Chicken, I Appreciate You

After college graduation, my parents encouraged me not to return home.  They knew that my big personality was not well-suited for small town life.  My little brother, on the other hand, was your typical cool-kid-in-high-school-quarterback-of-the-varsity-football-team who attends a small private college with the goal of being a teacher and coach in a small town.  For him, the more wide open spaces, the better.  When your name is Chip, you are destined for small town fame.

So I moved to Cincinnati in such a whirlwind that it was kind of like Hurricane Jen took over the city.  I took a job as a wine sales representative with a small distributor and drove around the east side of the city with a map spread out across my steering wheel.  At the end of each work day, after I had visited sometimes up to twenty locations across half the city, I would open the freezer, pull out a frozen boneless chicken breast, drop it into a greased pyrex dish, pour Italian dressing over it, and bake for 45 minutes.  Sometimes I would heat up a can of green beans or toss together a salad, but most nights anything else was just too much work.  I was barely on my feet financially, exhausted, renting an apartment that was in a very rough area east of downtown, and uninterested in eating anything that wasn't convenient.

That was five years ago and so much has changed.  I have found that having a husband to help with the day-to-day things has enhanced more than just my social life--it has revitalized dinner.  I am motivated when I get home to cook something that will satisfy both of us, and frankly, individually frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast just doesn't make the cut.  The times I've made them lately (at the request of my stepdaughter who turns her nose up at the sight of a chicken bone), the chicken is completely tasteless, no matter how much seasoning I add.

Maybe this makes me a food snob--but this is a blog about food--good food.  Indulgent food.  Food appreciation.  When I roast a whole 3lb chicken, I am saying to it, "Chicken, I appreciate you."

Just say no to tasteless chicken and try this method of brining a whole small chicken and roasting it at a high temperature to achieve a juicy, flavorful meat with a crispy skin.   The recipe comes from America's Test Kitchen.  The original recipe suggests adding 2.5 lbs russet potatoes to the roasting pan, presumably to soak up the juices and keep the drippings from smoking at such a high temperature.  We did not have any potatoes on hand and therefore we did have a somewhat smoky kitchen (now that I think of it--no smoke alarms went off--perhaps we should be checking the batteries), but the flavor of the chicken was not affected and the chicken was perfectly roasted. 

If you are intimidated by the idea of butterflying (or spatchcocking) a chicken, then I would like send you over to Youtube where you will find an abundance of how-to videos.  All you really need a some kitchen shears and a little confidence and you will be good to go.

High-Roast Chicken with Thyme, Mustard, & Garlic Butter 
recipe adapted from The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook
serves 3-4, depending on the weight of the chicken


Ingredients
1/2 cup table salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 (3lb-4lb) whole chicken, giblets discarded
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
Pepper

Optional Ingredients
2.5 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and slicked 1/2 inch thick
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Disolve the salt and sugar in 2 quarts cold water in a large container.  Submerge the chicken in the brine.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees.  Be sure that the oven rack is on the lowest position.  Remove the chicken from the brine, rinse well, and pat dry.  Remove the backbone from the chicken and press the chicken flat, and, if needed, pounding it so that it is at a fairly even thickness.  Tuck the wings behind the back. 

In a small bowl, mash together butter, mustard, garlic, thyme, and a pinch of pepper. Use your fingers to gently loosen the skin covering each breast.  Place the butter mixture under the skin onto the meat.  Press on the skin to distribute the butter.  Rub the skin with the oil and season with pepper.  Place the chicken on the top rack in a broiler pan that is lined with foil in the bottom.

Optional:  Toss the potatoes with the oil, salt, and pepper.  Spread the potatoes over the foil on the bottom of the broiler pan.  If you do not do this, you will likely have smoke coming from your oven, but a good hood fan and ceiling fan will help control the smokiness.  It wasn't much of a bother for us and an hour later I can't smell it at all.  

Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.   Rotate the pan and continue to roast until the skin is brown and crisp and the thickest part of the breast registered 160 to 165 degrees on your thermometer.  The thickest part of the thight should be at 175 degrees.  The total cooking time will be around 40-45 minutes, give or take.  Transfer the chicken to a carving board and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

If you prepare the optional potatoes, using paper towels soak up any excess grease from the potatoes and transfer to a serving platter.

This Summer Spirit

For some, July is the beginning of summer.  For me July is when summer starts to feel like more than a passing season--it's a way of life.  Tank tops and strappy sandals and the cool scent of sunscreen become regulars players in my day-to-day.   

But when the 4th of July comes and goes, I start to worry that summer is in a slow downward spiral towards fall.  Tonight as the sun dipped behind the trees, I wondered if it night was coming earlier than yesterday.

Perhaps it is because our big summer vacation was over the weekend.  We attended a family reunion and it was weekend of celebration, community, and food.

Tim's aunt and uncle live on a man-made lake in Lynchburg, Virginia, and own every lake vehicle you could possibly want to enjoy.  Their pontoon boat, festively decorated by the little cousins, was perfect for lazily drifting in the middle of the lake.  I was very brave and jumped into the water to bob up and down on a floating noodle.  When a fish nibbled on my finger, I didn't completely freak out--only a small shriek and a few big splashes. 

My stepdaughter and niece were masters of the kayaks.  The kayaks were fit with pedals that you could pump with your feet to propel them rather than paddling.

While the adults watched the fireworks from the pontoon boat and a dock, the adventurous cousins pedaled their way to the middle of the lake to watch the fireworks.

Have you ever seen such a duo?  These are the kind of summer memories that childhood should be made of.  It's the kind of memory that digs its heels into your soul--into your history.  The kind of memory that these cousins will fondly think of and say to one another in 20 years, "Do you remember that weekend we spent at the lake?"

More about the food (especially the Patsy's pickles) another day.  Tonight, I can still close my eyes and feel the sunshine on my cheeks and it's bliss.  Neither shorter days nor going back to work tomorrow can shake this summer spirit from me yet.

How Rosemary Channeled My Inner Domestic Goddess

Yesterday morning I called my local bookstore to make sure they had the book I wanted in stock.  A very nice sounding young man only took a minute checking the shelves and came back to the phone to inform me that yes, "We have three copies of 'A Homemade Life' in hardcover.  I'll hold a copy for you at the counter."

Best.  News.  Ever.

You see, we have a road-trip coming up soon and I do not want to be stranded in the passenger seat of my own vehicle without something interesting to read.  In fact, after I read a post written by another Molly Wizenberg super-fan, I decided I absolutely had to go pick up the book for this particular trip.  I know that Tim will be committed to driving for long periods of time with few breaks and I am going to need to be completely absorbed in something to make the time pass.  Everywhere I look people have raved about how this book made them laugh, cry, and want to cook, so even though I'm late to picking up this book I know I will have it finished by the time we are home (or maybe by the time we get there). 

While we were at the bookstore, I decided I absolutely needed a new cookbook (can you ever have too many?).  Tim didn't know this, but I had already decided which one I wanted before we even left the house.  There was only one copy of How to Be a Domestic Goddess and it left the store in my bag.  

Nigella Lawson has always been one of my favorite food writers and cookbook authors, mostly because of her va-va-voom style and sly charm that makes me think she just might wink at me when she finishes a sentence.  I sat down last night and began reading this cookbook just as if I were reading a novel.  As Tim fell asleep, I was still sitting up in bed with the reading lamp on absorbing tips and tricks about baking.  Her foreword is absolutely spot on when she says that being a "domestic goddess" is more a state of mind rather than any action you perform.  Doesn't it make you feel good to bake a cake?  Don't you feel proud when you make scones from scratch?  I'll answer for you--yes and yes. 

The only difficulty with the book is what I'd consider a language barrier.  I have spent a good chunk of time today translating her British slang, metric measurements, and Celsius temperatures.  Did you know that dessert is referred to as pudding over the great Atlantic pond?  That took me a while to catch on to that--for a while I assumed she was talking about a mushy cake!  Complicating matters further, I am fairly new to baking (Tim is the baker in this family) and I don't own a scale.  More time was spent googling different opinions on how grams translate to volume for dry ingredients.  I think I got it figured out, but I imagine that any recipe would be even better if I were to do it completely as it was written.

A recipe for a Rosemary Loaf Cake really stood out to me.  For one, I recently saw another favorite blogger of mine make an Olive Oil Cake that contained rosemary and also because the rosemary plant in my backyard is finally starting to take off. 

Rosemary may seem like an odd choice in a dessert, let alone a cake, and Nigella addresses that.  She said to just trust that the flavors of sugar, vanilla, and rosemary would be a complimentary.  Two teaspoons of rosemary in this recipe may seem like a very small amount but it definitely created wonderful aromatics in the house while this was baking.

Assuming my translation from mass to volume was correct, I thought that the crumb of this cake was perfect.  It was slightly crumbly, sort of like a corn cake, but very soft and moist in the middle. 

The flavor was distinctly sweet, with a perfectly sugary top crust.  The hint of rosemary was in the forefront of its taste and, wouldn't-you-know-it-Nigella-was-right, complimentary to the vanilla as if they were the epitome of sugar and spice. 

Nigella suggests serving this with cold stewed apples or other fruit, but that didn't strike my fancy tonight.  I had one slice before dinner and a second one after just to be sure it was as good as I had remembered it being 30 minutes ago.  I think if you wanted to serve it with something, I'd go with a nutty ice cream or a basil gelato (the latter being something my friend Meg has already commissioned for her birthday this fall).   

Rosemary Loaf Cake
adapted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess
serves 8-10

Ingredients
18 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar plus 2 tbsp
3 large or 4 medium eggs
1 2/3 cup self-raising flour*
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp rosemary, chopped small
4 tbsp whole milk

*If you do not have self-raising flour, you can do what I did and sift together 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, 1 tsp 3/4 tsp salt, and 2 1/4 tsp baking powder.  Thanks to Bob at Cooking Stuff for the timely post. 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Sift together the 2 flours in a medium bowl.  In the mixer bowl, cream the butter until it's really soft and then add 3/4 cup sugar, creaming both together until pale, smoothe and light.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, alternating egg and then 1/3 the flour, then egg, and so forth.  Mix each until just incorporated and be careful not to overmix.  Then mix in the vanilla.  Fold in the rosemary.  Stir in the milk to thin the batter.  Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan.  Sprinkle the top with the additional 2 tbsp sugar.

Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Leave to cool in the loaf pan on a wire rack until it's completely cooled.  Slice and serve or wrap well in tin foil until serving.