Food & Recipes - grace grits and gardening

Roasted Chicken with White Wine and Rosemary

May 8, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

My favorite roasted chicken recipe…

Roasted Chicken with White Wine and Rosemary

1 Whole Chicken
Olive Oil
White Wine
Sea Salt
Pepper
Small Orange
Lemon
Small Potato
Small Yellow Onion
Rosemary
Garlic

Wash and pat dry the chicken. Place in a roasting pan. Fill the cavity of the chicken with slices of orange, lemon, chunks of potato and onion, rosemary stems and whole garlic cloves. Don’t be shy – stick your hand up in there and stuff it full of these goodies. Rub the bird with olive oil, salt and pepper. Be generous with the salt and pepper. Pour about a half cup of wine in the pan and over the chicken. Cover tightly with foil and roast at 350 for about an hour. It will depend on the size of the chicken so keep a watch on it. Baste it with the wine occasionally. Uncover and roast an additional 20 minutes or so at 425 for extra brown crisp skin. Discard the fruit and veggies in the cavity. That was just for flavor. Deglaze the drippings with more white wine for a delicious sauce.

If anyone in Dallas needs rosemary, feel free to cut some from our enormous rosemary bushes. If anyone needs wine, talk to Harold. He knows all the best deals around.

talya

Musical Pairings:

Beach Boys, “Gettin Hungry”

Rosemary beside our porch

Lemon Thyme Blackberry Cobbler

March 3, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

I gave up dessert for Lent and then to seriously tempt myself, I baked a cobbler. Using my regular super simple blackberry cobbler recipe, I tweaked it by adding lemon zest and thyme. I had a bag of lemons that were staring at me, and I’m always trying to find unusual ways to add herbs. I’m a big believer in herbs – they have tons of antioxidants and health benefits. Plus, herbs are the only crop I can grow in my postage stamp sized yard… I decided if the combo lemon/thyme/blackberry was disgusting, it didn’t much matter, since I couldn’t really eat it anyway. (Lent, you know…)

Of course, it smelled heavenly. And it looked heavenly. And, as everyone who watches the cooking channel knows, I had to take a teeny tiny sinful bite to make sure it was edible. Very delicious! Both the lemon and thyme added a little something-something to the recipe. I immediately packed up half of it for a few neighbors – get thee behind me cobbler… I left a bit for John’s dessert, and managed to successfully ignore it the remainder of the afternoon.

Like everything I cook – it’s super easy. If the recipe is difficult, I move on to something else.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1 stick unsalted butter

1 & 1/4 cup of sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

2 cups of blackberries (frozen or fresh)

Zest of 2 large lemons

Fresh Thyme – 2 teaspoons chopped

Method:

Butter + Lemon Zest

1. Melt butter in the microwave. Mix the zest of 2 lemons into the butter. Use a tiny bit of this mixture to butter your baking dish.

2. Rinse and pat dry the blackberries. Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of the flour and the thyme together and sprinkle this over the blackberries. Gently Mix.

3. Pour 1 cup of sugar and remaining flour into a mixing bowl, whisking in milk. Mix well. Then, pour melted butter/lemon zest in and whisk it all together.

4. Pour the batter into the baking dish. Sprinkle blackberries over the top of the batter; distributing evenly.

5. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the top.

6. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes or until golden and bubbly. About 10 minutes before it is done, you can sprinkle a bit more sugar and thyme over the top if you would like. The sugar will give it a bit of a crust & sparkle on top. And, you probably will have a lot of leftover thyme, so you may as well use a bit more.

Ready for the oven. See the sprinkles of Thyme on top?

A little shout-out for thyme… In medieval times it was regarded as the plant that provided courage and vigor. The ancient Romans used it as a treatment for depression. It contains antioxidants and essential oils thought to alleviate stress, provide a calming effect and relieve aches and pains in the joints. One teaspoon crushed, added to boiling water, steeped for 10 minutes and then strained, makes a great tea which will help with sore throats, coughs and mouth irritations. You can add a bit of honey to sweeten.

talya

Musical Pairings:

The Four Tops, “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)
Def Leppard, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”

Jack’s Favorite Chocolate Malted Chip Cookies!

February 12, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

North Texas is currently under all sorts of winter weather advisories including snow and sleet. In dramatic times like these, when our drafty house is c-o-l-d, I bake. Most people are at the Fiesta stocking up on Doritos and Miller Lite, but I prefer to take my chances with my sparsely stocked cupboard.

I should be at Fiesta. As of this morning we are down to our last 2 rolls of toilet paper and therefore, in official rationing mode. Risky in life-threatening weather, I realize.

Ingredients:

(this recipe makes about 3 dozen – I usually half it)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cups golden brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated Sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1&1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1&1/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 (heaping) cup malted milk powder

1 bag (12 ounces) milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.
Cream butter. Then add both sugars and cream until fluffy. Add eggs and beat slightly, then add vanilla and beat until combined. Add malted milk powder and beat until combined.
Mix together flour, baking soda and salt. (Supposedly we should be sifting these ingredients together, but I don’t sift. They turn out just fine. If they were any better, I might accidentally eat my hand along with the cookies.) Add this dry mixture to the butter mixture, beating gently until just combined.
Add chocolate chips and stir in gently.
Drop by teaspoonfuls and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. These cookies tend to spread so leave plenty of room in between them on the cookie sheet.

After they cool you can use two cookies to make an ice cream sandwich with a scoop of your favorite ice cream in between. Add sprinkles to the sides of the ice cream.

Or, just scarf them down with milk. That’s what I prefer.

Neighbor Jack Lowery declared these “the most delicious cookies I’ve ever eaten.” And Jack tells it like it is.