Roasted Rosemary Chicken with Sage Orange Butter

I had never before cooked a whole chicken, but one morning I woke up thinking rosemary and orange would make for deliciousness on chicken. I'm not very accustomed to cooking meat, especially any kind of meat on a bone, so of course I had my friend Helen handle it. And handle it she did...

Oooohhh...

la la!

Preheat your oven to 400˚F. Now for that delicious butter you see Helen stuffing under the chicken:

zest of 2 oranges

one bundle of sage (about 15 leaves)

4 tbs butter, room temperature

2 tbs brown sugar

Combine the ingredients in a bowl and set aside. After rinsing the chicken, and removing any of the nibly bits inside the chicken (ours were lovingly removed by the guy I bought it from at the McCarren Park farmer's market), gently loosen the skin with your fingers. Cut slits into the skin, and slip the butter beneath. Also rub a bit of the butter mixture over the outside of the chicken, top and bottom.

1 tbs butter

1tbs brown sugar

Put the above ingredients in a bowl and set on top of our oven to melt. Set aside your chicken and begin preparing your veggies.

2 bulbs of fennel, roughly chopped

2 shallots, quartered

4 carrots, thickly cut

juice of 2 oranges

8 sprigs of rosemary

whatever other veggies you got leftover in your fridge (I had half a red onion and a few cherry tomatoes)

tsp salt, tsp pepper

1 tbs olive oil

Toss the above ingredients in your roasting pan till the orange juice and olive oil is coating all the veggies. Put the chicken on a v-rack in the pan. Place the half the rosemary sprigs around the chicken, and the other half inside the chicken's cavity. Roast in oven for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 375˚F and coat the chicken with the brown sugar butter mixture that you were melting on the stove top.

Roast the chicken for 20 more minutes. Flip the chicken and coat with the remaining brown sugar butter. Roast for 45 more minutes. We read online that you are to roast a chicken 20 minutes per pound, which is what I think we did. And it worked really well.

GARLIC BUTTER FAVA BEANS

3/4 lb fava beans

2 cloves garlic

1 shallot

1 tbs butter

1 tsp olive oil

While the chicken is finishing cooking, boil the fava beans until soft (about 5 minutes, we accidentally over cooked them). Buuuuut, remove the fava bean skin before boiling. The guy at the farmer's market tried to explain this fava bean skin to me, but I didn't understand what he meant until after we boiled it, and I realized there really was a skin, and it's thick, and not really that tasty. Sautee the fava beans in the garlic, shallots, olive oil, and butter.

By the time we finished cooking, we were exhausted... but it was delicious!

Strawberry Avocado Salad

1 lb strawberries, quartered

1 avocado, cubed

1/3 lb fresh mozzarella, cubed

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 lb frisse lettuce

Place the strawberries, avocado and mozzarella in a bowl. Mix together the strawberries, avocado and mozzarella. In a separate bowl, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Coat the strawberries, avocado and mozzarella with the vinaigrette and serve over frisse.

Dill Jalapeno Cole Slaw

Last weekend I was invited to Hampton Bay for Memorial Day weekend by a friend of mine. One of the people on the trip is a food stylist, and she cooked some amaaaazing food. My favorite of her dishes was a cole slaw with green and red cabbage, shredded carrots, scallions and lots and lots of dill. Today I attempted to recreate this deliciousness, but couldn't help but add a few things.

1/2 red cabbage diced

1 carrot shredded

3 jalapenos finely diced

1/2 cup sliced scallions

Combine the above ingredients and set aside. For the jalapenos, you can de-seed them. I felt like growing some hair on my chest today, so I left all the seeds in. What I really love is this lime mayonaise.

1/2 cup low-fat mayo

1/2 cup sour cream

juice of 1 lime

Thoroughly blend the mayo, sour cream and lime juice, then add to the cabbage mixture.

Oatmeal Rhubarb Breakfast Muffin

I like these because they're sour and just the right amount of sweet to be light enough for summer. They're also the perfect snack between breakfast and lunch sitting at the office.

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tsps baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Combine the above ingredients and set aside.

1 large egg

1/3 cup vegetable oil

the juice and zest of 1 large orange

Combine the above ingredients, then stir into dry ingredients until well blended.

3 large, fresh rhubarb stalks diced

Fold the diced rhubarb into the batter, then fill greased muffin tin (2/3rds full). Sprinkle tops with granulated sugar then bake for 25 minutes at 250˚F.

Summer Picnic Vol. 1

Today was a beautiful Summer Sunday, and after sitting on my roof in my new beach chair, I got to cooking my lunches for the week. I had picked up a variety of different potatoes from the farmers' market at McCarren Park, so I decided to make a tangy potato salad with my leftover dill.

TANGY POTATO SALAD

6 potatoes chopped small (preferably 2 each of three different types with varying colors and flavors, or you could just use medium sized red potatoes; I got the opportunity to pick from about 20 different types of potatoes at McCarren Park's farmers' market)

1/2 red onion diced

1/4 cup sliced scallion

1/4 chopped dill

Boil the potatoes (after chopping) for about ten minutes, until slightly soft. Sautee the onions until caramelized (I like my onions slightly burnt). Combine all the above ingredients in a casserole dish and bake for 25 minutes at 400˚F.

For the potato salad dressing, combine...

4 tbs. low-fat mayonnaise

1 tbs. dijon mustard

1 tbs. sour cream

1 tsp. creamy horseradish

Once the potatoes are done roasting, toss in a cup of cooked, drained and rinsed black beans (I started with a 1/3 a cup of fresh [is that the word?] beans which I had soaked for an hour then boiled for an hour to soften / fill with water / whatever black beans do to be like the ones in the cans minus the slimy goop around them), splash of balsamic vinegar and the juice of 1 lemon and lime. Chill for 20 minutes before folding in the dressing.

I had also picked up some sweet italian turkey sausage at the farmers' market so, of course, I was going to make some burgers.

BLUE CHEESE SPICY TURKEY BURGERS

3/4 lb. sweet italian turkey sausage

dash cayenne pepper

1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles

If your meat doesn't already have fennel seed in it, I would highly suggest adding that. I had forgotten to add fennel seed, but then found that it was already in the meat, lucky me. Combine the above ingredients and divide the meat into four equal lumps. Form into patties and sautee on medium heat. Each side for about 8 minutes.

TOMATO WATERMELON SALAD

1/2 watermelon cubed

1/4 cup basil julienned

1/3 cup cherry tomatoes halved

1/2 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

It was about after I finished chopping up all of the watermelon, that I was taking the cutting board over to the sink, that my foot brushed under the cabinets, that I was repulsed to find...

Hehe.

My roommate and I found this when we came home last week...

Pizza Party

This pizza started with good intentions. The crust came from a tube, but the toppings were all fresh (asparagus, tomatoes, basil) and the sauce a homemade blend of rosemary and garlic.

It got out of hand when, after a few glasses of wine, we realized we over-anticipated our cheese needs. Perhaps we could relate a bit to Mary-Kate and Ashley's own out of control pizza party?

New-Found Chicken Love

In my attempts to start eating healthy, I've decided that chicken is an unavoidable source of protein that I must now consider. I tend to choose more adventurous and fattening forms of protein (rabbit, sweet italian sausage, short ribs, eel, bacon...), but I understand now that my indulgences are the primary reason why I have never lost weight.

When I think "chicken" I remember my mother's baked Ritz cracker chicken that I would slather with mayonaise and hardened marinara drenched chicken parmesan from the fine Italian restaurants North Carolina has to offer.

So, food blocked by my assumptions of chicken for dinner, I Googled "unique chicken recipes" and found a curried honey mustard chicken. Of course! Spicy! A proven tactic to defeat food blah. Although this chicken recipe sounded delicious, it still had a chance of adding to my list of bad chicken dinner experiences. (Use an under-salted, not-enough-butter mashed potato side dish, and this main course doesn't have a fighting chance.)

To make this dish amazing, I decided to add some sauteed yellow onions, chopped chives and serve over a bed of jasmine rice. Maybe not the best meal to kick off my "diet" (1/3 cup of butter), but at least it overcame my contempt for chicken as a main course.

CURRIED HONEY MUSTARD CHICKEN

8 chicken breast tenderloins

1/3 cup butter melted

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup dijon mustard

2 tbs curry powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp cinnamon

1 yellow onion diced

1/4 cup sliced chives

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Rinse chicken breast tenderloins and put in sealable baking dish. In a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter then add the honey, mustard, curry powder, cayenne pepper and cinnamon. Sautee the onions until caramelized and slightly crispy. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken and add the sauteed onions. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove lid and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

JALEPENO BASIL CHICKEN

No Photos for this post. It was made a bit on the unpredictably.

8 chicken breast tenderloins
14 oz. crushed tomatoes
3 tsp. curry powder
10 medium to large basil leaves, julliened
1 jalepeno de-seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 tbs. olive oil

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Rinse chicken breast tenderloins and put in sealable baking dish. Sautee the garlic and jalepeno and garlic on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, curry powder and basil leaves stirring occasionally. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Pour on top of chicken breast, cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove lid and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Chop up chicken and serve over rice or incorporate into bow tie pasta.