Lemony Roasted Chicken

So, I'm back in the kitchen again after a long break.  Trying out new recipes and foods is always fun for me.  The not so fun part is cooking for two people.  I never thought it would be hard, but after cooking for six people all through the years, it's hard to judge portions.

  Yes, they have all moved on but one, the vegan.  I don't cook for him anymore, just the hubby and I.  Now I have to strategically buy, plan and cook meals so there is no waste of food. Growing up I was told it was a sin to waste food, didn't understand it then, but totally understand it now.  We should all be so grateful, and not take for granted, that we have food on our tables everyday, as there are many who don't.

I found small roasted chickens on sale, so I bought two. One is in the freezer for a later meal, but I am using one today to make a Lemon Roasted Chicken. It's stuffed with garlic, lemon and rosemary and has a crispy butter, olive oil and fresh herb coating on the outside, yuuuuuum!

Recipe below.

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A few simple ingredients: Lemons, Butter, Olive Oil, salt, pepper, paprika, fresh garlic and rosemary.

 All mixed up in a bowl give this chicken the awesomeness that it has!

 My little chicken all stuffed with lemons, garlic and rosemary.  I pulled the skin up and pushed some fresh rosemary under it, added flavor.

 Trussed it up and slathered the lemon butter sauce all over the top.  Cover and bake.

Lemony Roasted Chicken

Ingredients

1 3-4 lb. roasting chicken

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 stick butter, melted

5 springs fresh rosemary, mince 2 of them, leave 3 whole

4 large cloves garlic, minced

zest from 2 large lemons, save, then juice, stuff cavity with remains of lemons

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Clean cavity then place whole chicken in a large roasting pan or Dutch oven.  In a medium bowl, mix the olive oil, melted butter, the minced rosemary, garlic, lemon zest, salt, pepper and paprika, set aside.  Lift the skin on the breast of the chicken and stuff each side with a sprig of rosemary.  Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the remains of the lemons and the last sprig of rosemary. Pour the olive oil/butter mixture over the top of the chicken, pour 1/4 water in bottom of baking pan.  Cover with foil and bake for 2 hours or until the juices run clear.  During the last 15 minutes of roasting time remove foil to brown the skin of the chicken.  Serve with your favorite sides. 

What Am I To Do With All This PAELLA? Eat it of Course!

Here is a new dish I have never tried before, Paella, a Spanish dish of rice, saffron, chicken, sausage, seafood and spices.  I usually don't venture too far out when cooking dinner, but this dish was so easy and it's all in one pan.  The family loved it, although they wanted it to be spicier, I don't like too much hot and spicy foods, but I passed the test with them and will make it again.

What started this dish is a little kitchen store I purchased the spices in when we were in Lititz.  I thought what the heck I'll try anything once, and I did and it was so delicious.  I combined a few recipes together to make it and it turned out great.  It's not hard to put the dish together so don't shy away from making it, you're using one pan.  Recipe below.

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So here are my ingredients - olive oil, chorizo sausage, chicken, shrimp, onion, garlic, parsley, saffron, my spice packet, salt, pepper, tomatoes, rice, lemon and peas.

For those who don't know what saffron is or looks like, this is it.  Saffron threads, as they are called, are the stamens from a small purple crocus.  I purchased my saffron from a spice store in Philadelphia.  As you can see you don't get much for the price, but also don't need much of it to color or flavor your food.  Saffron when steeped turns food a golden color, that's unique about it and what it's used for.  You can also purchase saffron in a powder form.

 Cooked up the chorizo, set aside.  Chorizo is a somewhat spicey Spanish sausage.

 Rub spices on the chicken and cook skin side down until crispy.

 The whole house smelled so good from the fragrance of the spices!

Sweet onion, garlic, parsley and lemon.

 Sauteing onion, garlic and parsley.

 Add in the tomatoes until caramelized, looking so good, and smells even better!

 Toast the rice and add water.  Put the chicken, and sausage back in and let simmer.

 In the last few minutes add the shrimp and peas.  Garnish with lemon slices and serve.

 See, I told you it was easy!  Look how good this looks for a weeknight dinner, AND it's something different to serve your family.

 PAELLA

Ingredients

Spice mix, recipe below

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 chicken thighs, skin on
3 chorizo sausages, cut in thick slices

2 tablespoons Paella spice mix 

salt and pepper

1/2 sweet onion, diced

2 big cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley

1 - 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

3 cups medium grain white rice

5 cups water

pinch of saffron threads

1/2 lb raw jumbo shrimp

1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed

lemon wedges for garnish

Paella Spice Mix Blend - If you don't have paella spice on hand

a generous pinch of saffron threads

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

2 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon cumin

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, more if you like more heat

Mix together and store in a tightly sealed jar.

Directions for Making Paella

Heat the olive oil in a large shallow pan over medium high heat.  Rub about a teaspoon of spice mix on the skin side of the chicken thighs, let them sit.  Saute the sausage until it is browned.  Remove from pan, set aside. Add the chicken skin side down in the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper on the side that is up.  Cook until the skin is crispy, all sides are browned, and juices are clear, turning as it is cooking.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Saute the onions, garlic and parsley for about 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes and remainder of spice mix and cook until all is caramelized.  Toss in the rice, stir to coat with juices and toast it. Pour in the water and add the saffron threads, simmer for about 10 minutes, gently stirring as it is cooking, so the rice absorbs the juices. Add the chicken and sausage back in and tuck the shrimp down in the rice so it cooks, they don't take long to cook, 7-8 minutes. Gently shake the pan and let it simmer, do not stir, and let it cook for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, toss in the peas to heat them through. Garnish with chopped parsley, fresh lemon slices and serve. There will be a nice crust of rice on the bottom of the pan that tastes wonderful! Makes 4 servings.  

Do The Dishes!

I love pretty dishes, but why do I have so many sets of them?  Ten sets to be exact, who needs ten sets of dishes? No one, that's who.  I can't part with the ones I have, although this past year I did send a set to the thrift store, and gave my daughter a set of china that I had for 27 years.  I love to decorate with them, hang them on walls, set the dining room table for a meal or just to decorate it for everyday to look pretty.  My dining room is a soft yellow, I am now bringing more of that color into the house, to brighten things up a bit.  The weather this winter made me do that!  I switched out the reds and green for blues and yellows, and I have to say I like it, they are classics together.  I picked up things, while out and about, to decorate along with my blue and white Willow patterned china.  I may be painting this dining room furniture white this summer if I get the energy, it's old and needs an update.  I'll also cover the seats on the chairs, the fabric is outdated.

I set the table with the Willow china,a navy charger, hyacinth woven placemat and a yellow and white checked cloth napkin.

 I was in Home Goods and found these yellow chrysanthemum bowls for $3.99 each so I scooped them up to change up my table.

The petals are really detailed and they look pretty against the blue.

 

This is how the table looked before.

And this is how it looks now!  Yellow brightens everything up, it's like sunshine.

 A jute woven runner, whitewashed lantern, greenery garlands, lighted twigs, blue and white pottery and lemons finish my table off. 

I also found in Home Goods this slice of tree trunk.  You can use it to serve on or decorate with.  I have another one that has ball feet on it.  They're great for a rustic themed party to serve food on.

 Just a sign that keeps me hoping that Spring is in the air!

Steak And Shrimp On The Barbie!

The majority of my food shopping is done at Wegman's and BJ's Wholesale.  I fill in through the week when I run out of food items at my local grocery store and farmer's market.  My farmers market has all kinds of exotic fruits and vegetables, which I love, because I get to try new things that I have never had before.  I live in a small town, and to have our own farmers market is wonderful.

I picked up these nicely portioned petite sirloin steaks at Wegman's.  They are so tender and juicy, just like Filet Mignon.  The rub I found at BJ's.  I combined them together for an awesome tasting steak.  The shrimp was also from BJ's, and I used my trusty seafood rub, fresh lemon juice and rosemary to marinate them in a bag for 30 minutes.

 Playing nice side by side on the barbie.  

 Wow, look how pretty they are!

And oh what a dinner we had, cooked to perfection!  Served up with a nice field greens with fruit salad and warm rolls.

Easy on the Pocket Home Decor

I painted our master bedroom back in October.  The color on the wall is called Pure Earth by Behr at Home Depot.  When I started to think about decorating the walls I didn't want to spent a lot of money, the room is very large 28 x 13 I think, with alot of wall space.  I went to my local thrift store (my lucky day) and found three of these solid wood shelves, with the hardware for hanging, from Pottery Barn for $1.00 each.  Yes that's right, $3.00 for 3 shelves that still had the orignal tag on them and were $39.00 each! So I painted them with one of those little jars of paint I spoke about in an earlier blog. The color was called cream in my coffee.

I repurposed these wood lamps that I got a while ago from Lowe's for $19.99 each.  The burlap shades were $9.99 each.  Lowe's has great stuff in their clearance section, always look. I went to Michael's and found these fabric flowers in the scrapbooking section and hot glued them on to the shades.  It gives them a fancier look than a just a plain shade.

My little coffee bar.  I had an old french buffet that was painted black so I reused it in the kitchen to set up a coffee bar. I wanted to get the big Keurig (I love the Keurig) off the counter and free up some space.  It really does need a place of its own.  I store my coffee pods, sugar, sweeteners and tea in Longaberger baskets. I have a "sick" collection of those baskets so I may as well use them. 

This metal rooster is my kitchen table centerpiece, it's about 2 feet long.  I bought it at  Gabriel Brothers for $9.99.  I decorate it for all seasons changing what I put inside.  For summer I have lemons and limes that I got at Ross for $4.99.   The plant was $5.99 and galvanized bucket was $5.00 and both came from Ikea.  There are also battery operated bead lights from the Christmas Tree Shop on the plant, they were $3.99.  Reindeer moss on the bottom is from Dollar Tree, you guessed it $1.00!  The 72" twine/rope mat was $7.99 at Marshalls.