Happy Thanksgiving (early) with Updates on Grilling, Books and the Grandbaby!

Let's start with BBQ. Who doesn't love the aroma of food grilling over a charcoal fire? I don't know of anyone, but I am a homebody these days. Doug grilled us a pork roast that got the tummy rumbling hours before we could actually eat it. The anticipation is a sweet thing though.

For the pork shoulder the aluminum pan is used as a drip pan. Remember the brisket was cooked inside the pan (that post HERE) but in this case, the pork roast is removed and set right on the grill. This roast had all the benefits of the smoldering hot charcoal briquettes giving it a nice bark.

Here it is, just smeared down with the Java rub.



After getting the Java rub on the roast the grilling cook time was 4 ½ hours. Every hour Doug added charcoal to the side baskets to keep the heat at 300 F. You just can’t beat a good pork roast grilled over charcoal and hickory wood chunks. There was plenty of bark on this one too…one of our favorites on a good piece of BBQ.
For just the two of us this roast lasted several days. A couple of dinners and some lunch slices.



Easiest vegetable side you can make - roast and go about doing something else. Putz around on Twitter or read. This is a great side for Thanksgiving feasts too.



Books – I have such a stack from the library, on my Kindle as well as books I have picked up at used book stores. I have absolutely no business bringing another book into the house until I get through the ones I have. But you know how that goes….!



Recent reads and reviews are The Dinner by Herman Koch and Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell.

On the personal home front we have discovered that the grandbaby may now be called granddaughter.



Yes, the ultra sound revealed it’s a baby girl. No one cared about the sex of the baby, we will love the little babe either way but it’s nice to know what type clothes and toys to buy. Her name is Elizabeth Marie. It’s a pretty name, don’t you think?

What else is new....oh...some jerk, (well…insert any crass descriptor for jerk) got hold of my debit card and tried to charge a $600 something at Best Buy Electronics and something else in Virginia. Apparently my card is better traveled than I am these days. Thank you to Mastercard Fraud Division for being on top of things and calling me. Now I have to change out all my accounts but at least I am not out money….so far!

Be careful out there this Thanksgiving, both personally and financially. For my American Turkey day celebrators I wish you a good Thanksgiving and hope it is pleasant, lots of good food and company.

Weekend Wine Review with Pirovano Sangiovise

Have a bit of Tuscany on your table with a bottle of Pirovano Sangiovise.
Quite reasonably priced at $8.99 at Whole Foods. Not a “bum wine” and easily goes with pork or steak. I would have it with pizza too.



Jam like ( not texturally, just taste) and fruit-forward with scents of, believe it or not, tobacco.

We like most sangiovise wines and this was no exception. I certainly pushed my glass forward for a refill!

Lemon Chicken Tray Bake

I couldn’t wait to post this dinner and recipe. Have you ever had a very good experience with a recipe that is just so good, and so easy, that you can’t wait to share? This is the one for me.

I came across it in a roundabout way whilst looking at Twitter. My friend Jo, Welsh cook extraordinaire, spoke about her version which led me to the original poster. Surf over to The Pie Patch and meet Lucy. She is a participant at this cool website with lots of great meal planning tips and recipes too.

(Here is is just out of the oven, obviously we are checking temperature for doneness)



This photo doesn't do it justice. See the crispy skin sliding off the chicken thigh? The vegetables were tender, moist and had just the right hint of lemon.



My version of Lemon Chicken Tray Bake
The link to the original recipe posting is HERE

Ingredients

8 large chicken thighs (you can use any pieces, we like thighs)
2 lemons
1 large vidalia onion
1 butternut squash
6 red creamer potatoes
2 carrots
1 parsnip (because there is was, all alone in the fridge)
Minced garlic
Black pepper
Sea Salt
Dried thyme
Olive oil

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. (375 F)
I cut the butternut squash into chunks, didn’t peel it. Cut up the onions, quarter the potatoes, cut the carrots and parsnip into 1 inch chunks. Quarter the lemons.

*You could use any variety of veggies you want. Next time I may toss in sweet potato and more carrots.

Cut excess fat off the chicken pieces. Now place everything together (yes, the vegetables, chicken and lemons) in a large shallow roasting pan. Sprinkle the minced garlic over the lot and then then salt and pepper and thyme.

Drizzle olive oil over it all. If you can mix it with a spoon then go for it. I found that using the spoon helped to get everything covered in oil but using your fingers to smoosh it around was better.

The lemons will ooze out that juicy lemony goodness and give a sticky sauce that blends into the meat and veggies.

Here it is all tossed together. Ready to be popped in the oven.



So…isn’t the Internet a wonderful thing? I mean, for us Attention Deficit afflicted folks you can get lost with the Oh, shiny and clicking off here and there: forgetting your original intent when you logged on to the www. But here I am in soggy old North Florida preparing a wonderful meal that a young Scottish mother posted over a week ago. An ocean between us but we like the same foods.

Thanks to Lucy and Jo. Make this one, my friends, you won’t regret it.

For what it's worth, this Village Bordeaux went very well with the meal :-)

♥ Nigella's White Lady Cocktail ♥

The White Lady is a cocktail Nigella Lawson imbibed during her college days. As we had all the ingredients on hand I thought, why not try it...sounds delicious.



The only "problem" is, you can certainly tip a few of these back before your brain has caught up to the alcohol overload. Very dangerous!

From Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson

"When I was an undergraduate in the Brideshead (Revisited) era of the 1980's Oxford this was the drink of choice at many a pretentious cocktail party. It's not a cheap way to get drunk, but remember we're talking the age of the jeunesse doree here: I seem to remember sipping this under a veiled pillbox hat, the ash from a Sobranie Black Russian flicked from meshed gloved fingertip. I feel better getting this off my chest."

1 ounce Plymouth (or other) gin
1 ounce Cointreau
2 tablespoons lemon juice (about half a lemon's worth)
1 tablespoon sugar syrup
ice cubes

Shake ingredients and pour over ice.

You've been warned....drink at your own risk!

I am sharing this with the Potluck theme at I ♥ Cooking Club. Back to Donna Hay next week but I remain Nigella infatuated :-)

Cooking Light: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Thyme Sauce

The time spent trying new beers, ales and ciders took a wee toll when I got on the scale last week. No need to panic - I had a good time. I knew what I was doing.

Wine doesn’t give me a weight gain as beer does and so, completely aware of all this but proceeding anyway (hey, it WAS vacation) I fully accept there are consequences for every action.



Speaking of overindulgence……..a big, overeating fest (for Americans) is creeping up.

Thanksgiving is coming on us like that pesky hurricane you need to prepare for, make plans and stock up on supplies, etc. Always being the meatier female at the Thanksgiving dinner table doesn’t bother me as I have never aspired to be thin as a stick. For some it’s genetics and others…who knows. I am more likely to join in for beer pong or have another helping of potatoes (oh my, I do love my potatoes) but…it’s time to get back on the healthier eating track (and stay away from beer).

I present a wonderfully delicious and simple meal from Cooking Light magazine. You won’t feel deprived, you won’t feel as you are dieting because…you aren’t.

This is just healthy eating with an abundance of flavor. I had all the items in my fridge except a pack of chicken thighs which was quickly remedied by stopping off at the grocery store on the way home.




Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Thyme Sauce

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
8 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1 cup no-salt-added chicken stock (such as Swanson), divided
4 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Remove chicken from pan; place in an 11 x 7–inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Bake at 425° for 16 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165°. Remove chicken from dish; reserve drippings.

3. Return skillet to medium-high heat. Add butter; swirl to coat. Add onion and thyme; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Combine 3 tablespoons stock and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture, remaining stock, and reserved drippings to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Bring to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat, and add mustard, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, stirring with a whisk. Serve sauce with chicken.

From Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2012 issue

This was so good I am made it again (already). I would love to share this with all readers of Beth Fish Reads for her Weekend Cooking Series. Hey...if you have a nice tasty and healthy recipe you'd like to share, please drop me an email!




Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Spatchcock Chicken creeped me out

A few nights ago I prepared my first ever spatchcocked chicken. Have you ever done that? If you haven’t then I have to warn you; it’s not a pleasant thing to do to a chicken carcass. That’s me, my opinion…maybe you spatchcock all the time.

Taking very sharp kitchen shears you snip away at the backbone so you may then flip the bird over and press down on the breastbone. This causes the bird to spread out in a very strange looking fashion.

It was the crunching through the backbone and pressure of the shears on said backbone that creeped me out. Evidently it’s meant to cook faster being spread out. A whole chicken all in one headless, featherless, all-parts-composed state ready for roasting takes a bit longer to cook or roast. Well……..in the future, I will just use a cut up chicken or roast the bird before I ever, ever take shears to a backbone again.



Forgot to set the scene…..ok…….. Since this is a meal that doesn’t need attention or basting, my plan was to read more of my book while the bird roasted. ( Currently reading The Dinner by Herman Koch) Doug opted to get some eyepiece time in with the telescope while dinner was cooking. I was to give Doug a 10 minute warning before the bird is taken out of the oven so he could put his scope away and we’d get the table set up, open wine, and plate the food.

Since the recipe called for roasting at 400 F for 45 to 50 minutes (if using a 4 pound bird) I went an extra 10 minutes…just to be safe… and then called him in to dinner. Unfortunately, there was some pink around the leg once I started carving. So now I hacked at the pieces and placed the cut up thighs, legs, one wing and breast with the other wing attached back into the oven.

Carving isn’t something I usually do. This is left to my husband because he can actually carve the pieces off the bird with great accuracy. You always know what part of the chicken you are getting when he carves. Not so much when I am loosed with the Global carving knife. Or any knife for that matter.

By now, the wine has been opened and the asparagus is on the table. Chicken is back in the oven. We sit with the great open expanse of near empty plates, a glass of cabernet sauvignon and the rapidly cooling asparagus. We sit, sip and nibble as the chicken cooks, seemingly at a glacial speed. That always seems the case when you are ravenous.

Finally it’s done but I have to say….nothing remarkable. It was just plain old roasted chicken with ragged edges. Since it had been flattened out that one wing I couldn’t carve off was adhering to the upper part of the breast meat and the neck bone. Now that was a weird thing to see. The wing had the neck bone sticking up at an angle and looked a bit like Rachel Dratch with that arm sticking out of her head.



End result – it was good (once fully cooked) but I won’t do it again. Roasting whole chicken or grilling wings or thighs. I had an experience with spatchcocking but I am done with it.

Here is the recipe for any daring spatchcockers out there......

Quick flat-roasted chicken
From Simple Essentials

1.8kg (4lb) chicken
1 lemon, sliced
8 sprigs thyme
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
Olive oil for brushing
Sea salt and cracked black pepper

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200C (400F).

Using kitchen scissors, cut along the backbone of the chicken, then press firmly on the breastbone to flatten it.



Place the chicken in a baking dish lined with non-stick baking paper. Add the lemon, thyme and garlic. Brush with oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until cooked through.

All other recipes I have tried by Donna Hay have been fabulous. I imagine anyone's spatchcock recipe would fall into disfavor with me but......don't let that put you off Donna's other recipes.