cooooookieeees!

(Say that in a voice like Cookie Monster...Mmmmm!  Coooooookieeees!)

Ok.  So, I love fall.  And this fall I had plans for all sorts of fall-ish activities:  apple picking, pumpkin carving, fires in the backyard, hikes to look at foliage.  What I got was was this: rain. Lots of rain.  Pretty much non-stop rain throughout October and November.  There was no apple picking.  No pumpkin carving.  No bonfires. No leaf peeping.  Sigh.  What's a girl to do?

Make cookies, that's what!

I had a craving for oatmeal cookies, but my past attempts have been rather disappointing - crunchy and flavorless - like horse treats.  But then I found this recipe which promised soft, chewy cookies (with a hint of cinnamon), and it delivered!

Also, for the first time I tried lining the cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Holy crap - this works great - the cookies didn't stick and they all came out perfectly round!  I'm embarrassed to admit that I had never tried this technique before.  So run out and buy yourself some parchment paper - it works wonders!

Soft Oatmeal Cookies

Slightly adapted from BITTERSWEET1 on AllRecipes

• 1 cup butter, softened
  
• 1 cup white sugar
  
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  
• 3 cups quick cooking oats

In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla.  Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into creamed mixture.  Mix in oats.  Cover, and chill dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease cookie sheets (or line with parchment paper!).  Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. 

Bake for approximately 8 minutes at 375 degrees.  (They are best when they are slightly underdone - and they will firm up as they cool.)  Allow to cool slightly on the baking sheet before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Note:  I cooked about half the batch the first day and left the rest of the dough in the fridge for a couple days so I could have more cookies straight from the oven a few days later - this worked great.

Mmmmm!  Coooooookieeees!

juicy roast chicken

First let me say that I’ve got to get some better lighting in my kitchen for pictures. Now, onto the chicken.

While I was growing up and living at home, "woody chicken" was a staple in our house. Lindsay made up the term when we were kids and it has a long story behind it having to do with a show called Covington Cross that the networks went medieval on prematurely, but I digress. The name stuck, and that's what's now written at the top of my mom's recipe card: Woody Chicken. I'm nostalgic for it for so many reasons, but moisture is not one of them. I understand the aversion to food poisoning, but I also knew that somewhere between salmonella and grilled pine lay the perfect chicken recipe, and here it is. This recipe is good enough for guests who you want to come back to your house again.

I don’t know if it made a difference, but when I finally got the recipe right I used a free-range, organic chicken and you will likely have good luck with one as well. An extravagance? Perhaps, but I didn’t intend it that way – I feel that my hand was forced. What should be the norm in farming now has to have special labels and cost $4 a pound. And I still have no real idea what those labels mean, how the bird was treated, or where it came from. It’s a shame. And that’s all I’ll say about that for now. In the meantime, my palms are still stinging from all the high-fives I got for this dinner last night, so I’ll recommend you make it too, and soon.



Perfect Roast Chicken
Adapted from Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Chicken recipe

• 1 four-pound whole chicken*
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
• 1 lemon, quartered
• 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
• 6 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
• 2 bulbs of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
• 1.5 pounds small red potatoes, cut in half
• Olive oil (enough to lightly coat the vegetables)

*Ina’s original recipe calls for a 6 pound chicken at 1 and ½ hours, so I’ve listed the extrapolated cooking times by weight in the recipe below, although I have only tried the four pounder. Also, she used four carrots, one fennel bulb, and no potatoes, but I like a lot of vegetables. Adjust as you wish.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Prep the chicken:

Remove the chicken giblets (I like this word a lot). Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, all the lemon, and all the garlic. Brush or rub the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.

3. Prep the vegetables:

Place the onions, carrots, fennel, and potatoes in a roasting pan. Toss with salt (I found about 1.5 tsp to work well for the amount of veggies I used), pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan.

4. Cook according to chicken size:

The vegetables will need to cook for 1 and ½ hours no matter the size of the chicken, so here’s a breakdown.

If your chicken is:

• 6 lbs, place the chicken on top of the vegetables and cook everything for 1 and ½ hours.
• 5 lbs, put the vegetables in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven, place the chicken on top of the vegetables, and continue cooking for another hour and 15 minutes.
• 4 lbs, put the vegetables in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove pan from oven, place the chicken on top of the vegetables, and continue cooking for another hour.

Because the back of the oven is hotter, you will get the best and most even cooking if you put the chicken in the oven on its back with its legs facing the oven door.

5. Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for at least 20 minutes. Mix the vegetables to distribute the juices evenly. While it’s waiting, the chicken will yield some really delicious lemony garlicky juice onto its plate. After 20 minutes, pick up the chicken and let the extra juice drain from the cavity onto the plate. Move the chicken aside and pour the juice into a cup. Slice the chicken onto a platter, add the vegetables, and pour the reserved juice over all of it.

You could use the giblets to make gravy if you’re feeling it, but the juice is perfect on its own. Also, use the chicken carcass to make stock (which is way better homemade and saves the cost of buying it).

quesadilla pie

Judging by the lack of posting here lately, we vicious dishes have been quite busy this fall - which is exactly why this next recipe is perfect - it's quick, easy, and satisfying, and you might even be able to throw it together with ingredients you already have in your pantry/fridge.

In fact, I would hesitate to even call this a recipe, because you don't need to measure anything and you can improvise with whatever ingredients you have on hand.  

Quesadilla Pie

Adapted from Simply Recipes

• 4 flour tortillas
  
• butter
  
• cheese, freshly shredded, and lots of it (I use both Pepper Jack and Cheddar)
  
• black beans, drained well
  
• tomatoes (either fresh or canned, chopped and drained well)
  
• green chiles, chopped
  
• onion, finely chopped (or shred with a box grater)
  
• cumin and chili powder
  

• sour cream (for topping) - sadly, I had no avocados lying around, otherwise I would've used Abby's Guac
  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter the bottom and sides of a pie plate.  Place one tortilla in the bottom of the pie plate, cover liberally with shredded cheese and add veggie/bean toppings.  Add another tortilla, more cheese, more toppings.  Add the third tortilla, more cheese, more toppings, and top with a final tortilla. Spread butter over the top tortilla, cover the pie with foil, and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Remove the foil, increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees, and cook for an additional 10 minutes until the tortilla is golden brown.  Remove from oven, let cool 10 minutes, cut into wedges, douse liberally with sour cream (and guac) and serve.  Mmmm!

I really don't think it matters how you arrange the layers (and you could add whatever veggies you like or even meat, though I don't think this recipe needs meat - it was delicious with the black beans), but here's how I assembled mine:

Layer 1:  pepper jack, black beans, onion

Layer 2:  cheddar, tomatoes, green chiles, sprinkling of chili powder

Layer 3:  pepper jack, cheddar, black beans, tomatoes, green chiles, onion, sprinkling of cumin

Poundable Pumpkin Pancakes

So, I've had a bit of an absence from this blog, as some of you may have noticed. Here's my paltry attempt at a comeback.

Recently I woke up craving pancakes. This is happening more and more these days. We'll blame it on the baby. Apparently future baby K likes pancakes, so who am I to deny him or her? On top of that, once the calendar flips to October I'll eat just about any type of pumpkin baked good. So, a beautiful thing was born:



Pumpkin Pancakes Slightly adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar

Directions:

1. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt, stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
   Note: I didn't have allspice, so I substituted pumpkin pie spice and figured it was even. No harm, no foul.
   
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.
3. Stuff face! You better not leave any leftovers.