Roasted Chicken and Root Vegetables

13 Nov 2012 Comments Off

Roasted Chicken and Root Vegetables

This was our first year gardening at our current house and found that root vegetables were what did best here. Although they did the best they also got a late start. So when we harvested them they were all fairly small. I was trying to think of what to do with them and this is what I came up with. I love roasting root vegetables because instead of watering down the flavor as with boiling and steaming, roasting intensifies the flavors and just bring about more complex flavors for all the vegetables. The great thing about this meal is that it takes only 1 pan and can be put together fairly quickly, and the juices from the chicken create a nice glaze for the vegetables. It also doesn’t require you to slave over the stove for a great tasting meal. This could also be done in the crock pot if you need to be out of the house all day.

1 Whole Chicken (about 4 lbs) Butterflied
12 Small Carrots (baby carrot size)
12 Small Beets (golf ball size)
12 Small Turnips (golf ball size)
3 Medium Potatoes or 12 Small Potatoes (golf ball size)
2T Olive Oil
Seasoning of Choice for Chicken and Vegetables

You can use whatever root vegetables you have on hand or like. You can also use larger veggies and just cut them to the right size.

Wash all veggies and peel those that need to be. I peeled the beets and turnips

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

 Begin by butterflying the chicken. To butterfly a chicken you simply cut down one side of the backbone and then down the other side of the back bone. Don’t cut right down the middle of the backbone but on either side of it. Remove it completely and save for stock. Now open up the chicken so you can see the inside. To get the chicken to lay flat you need to do something about the keel bone (breast bone), You will see this right in the middle of the two breasts. You can remove the keel bone by cutting through the membrane on top of the keel bone so that the membrane will separate and then push the breasts apart and the keel bone will “pop” out. Run your finger along both sides of the bone and then pull it out. Trim any unwanted fat from the chicken and slide a finger between the skin and meat so you can season between them. Place your meat in a 9 by 13 pan skin side up and season the meat of the chicken under the skin. I used salt, pepper, thyme, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. But use what you like. Then flip the chicken over and season the inside of the chicken.

Drizzle veggies with about 2 T olive oil and salt, toss to coat. Place veggies around chicken and  roast for 45 min. Turn chicken over and sprinkle some seasoning on skin. Turn the heat down to 350 (or skin will burn) and roast for another 45 min. Pull out when when chicken is done (potatoes should be soft and veggies should have a slight crunch to them still.) Let chicken rest 5 min and then cut to desired portions. There you have it a low fuss great tasting supper.

What is your favorite way to prepare the vegetables you harvest from your garden?

by withaittlefaithandhope in Main Dish

Coconut Vanilla Steamer

08 Oct 2012 Comments Off

Coconut Vanilla Steamer

A special treat for me and my girls is to go to the local coffee shop and sit and sip a warm drink. Most of the time the girls like to get a hot chocolate. But they also like steamers, warmed up milk with flavoring. This is a simple treat that doesn’t have to come only from a coffee shop, or include artificial ingredients. You can make them quick and easy in your own kitchen. There are many flavors you can come up with using ingredients in your own kitchen. This is one I came up with after making up a batch of coconut cream. Steamers are great alternative to high sugar and caffeinated drinks in the morning, or a great way to wind down at night.

Here is what you will need:
2 cups Milk
1 T Coconut Cream
1 t Vanilla Extract or the Seeds of One Vanilla Bean
Sweetener to Taste, if desired
If you don’t have coconut cream you can replace half of the milk with coconut milk.

What to do:
Place all ingredients in a saucepan, except vanilla extract. Warm over medium low heat, stirring frequently, until it is as warm as you would like. If using vanilla extract add right before placing in cups and stir to combine. You can use a sick blender in the pan to froth the milk a little if you would like or, once in the glasses use your whisk to froth. For an extra special treat, top with whipped cream.

Some other ideas to try:
Substitute almond extract for the vanilla and have a coconut almond steamer or do half vanilla half almond.
Simply add some vanilla extract for a vanilla steamer or almond extract for an almond steamer.
Add pumpkin purée instead of coconut cream and 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice for a pumpkin pie steamer.

Experiment with what you have in your own pantry I would love to hear what you have created.

by withaittlefaithandhope in Dairy, Snacks

Fluffy Whole Wheat Belgian Waffles

05 Oct 2012 Comments Off

Fluffy Whole Wheat Belgian Waffles

Wow it has been a while since I have posted anything. We have had a crazy busy summer and although I have many new recipes that I have been using and ready to post, I just have not had the time to type them up. Hopefully our fall will not be as busy and I can post a few more recipes before December comes and we get busy again with Christmas and a new baby coming.

My girls love waffles and this recipe has become our new favorite. These waffles are nice and fluffy with a soft interior and crispy outside, unlike many baked goods that are made with whole wheat flour that can be dry, dense and take some getting used to. There are a few things that I think go into making these waffles much lighter than your average whole wheat waffle. First, is that I use white wheat when making them. Like I said in a previous post the white wheat has less of a wheat flavor and is more mild than red wheat. The second, is that I soak the flour overnight which helps break it apart some making any soaked baked good less dense in my opinion. The third, is beating the egg whites and folding them into the batter. This helps add some extra air bubbles and fluffiness to the waffles and also helps with a nice crispy crust.

Here is what you will need:

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour or Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
2 Cups Yogurt, Buttermilk, or Other Acidic Dairy
       (There have been times when I don’t have enough yogurt or buttermilk and will use only 1/2 cup of acidic dairy with 1 1/2 cups milk.)
4 T Melted Butter or Coconut Oil

4 Eggs, Separated
2t Baking Powder
1t Baking Soda
1/2t Salt

For a sweet waffle you can also add:
2T Sucanant or Honey
1/2 t Vanilla

6-8 hours (or overnight) before you want to make your waffles mix your flour, dairy, and butter or oil.

When you are ready to make your waffles take out your waffle iron and plug it in. One with nice big indents is best for this kind of recipe (generally a called a Belgian waffle iron) but, any waffle iron will do. Separate your eggs and place the yolks in with the soaked flour mixture and place the whites in another bowl and set aside. Also add to the flour mixture your powder, soda, salt, and sweetener and vanilla, if using. Mix this all together.

Now take your egg whites and beat until soft peaks. This should only take a couple of minutes. The whites should all be bubbly and you should be able to see little bubbles all over. Once you have soft peaks add this to your flour mixture and fold in gently. The point here is to keep as many of those little bubble you just made in your waffle mix. Mix until you cannot see any more big patches of whites.

When your Waffle iron is nice and hot, (which it should be by now) add batter to your iron. I’m not going to tell you how much because all irons are different. For me it uses about the same amount as with normal waffles. You will have to experiment to see how much is needed. Cook until golden brown. Again this is different for all waffle irons you will have to experiment with yours to see how long. When done either serve immediately or if you like to eat as a family turn your oven on to 200 degrees and place them in a single layer on the oven rack to keep warm.

Skip the syrup with these waffles and just pile high with fresh (or frozen and thawed) fruit and plenty of lightly sweetened whipped cream.

In my waffle iron it make about 9 6 1/2 inch waffles. This is too many for us to eat at once, which is fine by me. I simply freeze the leftovers with a piece of parchment between the waffles, then wrap in plastic wrap and foil. Ready for a quick breakfast? Pull out a waffle and reheat in the toaster to keep your waffle nice and crisp.

by withaittlefaithandhope in Bread, Breakfast, Grains

Raw Milk Cottage Cheese

29 Jun 2012 Comments Off

Raw Milk Cottage Cheese

Let me start out by saying sorry for the way the post looks I am still trying to figure out how to add pictures to posts and have the post look ok. 

 

This is so simple and with only one needed ingredient (no starter cultures needed, although some cream and salt and pepper would make it even better), and only a little time, I’m not sure this can really be a recipe. But once you make it you will never want store bought cottage cheese again. 

Here is what you need

Raw Milk* (I normally do about 1/2 a gallon)
Cream (1/2 cup for every 1/2 gallon, more or less to your liking)
Salt
Pepper

Take your milk and pour it into a glass bowl, cover with a tea towel and let sit until the milk has thickened. This should take a day to 2 days depending on how warm the room is and how old the milk is. You can remove the cream from the top, or leave it there and when the milk is ready you can spoon the cream off the top and have sour cream.

The milk should look like yogurt when it is ready. When you put a finger in the milk it should hold the cut.  Another way to know if it is thick enough is to place the back of a spoon on the edge of the bowl and press down on the curd lightly. If it pulls away from the side of the bowl without filling the spoon it is ready. But you don’t want it to sit so long that the whey starts to separate from the curd. When it is ready, pour the milk into a sauce pan and set to low.

The curd thickened

Here you can see how the curd is holding together and when I press a finger into it it cuts though the curd, not sink in like it would in milk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finger depression

 

In this picture you can still see where my finger was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the milk on low, stir gently, don’t worry about keeping the curd in one piece it will not stay together and it will need to break apart at some point. Keep it on low, stirring often until the curd releases the whey.This shouldn’t take too long about 5-10 minutes depending on how low your low setting is. You will know when this happens because the curd will sink to the bottom and the whey will be on top. When you start the cooking the milk, the whey will start to separate, but as it keeps cooking whey will rise to the top and you will see a definite difference in the look of it.

The curd still holding whey

This curd has not separated from the whey yet in this picture. The curds are still floating on top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The curd has released the whey

 In this picture you can see the whey sitting on top and the curd has sunk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the curds and whey have separated line a bowl with a tea towel or a few pieces of cheese cloth. Pour the curds and whey into the lined bowl and then hang the towel. I put the towel under my stack of dishes. It is not recommended to hang it on your cupboard doors as this can cause the doors to start hanging crooked.

Dripping the whey out of the curd

Let this hang until the whey has all dripped out. This can take a while if you just want to let it be, or you can rush it along by squeezing the bag. I find that giving the cloth a few squishes when the whey starts to slow down helps speed up the process also. I let it drip until it drips every couple seconds. This could take 5-15 minutes (if you squish the bag), to an hour or longer if you just let it be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the whey dripped ou

Here all the whey has been dripped out. The curd is fairly solid but not absolutely dry. You can still feel moisture on the curd. Once the whey has been dripped out, crumble the curd into a bowl, if you are going to eat it right away,  or a container to store it in for later.

You can leave it how it is and eat it without cream, to use in lasagna.  Or you can add the cream and salt and pepper to taste. I use about a half a cup of cream  per half gallon of milk used, but add how much you like.

 

 

 

 

All ready to eat

There you have it, fresh homemade raw milk cottage cheese. Very little effort, although a bit of waiting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple extra notes. You can save the cream from the milk you use to put on the cottage cheese when done, or use fresh cream. Because the whey has been heated it does not work for soaking grains, but you can use it in bread, compost, or for watering the garden.

*It MUST be raw milk, pasteurized milk does not contain the needed enzymes and bacteria, and you will only get sour, spoiled milk.  I like to use milk that is about a week old as I find that it gives the best flavor in a reasonable time.

by withaittlefaithandhope in Uncategorized

Rhubarb Orange Muffins

25 Jun 2012 Comments Off

Rhubarb Orange Muffins

The idea for these muffins came from my mother’s rhubarb orange pie, which she makes every year during rhubarb season. The rhubarb and orange mix wonderfully, the tartness and sweetness of both the rhubarb and orange mix well together well in an unexpected way.

Here is what you will need:

1 Cup Buttermilk, Yogurt, or even Water with 2T of an Acid (lemon juice, whey, vinegar)
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 Cup Butter or Coconut Oil – Melted.

1 Egg
1/2 Cup Sucanat
1 Orange Rind- Grated or Chopped Fine, you can use more or less to your liking.
1 Cup Rhubarb cut into small chunks
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Mix the buttermilk, whole wheat flour, and butter or oil. Cover and let sit over night or 6-8 hours. 

In the morning when you are ready to bake heat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix in the eggs, sucanat, orange rind, and rhubarb. You will most likely need to do this with your hands, it’s ok, get your hand messy. Once this is all mixed in add the baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix in well, also with your hands. Once  mixed well divide between 12 muffin tins and bake for 15- 20 minutes.

There you have it. Slather with butter and enjoy warm from the oven.

by withaittlefaithandhope in Bread, Breakfast

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