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This purple and white crocus popped up through the ground today. As luck would have it, our new Nikon D50 dSLR also came in the mail today - coincidence? I think not.
Sat down last night to finish final corrections on my thesis before it goes back to my reviewer for one last look. Of course, this meant redoing all 125 references, table of contents, spelling/grammar - all the little detail stuff that winds up taking so much time for just a small payoff. Law of Diminishing Returns and all that.
So, I threw on the headphones, began dutifully typing away, and the next thing I knew, it was 6:30 in the morning. Dropped the finished package off, and now I get to relax (slightly) for about a week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there's not much to fix, so I can hopefully submit by next Friday or the following Monday.
Serves 4
3- to 5-lb. roasting chicken
3 Tbs. unsalted butter, softened
Finely chopped zest of 1 lemon (reserve the lemon itself)
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup mix of chopped fresh basil, thyme and oregano
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 whole lemon
2 heads garlic, cut in half crosswise
1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
For the sauce
1/4 cup dry white wine
About 3 1/2 cups homemade or low-salt chicken stock
2 Tbs. heavy cream (optional)
If you don't have an open bottle of white wine to use for deglazing the pan, just use some of the lemon juice that gets squeezed over the chicken. This was the main course in a meal with Easy Salad and Best Potatos with Sticky Parsnips - and what a meal it was.
Method
Heat the oven to 450°F. Remove the packet of giblets from the cavity of the chicken (and save for use in a stock if you like -- but don't include the liver, which will make the stock bitter). Pull any loose fat from around the opening. Rinse the chicken inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the outside of the chicken with about 1 Tbs. of the softened butter. Mix the remaining 2 Tbs. butter with the chopped lemon zest and herbs. Rub the butter on the inside of the cavity and under the skin of the breast and thighs. Sprinkle the inside and outside of the bird with the salt and pepper. Brush the garlic halves liberally with the olive oil and reserve.
Put the chicken, breast side up, on a V-shaped rack (or a flat rack) and set the rack in a roasting pan just larger than the rack. Cut the zested lemon in half and partially squeeze both halves over the chicken. Put the lemon halves into the cavity of the chicken. Roast for 15 to 20 min., reduce the heat to 375°F, set the garlic halves in the pan near the chicken, and continue roasting for about 45 min. more for a total of about 1 hour for a 3-lb. chicken. For larger birds, add another 10 min. for each additional pound. The chicken is done when the leg wiggles freely in its joint and when the juices run clear from the thigh when you prick it and from the cavity when you tilt the bird. A thermometer inserted into the lower meaty part of the thigh should register 170°F. Set the chicken on a warm platter, breast side down, and tent with foil to keep it warm while you make the sauce. Remove the rack from the pan.
Make the sauce from the pan drippings. Carve the chicken and serve the meat drizzled with some sauce and with the roasted garlic on the side.
Serves 8
2kg of roasting potatoes
8 medium parsnips
1 bulb of garlic
Small handful of rosemary
Small handful of thyme
Honey
Extra virgin olive oil
These potatoes worked great with a lemon-herb roast chicken and Easy Salad.
Method
Preheat your oven to 200oC/fan 180oC/gas 6.
Peel your potatoes and parsnips. Cut your parsnips in half and put to one side. Chop the potatoes up into kinda squash-ball-sized pieces. Place into a pot of cold, seasoned water, and bring to the boil. As soon as it begins to simmer, add your parsnips and par-cook for 5 minutes, then drain well. When they've steamed dry, put them into a large roasting tray and push the potatoes to one side and the parsnips to the other.
Bash your bulb of garlic and, leaving the skins on, sprinkle over the veg. Then, sprinkle the potatoes with the rosemary and the parsnips with the thyme and some honey. Then drizzle enough olive oil over to coat the veg lightly. Then, with your fingers, almost dress the parsnips in all the lovely flavour and keep to one side, and do the same for the potatoes.
Season well to taste, and place in the oven for around 30-40 minutes or until golden and crisp. Feel free to cook earlier and reheat later; they'll still taste fantastic.
A simple but tasty recipe for dressing courtesy of Jamie Oliver.
A lemon
Good quality extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the halves into a glass bowl. Pick out any pips and then cover with three times as much olive oil as there is lemon juice. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and whisk or stir well before using.
Fresh Figs
Prosciutto Ham
Buffalo Mozzarella
Purple or Green Basil leaves
Honey & Lemon Juice Dressing
The constant success of this recipe is due to the common-sense marriage of salty Prosciutto ham, milky buffalo mozzarella and sweet figs, which obviously need to be of a good quality. The best figs to use are Italian and the best time to buy them is June to August when they are in season. Greek figs are a good second-best and are in season from September to November. The best figs always seem to be those that are about to split their skins. Use green or black figs - it doesn't really matter.
Method
One thing I do is to criss-cross the figs but not quite to the bottom - 1 fig per person is always a good start. Then, using your thumbs and forefingers, squeeze the base of the fig to expose the inside. At this point you'll think, 'Oooh, that looks nice, I think I'm quite clever ...' or at least I do. More importantly, it allows your dressing to get right into the middle of the fig. All these little things really help to make a salad special. Simply place the figs in a dish, weave around 1 slice of Parma ham or prosciutto per fig, throw in some slices of buffalo mozzarella, rip over some green or purple basil and drizzle everything with the honey and lemon juice dressing. As far as salads go, it's pretty damn sexy.
PS It's a good idea to have some spare bread on the table to mop up the juices - always a treat!!
I made this last night in mid-March, which is not peak season for fresh figs. Instead, I substituted for dried figs sliced in half, and some Bosc pair chunks that had been steamed in a dry Riesling - works just the same!!
It's been a pretty bleak winter here (I'm refusing to use the 'discontent' cliche here). Between the thesis writing, the lack of a real job/funding, and all the rest of it (oh yeah - planning that whole wedding thing), things have seems pretty crappy as of late. However, today, if I had to call it, is likely the day when things started a slow ascent back to happy times.
Unfortunately, I can't quite publish all the fun-time news yet, but the first bit of good stuff is that I was offered a part-time job at the Home Depot, working in the greenhouse/gardening section. Those of you who know me affectionatly as 'Plant Man', will know that this is a good fit. Also, it's decent chunk of change coming in to help buffer all the wedding expenses. I start work on March 25th.
The other really good thing will have to wait a couple of weeks, but it is good news. Promise.
Today I made the (nearly) yearly trip to St. Thomas for grading to my 5th kyu belt today. Everything went as well as one can expect, considering you sit on a cold cement floor for 45 minutes, jump up and explode through 6 minutes of activity, then follow that up with another hour on the floor before sparring.
Enough with the complaining though, it really is worth it to show your 'peers' and senseis that you've made progess with your karate. It was funny to look back at last year's grading, when I watched the yellow and green belts katas and thought they looked so complicated. Now having learned some of those forms myself, I was thinking the same thing about the purple and brown belts. I like that about karate, no matter how hard or complex something may seem, you find yourself doing it (or at least attempting to) much sooner than you think you will.
Green is a good colour for me, but I'm sure it will get old quick. Here's hoping I can continue making these March grading posts every year for a few more.
