freeze: a Sherbert cake!

(photo by the talented Mr. Tomlin-Hood)

It was my friend's birthday earlier this month and she has a hilarious orange cat named Sherbert. He has really goopy eyes and he's a funny cat who goes from happy and cuddly to scratching and grumpy pretty quick. My friend loves Sherbert the cat more than most anything in life so I decided to make her a Sherbert shaped cake out of Sherbert. Pink grapefruit, orange and a little vanilla ice cream for good measure.

grow: alpine strawberries

This wasn't ripe quite yet, as one of the boys found out the hard way. The plant is really grumpy and pale but there are a lot of flowers on it.

grow update: strawberries

The June-bearings have been ripening and they are dripping-down-your-chin juicy and sweet and red all the way through! Like strawberries ought to be.

cook: high-roast chicken with potatoes

There are few things as comforting as the smell of roasting chicken, sadly they are often bland, flavourless, dry or have a lackluster skin that is begging to be crispy instead of slip-off-the-meat-slimy. And today I was having a crabby day and needed the comfort of a roast chicken and potatoes dinner and I was in no mood for grocery store sack-o-paltry-poultry (there's a time and place, but tonight was neither)

I went by Red Barn on my way home from work and picked up a three pound local chicken and some local new potatoes (the season is right and the flesh on these is perfect!) and armed with my Dec 2009 issue of Cook's Illustrated's All Time Best Recipes I was confident and ready.

Went home and did a concentrated brine for just over an hour. While I waited for the chicken to do its osmosis business I whipped up a flavoured butter. You only need about two tablespoons but I made a quarter cup. Better too much than too little right? I opted for herb butter but Cook's has a recipe for Chipotle with Lime and Honey or Mustard-Garlic with thyme, both of which I am looking forward to trying out.
Herb Butter
1/4 c butter unsalted (the brine will do the salting for you)
8 medium fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 t rosemary, crushed
1 t thyme
1 clove garlic, crushed/minced/pressed
Mash that business together and you've got herb butter! 

After you've made your flavour butter (and made a piece of hot sourdough toast with it)
wash and peel two pounds of taters and cut into quarter inch thick slices. Toss in olive oil, pinch of salt and pepper
On the bottom of a broiler pan (that hinky two piece roaster that comes with your oven) line the bottom piece with a sheet of foil and spray with cooking spray (I highly recommend) and evenly layer potatoes.

All of that probably didn't take you an hour so you will have to kill some time. If you are me, you can go out to the garden and harvest some peas and beet greens to sautee for something on the side.
Preheat the oven to 500 F (I know it seems hot but it works!) and set a rack to the bottom centre.
When your chicken has soaked in its salty bath long enough, take it out and rinse in cold water and pat it dry really well with paper towels. Now butterfly the chicken: Chop off the neck and cut out the back bone (this is super easy with kitchen shears, be careful if you are using a kitchen knife) and flip it over and squish it so it is nice and flat. Take your fingers and slip them under the skin of the breasts and thighs so you have a nice pocket to squish a bunch of butter in there. Rub the whole thing in olive oil and black pepper. (I threw all the extra butter on the potatoes, it was delish!)
Prop the the legs on top of the body, just beneath the breasts and put in the oven for 20 minutes. When you check on it, it should start being brown and you can rotate it here and roast for another 20-25 minutes.

Huzzah!

When you've got the whole thing out of the oven you're going to need to soak up a lot of the juice and oil off the potatoes, so pour out the excess and pat them dry with paper towels.
There was so much flavour because of the herb butter and the skin was so perfectly crisp while the meat was juicy and tender. Despite all of the instructions, this was a really easy recipe and great for a mid-week meal. Unfortunately, the boys had just had dinner so I'm going to have to eat this whole chicken myself.

Fresh out of the oven!

baked: streusel topped banana muffins (with a surprise)

Anybody who has had my baked goods knows my sneaky little habit. I love putting things in the centre of my baked goods for a delightful little boost of flavour. While eating an ordinary cupcake or cookie is always a treat, who doesn't love finding a surprise centre?! ( Assuming it is not one of my long hairs or a bug, both of which are not unheard of in my baking :p )
You can imagine the gears turning in my head when I saw this recipe on How To Simplify's website ( one of my favourite foodie sites ).

The first thing I always reach for when in need for a yummy centre? NUTELLA! Because really, who doesn't love the stuff?

grow update: escallonia

You can see where my Escallonia gets its namesake, "Pink Princess." And that she is, but much more low maintenance! A hand full of bone meal, mostly shady and a couple inches of water a week and she's shining.