Food - 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

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.

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Buttermilk Pie with Raspberries

February 2, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

“Make You Wanna Slap Yo Momma”

Buttermilk Pie with Raspberries

This is an awesome pie. Adapted from Southern Memories by Nathalie Dupress, it’s an easy pie to bake. It will make you think back to your childhood and wonder why your mother only baked pies at Christmastime. Or Thanksgiving. And that just might make you want to slap yo momma…

Ingredients

Favorite Pie Crust (homemade or not)

1 stick butter, unsalted, melted, cooled

3 eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 T flour, all-purpose

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

First of all, read this entire recipe before you even think about cooking. This will eliminate surprises and make sure that you allow enough time to assemble and bake this pie. It will turn out better. I speak from experience.
Secondly, gather all of your ingredients and measure them out beforehand. Yes, you will dirty more measuring cups and bowls, but you will know well in advance that you are out of vanilla or your flour has bugs in it, saving yourself a mad dash to the grocery store during mid-stir. Plus, you will feel like the Barefoot Contessa with all the little bowls sitting around pre-measured.
Be sure to melt your butter and then let it cool to room temperature. And the eggs need to hang out for a bit as well. While your butter is cooling and your eggs are chillin’, roll out your crust and press it into the pie pan. Press it into the corners, and try not to stretch the dough. Stretching causes shrinkage while baking. And we all know shrinkage is ugly. Trim the edges and try to make them look somewhat neatly crimped. But don’t worry too much about this…a rustic-looking pie tastes better and perfection is overrated. (I am assuming you are working with the pre-made Pillsbury pie crusts – the kind that you unroll. If you buy a pie shell, then just unwrap it.) Once your crust is pressed into the pan and all trimmed, place it in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking. Trust me on this.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In your KitchenAid or in a mixing bowl, mix the butter and eggs together until well combined. (Did you melt your butter and then let it come to room temperature? If not, guess what? You just made yourself some scrambled eggs. If so, stop right here, make a scrambled egg sandwich for sustenance and start over…) Add the buttermilk and vanilla to the butter/egg mixture and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Stir this dry mixture into your wet mixture a bit at a time until mixed. Don’t over mix. At this point you may want to drink it like eggnog.
Pour the filling into the crust and bake on the middle rack until set and lightly browned. About 45 minutes. Cool to room temperature on a rack. Be patient. Raspberries or other tart fruit sprinkled on top will help balance the sweetness. Don’t put your raspberries on when the pie is warm. They will bleed.