell you there was some dribbling, and it wasn’t the end of the world.  Bake for 15 minutes, let cool for a few minutes, then serve warm.

IMG_1100

English scones are typically served with clotted cream and strawberry or raspberry jam, but as clotted cream is not generally readily available this side of Cornwall, we found whipped cream was quite nice.

How we did it:

1/2 a pint of heavy whipping cream and 2 tsp. sugar for a mild sweetness that goes oh-so-nicely with the scones and jam.  Whip that mess with a hand mixer and then lick the beaters.  Don’t let your baby watch closely, even though you think he’ll like the beating sound.  He will not.

IMG_1104

*Also, half our scones were cheese scones.  All we did was leave out the raisins (please, eww) and add about 1/2 a cup cheddar cheese instead.  That’s 1/2 a cup for half the recipe, kapeesh?  And mix it into the dough with your hands, instead of using a spoon.  Cheese scones are best eaten plain or with a smidge of butter.  But really, do what you want.

**Original recipe from Paul Hollywood’s 100 Great Breads; adaptations by me.

1 Comment

Filed under cooking, England, food, glorious food, recipes

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

· 9:41 am

What a girl wants

I only chose the title of this blog because I was watching a promo for the Rachael Ray show and the girl who plays Rachel Berry on Glee is going to be on tomorrow, and she was singing the Christina Aguilera hit…

Anyway.

What this girl wants is more of the same.  I feel like I’ve found myself again.  The old Faith is back.  Or is this a new Faith?  Either way, I like her.

She cooks dinner almost every night (from scratch!), and bakes sourdough bread and scones and gives them all away to anyone who happens to walk through the door.  She makes more jewelry and sews baby bibs for her pregnant friends.  She teaches four classes a week and laughs a lot, and watches the Rachael Ray show in the mornings.  She runs (2.5 miles now!) and goes for long bike rides, where she gets really sweaty but mostly likes the feeling of coasting down hills with the wind in her face.

I don’t think things will be just like they are right now for very much longer.  Life always goes like that, in seasons – in ebbs and flows.  But I’m just digging my toes into the sand while the tide’s out, and I’ll let it wash over me when it heads back this way.

Leave a Comment

Filed under a change will do you good, cooking, home, seasons

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 2, 2009 · 11:25 am

What do I have in common with Garth Brooks?

My little sister commented on my facebook (yes, this is what it has come to) that I’m due for a blog post.  Indeed, it’s true.  And I apologize to those of you who do check back regularly to see what I’ve gotten into, what I’ve baked, what kind of lesson I’m being taught with the aid of dough and coffee and 18-year-old students misspelling their way to an Associate’s degree.

I’ve had a lot of restless nights lately, with Big Life questions playing on my mind – questions that remain unanswered.  But I hold out hope for answers.  And the Good thing that is happening now, is an answer to a question I asked a while ago.  I think this is how things work with God sometimes.  All that stuff about His perfect timing is true, and sometimes “unanswered prayers” (nod to Garth Brooks) are only delayed.  The answer may not be the one we were looking for, but it’s always the right one, and often it comes in this sort of cycle, later on, when we’ve moved onto another question, an answer we’ve already asked floats in on a breeze, rather than shaking us like an earthquake, the way we imagined it would.

You know those quotes people throw around about “finding your Passion?”  Like that one that goes something like, “Find what makes you come alive and then do that, because what this world needs are more people who have come alive?”  (someone please feel free to comment with the correct wording, I’m too lazy to google right now)  The thing is, I always read that quote and get this knot in my chest. 

What makes me come alive?  What is my Passion?  Writing, yes.  That, I love.  But it never feels like enough, because I think when you’re passionate about Words, you have to be passionate about something else, too, or there’s nothing to inspire the words - nothing to mold them around.

And now, somehow, by accident, my Passions have become so clear that I can’t believe I ever missed them: they are Words, People, and any form of Creation and Design.  Baking and cooking and sewing and jewelry-making and, in general, making things, not for myself, but for other people. 

This news came to me like an epiphany a few days ago, as I spent a day baking bread for my husband and for my friends, and sewing a baby bib for my pregnant housemate.  There is nothing that brings me more joy, that inspires me more than using my hands and my eyes and my brain to create something that will bring pleasure to another person.

I should have figured it out a few years ago, when I realized that my stomach flip-flopped every time I walked into a fabric store – or a grocery store, for that matter.  But, like I said, only God knows when our ears are prepped to hear the answers to our Big Questions…and I think sometimes He holds out on us a little while to make us more hungry – to increase our wanting so that, in its fulfillment, we experience the fullness of His Joy.

2 Comments

Filed under communal living, cooking, learning, spirituality, writing

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 23, 2009 · 11:14 pm

I’m not the only one who’s smitten.

In fact, there are two other Smitten blogs I frequent and subsequently drool over: one, because everything on it looks so delicious, and the other, because everything on it looks so delicious.

Smitten Kitchen is the first: a food blog by a lady named Deb who cooks up yummy things in her tiny New York City kitchen.  Incidentally, Deb’s latest post is about the birth of her first child, Jacob Henry, which is relevant to me only because everyone I know has a bun in the oven at the moment.  Don’t jump to conclusions, the only thing I’m cooking right now is all the bread you could ever eat.

Second is Sharon Clark’s Smitten Photography blog.  I first became a stalker fan of Sharon’s when I was editing Carolina Bride, and saw some of her photos of a wedding we were covering.  Her work is gorgeous, and I love how she uses photos like this to tell the stories of the couples she photographs.

sharonclark

I mean, seriously.  Yummy.

Leave a Comment

Filed under food, glorious food, web finds, women, cooking

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

September 3, 2009 · 10:48 am

Bake us, this day, our daily bread…

Want to know what I’m doing right now?

No?

Well, I’ll tell you anyway: I’m eating my breakfast, which consists of coffee and sourdough bread made by none other than…ME.

IMG_0957

Yesterday was my day off from teaching, and my friend Emily let me come over to her house and soak up her breadmaking knowledge – not to mention that she gave me a cup of the bread starter that’s been in her family for decades.

Really.  

Sourdough bread starter is just a mixture – a living mixture – of flour and water, and yeast and bacteria.  Yummy.  Once you get a good starter going, you can feed it every week or so, and keep it living for years.  Emily remembers her mom making sourdough bread when she was a child from the same batch of starter she uses now.  When Emily got married, her mom gave her some of her famous starter, and now Emily feeds her little starter pet and keeps it in her fridge.  A few years ago, Emily’s mom’s house burned down, and Emily was able to give her back some of her original starter.  And now, she has kindly shared it with me.  I feel honored to be a part of such a rich breadmaking heritage…lovely…

Anyway, in addition to being a great breadmaker, Emily is also a great mom to her three-month-old, Evan.  So, as you can imagine, I was in heaven yesterday: holding babies, talking books with Emily, who has an MA in Literature, and baking bread.  Oh – and did I mention the coffee drinking?  

My first bread loaves turned out tasting fabulous, but only looking semi-fabulous.  You see, bread dough usually takes hours – and hours – to rise before you bake it, and we were on a bit of a tight schedule, so…

IMG_0952

 

Next time, they’ll be a bit fatter.  And that’ll make two of us.

6 Comments

Filed under being southern, cooking, home, learning

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,