It's Easter Eve!!!
I'm baking for dinner at my folks tomorrow. I'm going with my old favorite, my Famous Sweet Potatoes! Also bringing a nice Spring salad and some great home-made dinner rolls. The roll recipe is from some good friends. They make the dough in the bread machine, but since I don't have one, I make the dough by hand. It's very therapeutic to knead and beat the dough, watch it rise, then beat it again! I'm down an arm this week, so I'm cheating a bit and letting my Kitchen Aid do the kneading. After that's done, you form them into rolls, drench them in garlic butter, and bake! Delicious!
Depending on how much time (and energy!) I have, I may make some Rolo Brownies to bring, too. Yum!
Off to finish cooking! Happy Easter!!!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Dinner at Hogwarts!
Well, I've been bad and neglected this blog, but not anymore!!
I received a Harry Potter Cookbook for my birthday! It features recipes from both the books and the movies. Very traditional British meals, but also beverages, snacks and sweets! Fun stuff!! Tonight I selected some recipes to tackle.
I decided to try Herb Roast Chicken with Onion Garlic Mashed Potatoes. (I did omit the onion since no one but Steve likes them.) I bought a little roaster chicken, and some fresh herbs while grocery shopping today and got to work.
First I took the skin off the garlic using my handy-dandy little garlic stripper from Pampered Chef. Placed 6-7 cloves at the bottom of my stone roaster pan. I chopped up fresh parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (sounds like a song, doesn't it??) and mixed it into some softened butter. Then I slit the skin on the chicken and rubbed the butter underneath, along the meat. I placed the chicken in the roaster, put the cover on and for 2 hours!
While this was cooking, I peeled and boiled the potatoes. Sauté-ed some garlic in oil, which I added to them after they had drained. Mashed them up with some sautéd garlic and some chicken broth. I could have used more potato, it was a little soft, but still yummy. They'll make a great breakfast tomorrow, fried up in a pan like a pancake.
Made some steamed corn and some dinner rolls and served. M loved the chicken. She had four or five helpings. She's not a big potato fan-doesn't even really like French fries. B is my picky one. He ate everything though, just not much of it. Really enjoyed having a big dinner even though it wasn't a special occasion. I told him he can plan one meal a week. Something new, not something we have on a regular basis. He is excited about this. He wants to use it towards a merit badge for Scouts. He's a good little cook. In fact, he made my birthday cake over the weekend!
But I digress...S also enjoyed dinner. Of course he eats anything. Seriously though, he was very impressed. Though he did inform me that I put the chicken in the pan upside down. Instead of being breast up, it was breast down. But it was so tender and juicy from cooking that way, that it worked! I consider it a mistake on purpose. ;)
So all in all, a raving success! Makes me eager to try something else!
P.S. I'm behind here...made tie-dyed cupcakes for the kids birthdays in February. Made cake from scratch, separated the batter into six sections and dyed them each a different neon color. Spooned them color by color into the baking cups. The batter is so thick that they didn't blend together. For M's party, I frosted them with white frosting, then sprinkled different colored jimmies them. I cut Peace signs out of tie-dyed fruit roll ups and then arranged them in the shape of another Peace sign on my round serving tray. Perfect for a little 7-year old hippie party!
For B's party, I dyed the batter red, white and blue, and red and yellow. Frosted the r,w, & b white and used red icing to make stitches and a B for the Red Sox. Used chocolate frosting and white icing for the red and yellow ones to make San Francisco 49er cupcakes.
Both parties were a success!!
I received a Harry Potter Cookbook for my birthday! It features recipes from both the books and the movies. Very traditional British meals, but also beverages, snacks and sweets! Fun stuff!! Tonight I selected some recipes to tackle.
I decided to try Herb Roast Chicken with Onion Garlic Mashed Potatoes. (I did omit the onion since no one but Steve likes them.) I bought a little roaster chicken, and some fresh herbs while grocery shopping today and got to work.
First I took the skin off the garlic using my handy-dandy little garlic stripper from Pampered Chef. Placed 6-7 cloves at the bottom of my stone roaster pan. I chopped up fresh parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (sounds like a song, doesn't it??) and mixed it into some softened butter. Then I slit the skin on the chicken and rubbed the butter underneath, along the meat. I placed the chicken in the roaster, put the cover on and for 2 hours!
While this was cooking, I peeled and boiled the potatoes. Sauté-ed some garlic in oil, which I added to them after they had drained. Mashed them up with some sautéd garlic and some chicken broth. I could have used more potato, it was a little soft, but still yummy. They'll make a great breakfast tomorrow, fried up in a pan like a pancake.
Made some steamed corn and some dinner rolls and served. M loved the chicken. She had four or five helpings. She's not a big potato fan-doesn't even really like French fries. B is my picky one. He ate everything though, just not much of it. Really enjoyed having a big dinner even though it wasn't a special occasion. I told him he can plan one meal a week. Something new, not something we have on a regular basis. He is excited about this. He wants to use it towards a merit badge for Scouts. He's a good little cook. In fact, he made my birthday cake over the weekend!
But I digress...S also enjoyed dinner. Of course he eats anything. Seriously though, he was very impressed. Though he did inform me that I put the chicken in the pan upside down. Instead of being breast up, it was breast down. But it was so tender and juicy from cooking that way, that it worked! I consider it a mistake on purpose. ;)
So all in all, a raving success! Makes me eager to try something else!
P.S. I'm behind here...made tie-dyed cupcakes for the kids birthdays in February. Made cake from scratch, separated the batter into six sections and dyed them each a different neon color. Spooned them color by color into the baking cups. The batter is so thick that they didn't blend together. For M's party, I frosted them with white frosting, then sprinkled different colored jimmies them. I cut Peace signs out of tie-dyed fruit roll ups and then arranged them in the shape of another Peace sign on my round serving tray. Perfect for a little 7-year old hippie party!
For B's party, I dyed the batter red, white and blue, and red and yellow. Frosted the r,w, & b white and used red icing to make stitches and a B for the Red Sox. Used chocolate frosting and white icing for the red and yellow ones to make San Francisco 49er cupcakes.
Both parties were a success!!
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