BB: Un-butterflied Chicken

Okay, okay, I'm a chicken (hehe). I just couldn't buy a whole chicken and debone and butterfly it. I just couldn't. I'm kind of new to this whole cooking thing, and I've been doing really well, and I wasn't in the mood for a disaster.

SOOO... I bought bone-in, skin-on breasts. And just rubbed the yummy "paste" under the skin. I grilled these babies, on medium heat on the grill for about 15 minutes on each side.

In the words of my husband: "This is the best chicken I've ever had". Seriously, it was good. So here it is, this weeks Barefoot Bloggers pick, Butterflied Chicken, chosen by Stefany of Proceed With Caution.

The recipe:

1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary leaves, plus 2 sprigs
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
Good olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 roasting chickens (2 1/2 to 3 pounds each), deboned and butterflied
1/2 lemon, thinly sliced

Mix the chopped rosemary, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper together in a small bowl to make a paste.
Place the chickens on a sheet pan, skin side up, and loosen the skin from the meat with your fingers. Place 1/2 of the paste under the skin of each chicken. Rub any remaining paste on the outside and underside of the chickens.

Turn the chicken skin side down and scatter the lemon slices and sprigs of rosemary over each chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Roll each chicken up, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Heat a grill with coals (I used a gas grill- on Medium heat). Spread the coals out in 1 dense layer and brush the grill with oil. Unroll the chickens, place them on the grill and cook for 12 minutes on each side.

TWD: Granola Grabbers

For this weeks TWD, Michelle, from Bad Girl Baking chose a cookie!  The Granola Grabbers!  They looked great in the book, and I was excited to try them out.

 

They were in fact, very good.  They were sweet, and tasted, as one would expect, like a granola bar!!  The only modification I made, was that I left out the wheat germ, and added some of the crumbs from the bottom of the granola and some extra flour to make up for it.  For the recipe, go over and visit Michelle's blog.  

BB: Panzanella

For this installment of the Barefoot Bloggers, chosen by Melissa of It's Melissa's Kitchen, we made a Panzanella salad. I had never heard of this salad before this, but it was very good. I halved the recipe, and I would say, there was enough for 3 very good sized servings, to eat as a meal. We loved this salad, it was light, refreshing and perfect for a summer afternoon.


Source: foodnetwork.com
Recipe below halved from original

1 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
1/2 small French bread or boule, cut into 1-inch cubes (3 cups)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large, ripe tomatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and sliced 1/2-inch thick
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
10 large basil leaves, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons capers, drained

For the vinaigrette:
1/2 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the bread and salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently, for 10 minutes, or until nicely browned. Add more oil as needed.

For the vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients together.

In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, red onion, basil, and capers. Add the bread cubes and toss with the vinaigrette. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Serve, or allow the salad to sit for about half an hour for the flavors to blend.

TWD: Black and White Banana Loaf

For my first TWD recipe, the Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream was the recipe, chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity. Well, I don't have an ice cream maker, and have never made ice cream any other way, and I didn't want my very first TWD to result in a sloppy disaster. So, I opted to do last weeks recipe, the Black and White banana loaf, chosen by Ashlee at A Year in the Kitchen, which is where you can find the recipe. When I first got Baking - From My Home to Yours, I was immediately drawn to this recipe. Bananas and chocolate is a heavenly combination in my opinion! When I saw that it was chosen a a TWD recipe, I decided to join. I have been hesitating for awhile, not sure if I can commit 100%, but I am going to try, and I figure you really one HAVE to bake twice a month, not every week, and that I can definitely handle!

So, back to the banana loaf.



I read through a few of last week posts about this recipe, and I have to say I baked this with some serious reservations. A lot of people seemed to dislike this recipe. I went in with the understanding that this was NOT a typical banana bread. Didn't taste like one, didn't have the texture of one. That, I was fine with. I love chocolate and bananas!! I did cook it for the full hour and a half, since many people thought it came out runny, and I had no problems. I also only used about 1 1/4 medium sized bananas to cut back on the liquid as well. It wasn't runny at all, and the texture seemed perfect to me. I honestly loved this banana loaf. It has a unique banana, rum, chocolate flavor, each very distinct. The nutmug also comes through. It really was unlike anything I expected when I first saw the recipe, but I loved it none the less! Coming next week: Granola Grabbers! Chosen by Michelle of Bad Girl Baking (love that name!!).

Cherry Muffins

Adapted from: recipezaar.com

I bought a bag of my favorite fruit, cherries, this afternoon, and I have been dying to make muffins, hence, these cherry muffins. I found a blueberry muffin recipe on recipezaar.com, so I just subbed out the blues for the cherries!

I made the batter, gave it a little taste, and thought, wow, this really isn't very sweet, maybe I need a bit more sugar... I turned for the sugar, and realized I never added ANY! Oops. So my batter was ultimately probably over mixed, and also probably not as combined as I would like, but the end result was still good. These were sweet, light and moist!

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh cherries, pitted and quartered
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1-1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line or butter/grease 12 muffin cups
3. If using fresh cherries, rinse and thoroughly dry the berries.
4. In a small bowl, toss the fresh or frozen berries with the 1 tablespoon flour.
5. In a large bowl, stir together the 2 cups flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; make a well in the center.
6. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and 1 cup of the buttermilk until combined.
7. Whisk in the vanilla and melted butter.
8. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the well.
9. Begin stirring the liquids, gradually drawing the dry ingredients into the well until they are almost, but not quite, combined.
10. If mixture is to thick, add the additional 1/4 cup of buttermilk and gently mix.
11. Add the cherries and fold in just to distribute evenly taking care not to overmix.
12. Evenly divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups.
13. Bake the muffins for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
14. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully turn out onto the rack.
15. Serve warm, or cool completely.
16. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Shrimp Etouffee

Source: Cooking Light

When I was flipping through my Cooking Light I was elated to see a recipe for shrimp etouffee. I was in New Orleans with some friends last month for my very first visit to the unique city, and I have to admit that I was pretty upset when it was time to leave and I had not had the chance to try all the restaurants/dishes I wanted to! Next time. On the flight home I immediately started thinking about the Cajun meals I wanted to cook for DH when I got home. I had a crawfish etouffee when I was out there, so I was so happy to see this lightened version of etouffee in Cooking Light I could prepare for us. 

Ingredients

4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup butter, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (about 2 1/4 ounces)
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2/3 cup diced celery
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon salt-free Cajun seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (I used about 1 tsp of flakes, we like it SPICY!)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 30 shrimp)
4 cups hot cooked long-grain rice

Preparation
1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat; bring to a simmer. Cover and remove from heat.

2. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Add flour to pan; cook 8 minutes or until very brown, stirring constantly with a whisk. Remove from heat. Add 1 cup broth mixture to pan; stir with a whisk until smooth. Add remaining 3 cups broth mixture, stirring with a whisk until smooth; set aside.

3. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon butter in a large Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 cups onion, celery, and bell peppers to pan; cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender and onion is golden brown, stirring occasionally. Stir in 3/4 cup water, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add tomato paste, Cajun seasoning, garlic, salt, black pepper, and red pepper to onion mixture; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add reserved broth-flour mixture and Worcestershire sauce to pan, stirring well to combine; bring to a simmer. Cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add green onions, 1/4 cup parsley, and shrimp; cook 3 minutes or until shrimp are done. Discard bay leaf. Serve over rice. Sprinkle each serving with 2 teaspoons remaining parsley, if desired.

Makes 6 servings

Pate Brisee

Source: Martha Stewart

As Seen On: Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

Makes two 8- to 10-inch single-crust pies or one 8- to 10-inch double-crust pie
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut in pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions:

Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor, and process for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, add the ice water in a slow, steady stream, through the feed tube, just until the dough holds together. Do not process for more than 30 seconds.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Divide in two. Place each half on a sheet of plastic wrap. Flatten, and form two discs. Wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour before using.