January 28th: Garlic and Lemon Roasted Chicken and Veggies

I've made similar recipes in the past, but have never made this one before. With lemon, garlic and olive oil making up the base of the flavour, it was delicious. From the GoodLife Fitness blog.

Garlic and Lemon Roasted Chicken and Veggies

6 tablespoons olive oil
2 lemons: 1 thinly sliced and 1 juiced
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pound green beans
8 small-medium red potatoes, cut into large chunks
4 chicken breasts, with bones and skin

Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a large baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Arrange the lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the green beans and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, remove the green beans and arrange them on top of the lemon slices. Add the potatoes to the same olive oil mixture and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, arrange the potatoes on top of the green beans. Place the chicken in the same bowl with the olive oil mixture and coat thoroughly. Place the chicken, skin-side up, in the dish. Pour any of the remaining olive oil mixture over the chicken.


Roast for 45 minutes. Stir once, if desired, partway through cooking time. Let chicken rest 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Greg found the green beans a little strongly flavoured with lemon. I suppose you could put the lemon slices on top of the chicken instead of under the beans. Then the chicken would be strongly lemon flavoured. What's wrong with lemon?!

June 15th: spring veggie ragout

Although we often slip away from it, the criterion I've set for retrying or keeping recipes in this house is that the food is so good, we want to eat the exact same thing again tomorrow (not that we actually do eat the same thing two days in a row). Tonight's meal fit that criterion perfectly. Another way of saying the same thing is that supper is so good, I resent having to share it, even if the recipe tells me it makes 6 servings (I've reduced that to 4 below). This one is definitely worth trying again:


Spring Vegetable Ragout (Ottawa Citizen)


1 lb (454 g) fingerling potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
6 tbsps butter, divided
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 head of garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
1/2 lb (225 g) carrots, sliced into pencil-width pieces

1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets

1/4 lb (110 g) baby collard greens (the original recipe called for arugula)
1 tbsp minced fresh herbs (e.g. chives, parsley)
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste


Steam the potatoes in a tightly covered pot over boiling water until tender, about 15 minutes, then drain.


Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat and add the onion and garlic cloves. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften, about 5 minutes.


Reduce the heat to low. Add the carrots and cauliflower to the pan, then scatter the greens  overtop. Cover tightly and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender, about 20 minutes. The greens should exude enough moisture, but if the pan looks dry, add a tablespoon or two of water or white wine.


When the carrots are tender, transfer the steamed potatoes to the pan and stir gently to combine. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of butter to the pan in chunks, stirring them into the vegetables to make a light sauce. Scatter the fresh herbs over top, and season to taste with salt and pepper.


Makes 4 servings.

This is not a complete supper on its own, but a great accompaniment to meat or, in our case tonight, spaghetti and tomato sauce.

April 17th: blueberry smoothie, grain & veggie salad

Sunday morning, rush rush rush to get myself and O to the gym, and I'm grateful for this blueberry smoothie, which tided Miss O over till we could get to the gym playroom where she had her applesauce, cheese and milk. I didn't drink much of mine before I taught my class (bad bad bad) and by the time we were done with BODYFLOW and groceries, it had fairly separated as it sat in the car. I stirred it back together and drank it down. I don't recommend delayed drinking though. From the Dairy Farmers of Canada:


Blueberry Smoothie


1 cup (250 mL) milk
3/4 cup (175 mL) blueberry yogurt
1/4 cup (60 mL) pomegranate juice*
1 cup (250 mL) frozen blueberries
handful of ice cubes


Blend all ingredients until smooth. Makes about 3 cups (750 mL).


*I used pomegranate juice, but I suspect cranberry or another tart juice would work well.

Olivia licks the yogurt spoon while eyeing up breakfast.
Check it out; the shirt washed clean!!

Supper, I made an awesome whole wheat grain & veggie salad from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It took a bit of searching to find the whole grain kernels, but Bulk Barn came through, and at $1.50 for 2 big scoops, it seems like a fantastic deal to me. This salad requires prep, which was fine for a Sunday afternoon at home. The whole wheat (also called wheat berries) need to be simmered for 2 hours. The peppers and garlic need to be roasted, at different temperatures, for 30-40 minutes each. But it all comes together to make a delicious combo. With a green salad on the side, supper was made!


Whole Wheat (Wheat Berries)
Whole Wheat is unmilled kernels with the bran and germ still intact. Light brown, rounded, oval-shaped grain with a nutty flavour and very chewy texture. (HtCEV)

To cook: bring pot of water to a boil. Rinse kernels thoroughly, then add to boiling water. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours. Drain and rinse thoroughly.


Roasted Sweet Peppers
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place washed peppers on a foil-lined baking pan. Roast, turning peppers until browning on all sides, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and wrap in foil. Let sit until peppers collapse. Unwrap, let cool and then peel. They tend to fall apart and it's easy to dislodge skin and seeds under running water.


Roasted Garlic
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Peel papery outsides off head(s) of garlic. Slice off about top third of garlic to expose cloves. Rub with olive oil and place on oiled pan. Cover with tin foil and roast until soft, about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit till cool enough to handle. Squeeze cloves from head.

Whole Wheat Salad with Roasted Peppers

1/4 cup pine nuts

3 roasted sweet peppers, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks

2 cups cooked whole wheat

1 head roasted garlic, pulp squeezed from skins

1 cup shredded fresh basil

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, or as needed

3 tbsps red wine or other vinegar

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Toast the pine nuts in a small, dry skillet over medium heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until lightly browned. Set aside.

Toss together the pepper, whole wheat, garlic and half of the basil in a salad bowl. Whisk the oil and vinegar together, along with some salt and pepper. Toss the dressing with the salad, then taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Garnish with pine nuts and remaining basil and serve.

Makes 4 servings.

January 22nd: artisan bread with add-ins & garlic-lemon-ginger chicken

I finally tried some additions to the artisan bread tonight: seven cloves of garlic, roughly chopped, one jalapeno pepper, roughly chopped, and 4 g old Cheddar cheese, diced. I added the garlic and jalapeno to the dough when I made it the night before, then added the cheese when I gave the dough a quick knead the afternoon of baking. Yum yum. This bread was a hit with the fam. The garlic and jalapeno were both mild after baking for an hour, and the cheese was a tasty addition.

We had this with a salad and Farm Boy's Baked Chicken with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger. I should have chopped up the cooked chicken to go on the salad, but didn't think of that until the end of the meal. This is delicious chicken; it soaks up the lemon and garlic goodness as it sits. I recommend marinating for a maximum for 2 hours, rather than a minimum. Too much marinating in lemon juice leads to acid-cooked chicken, in my experience.

N.B.: I realize the majority of my readers live outside Farm Boy country. I think you could substitute equal parts lemon juice and olive oil with a shake of salt and pepper for the dressing in the recipe. That is, in fact, what I plan to do in future.

December 11th: Chicken with Roasted Garlic; Chocolate Chip Ginger Cookies

I wish every night could be Saturday night for oh, so many reasons. Often, the only night of the week I watch TV or a movie. Still a whole day left before worrying about schedules. Hopefully, accomplished something during the day and feeling good about that. And, oh, the food! This Saturday night was a success. From December 2010's Chatelaine: Chicken with Roasted Garlic. I used 21 cloves of garlic to two chicken breasts. We like garlic. This was drink-the-sauce delicious, and really quite simple. To accompany, from the same magazine, I made braised red cabbage wedges, topped with sour cream. This was good, but not keeper good. I'll be making an almost identical recipe again this week, because the three of us can't eat a whole (giant!) red cabbage in one go. I chose this recipe to make up for the lack of colour in the rest of the meal, which was rounded out by some bread (supposed to be homemade, but I was too tired to put in the 5 minutes of work on Friday night after some spontaneous late-night Christmas shopping).

From the same magazine, I also made Chocolate Chip Ginger Cookies. I used chocolate chips instead of chunks (why chop chocolate if you don't have to?). I was disappointed with these. I thought they'd be flavourful power houses; they weren't as strong as I expected. I may actually try them again, and add some candied ginger to the dry mixture; that would up the flavour, I think.

November 20th: keeper chicken with sage, lemon and garlic + gingerbread cookies

This Saturday night I went for pure indulgence again (two nights in a row!). Baked potatoes loaded with toppings (no bacon, even though I was tempted to pull some from the freezer) and one of my favourite chicken recipes: from Epicurious: Lemon, Sage and Garlic Roast Chicken. I should note, this is one of my favourite recipes, but not so for G or O. O is funny about meat. She'll eat it with ketchup, but I didn't give her any on this night, so she didn't eat much chicken. G likes the recipe but doesn't love it, though he indulges my obsession with lemon, and he shares my obsession with garlic.

The best part of cooking this meal was that I got to put my new cookware to the test. The last two years in a row, Tee has given me a gift certificate to Ma Cuisine for Christmas. This is a cookware store in Ottawa that I hadn't found time to visit apparently, as I still had both gift certificates, unused, set aside. At the same time, I busted one of my frying pans and our two others were old and probably weren't great ones to begin with. All of which led to: frying pan shopping! We hit Ma Cuisine, salivated over the copper pots that were literally chained to the shelf, and then got a run-down on the others that we could actually afford. With the gift certificates and Greg's impending riches in mind if not in hand, we bought two amazing frying pans from a company I've never heard of: Scanpan.

Let's be clear that I shill for no one. However, if Scanpan would like to hire me to talk about how amazing their product is, sign me up, because I am in love with these frying pans. They are oven-proof to 500°F, so I shouldn't have any mishaps as with my poor Paderno pan.

One other thing: I made gingerbread dough last weekend, and today pulled one of four packs out of the freezer to make gingerbread men with Olivia. AWESOME. This is a recipe from November 2009's Chatelaine: Classic gingerbread cookies. I didn't make the cookies last year, but saved the recipe as I knew someday I would want to make them with O. One note: the recipe says it makes 50 cookies. With my 1/4 dough package, I made only 7. Also: a shout out to Kat, who gave me a piping bag and tips a million years ago and I have finally used them! I knew I would one day.

broken leg in cast, t-shirt & hat, bow tie, hula skirt, snowsuit, girl, boy

November 19th: Garlic knots et al.

Verdict:
Try Again: garlic knots


Ah, Friday. How I do love you. This Friday was an excellent day, as I attended Olivia's daycare's playgroup, and got to see her participate in circle time with a big group of kids. Can I brag about how well-behaved she is? I think part of it may actually be shyness, as she sat still, but didn't sing any of the songs, which she definitely knows. At home she sings her heart out.


For supper, I went back to Chatelaine pizza dough, and turned it into these amazing Garlic knots from in erika's kitchen. That's two good recipes from that site so far; thanks, Erika! This was a total indulgence meal. Greg refilled the propane tank, and we feasted on BBQ'd steak, bread and sugar snap peas. So good. One note: the pizza dough recipe makes 2 lbs of dough; the garlic knots recipe calls for 1 lb of dough, and we only ate about half of the knots. Good to know should you want to make this one at home! Also, I didn't save the leftover knots; I didn't think they would keep well after soaking in oil. Oh yes, I used unsalted butter in this recipe and next time I plan to try salted. That's it! Yum yum.

Olivia's portion