Back to our regularly scheduled programming....

Food blogging, that is.

We had our parish pastor over for dinner over last night - he's always such a treat to feed and so appreciative. For me, I love to cook for other people, so it's a win-win! He's extremely easy to please, as long as the meals are simple (not into fancy-shmancy gourmet food). So here's the menu (I'm trying to make it sound fancier than it really was - I realized only in hindsight that this meal was very rustic French. Shhhhhh don't tell the hubby - he's not a fan of anything French, but he did enjoy this meal):

Roasted Chicken with garlic and thyme

Garlicky Potato wedges

Fresh Green Beans

Peach and Raspberry Galette

En Francais:

Poule avec Ail et Thym

Pommes Frite Camagnard

Hericot Vert

Galette de Peche et Framboise

Anyone who visits this site and actually speaks French will laugh hard at this, I know - I had to look for the translations online and I'm sure the grammar is all wrong. It just sounds so much nicer in French though, n'est pas? Sorry, it's like once you start, you can't stop!

First, the bird. I got a whopper of a chicken at the grocery store (7 lbs.) because I always try to send a lot of left overs home with Father. He has confided in me and let me know that he usually eats a hotdog and canned veggies for dinner - seriously, ick. Makes feel like I should invite him over much more frequently (does this count as Catholic guilt?).

Anyway, all I did was rub the chicken down with olive oil, salt (don't be stingy with it either - use a good couple of teaspoons or so), freshly ground pepper, garlic and dried thyme and then shoved about 5 small pieces of butter under the skin of the breasts and legs. Truss the chicken and roast in a 425 degree oven (can someone please tell me how to put the degree mark at the end of the temp, it's bugging me not knowing - thanks!) for 20 minutes and then reduce the temp to 350 for about 1 1/2 hours more (depending on the size of your chicken, this may only take 40 minutes more) - or until the an instant-read thermometer reads 165 when you check in the thigh (the temp will raise another 5 degrees while it rests). Let rest for 10-20 minutes before carving. You can learn how to truss a chicken here.

And here's that lovely chicken all nice and roasted. (The house smelled so good!)

Since this post has gotten lengthy already, stay tuned this week as I blog the rest of the meal.

Bon Appetite!

Well, blow me over....another award?!

Wow - two awards in one week! I am just floored. I have been having so much fun doing this blog and I'm just tickled that other people are reading and enjoying the posts.....but awards....for me.....I mean, wow! It's definitely icing on the cake.

A big super-duper thank you to Cathy at The Tortefeasor who presented me with the Brilliante Weblog Award. She's got a fantastic blog and I so enjoy reading her posts (although she may say they're long-winded, I like reading every word :-) If you haven't already, please go check it out.

I guess there are some rules to follow as I present this award to others:

1. when you receive a diamond, make a post about it on your blog. check

2. name the blogger from whom you got it. check

3. award the diamonds to seven other bloggers. see below, check

4. link them. check

5. and tell them they got one. ok, gotta do this still check

It's so great to be in the company of the blogs who have received this and the ones listed here. They are all so talented! When my blog grows up, I want it to be just like these:

Real Mom Kitchen - right back atcha Laura. I'm still smiling from getting my first award from her - such a wonderful surprise! Laura's got a great blog and just plain delicious recipes (and she's got such a nice name, too :-)

Rookie Cookie - I just love the name of this blog - so clever! And the layout is just terrific. Beautiful photos and lots of great recipes.

food.baby - An Aussie blog - so cool! Susan's got a saying at the bottom of her blog that I really think is poignant: "The difference you make in someone else's life, will always be smaller than the difference it will in your own ..." Of course, her recipes are great too!

The Boastful Baker - Just a gorgeous blog - photos, recipes, layout, everything.

Frantic Home Cook - This lady is simply inspiring. She may say she's "Frantic", but sure looks like she's got it all together to me.

A Recipe A Day - Nancy is absolutely prolific with the recipes. I ask this question about a lot of blogs, and I certainly do about this one: "How on earth does she do it? Really, how!?".

Cream Puffs in Venice - Ivonne is one of the co-founders of the Daring Bakers Challenge. Beautiful blog, and so talented - check out this post and you'll understand. Still considering joining this baking group, but I haven't screwed up enough courage yet. I feel like they are way outta my league.

These amazing blogs have probably all received this award before, but I am so inspired by their brilliance that I felt I must send it to them anyway. Hope you all get a chance to check them out - you won't be sorry you did!

"It's a major award!"

I have exciting news everyone - I received my first blog award! Woo HOOOOOO! Thanks so much to Laura at Real Mom Kitchen for giving me this - I am truly grateful.

No it's not this (although, how cool would that be!):

But this:

Isn't it adorable?!

So now, I need to pay it forward (let's see how many movie references I can get into this post) and send it to 10 other fantastic blogs.

Flannel Hippos - My friend Jennifer started blogging quite a while ago and I've been following since the beginning. She's one of the people who inspired me to start my own blog (and do so many other things) - she is amazing!

Prudence Pennywise - I just love this food on a budget blog! She is positively prolific with her posts and recipes.

La Mia Cucina - I haven't laughed so hard at a baking post -ever- as I did with hers on the July Daring Bakers challenge (Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream). I just may have to go back and read it again.

The Tortefeasor - Just getting to know Cathy because she just started with Tuesdays With Dorie too. The saying she's got on her blog wins big points with me (because I have said this myself to some turned up noses at the magnificent meals I prepared) "you'll eat it and you'll like it!"

Matt's Kitchen - I love reading a guy's perspective on cooking and baking! His blog is great and he's fellow newbie to TWD, too.


The Del Sisters - These two teenage girls are amazing! I can't believe how much cooking they get done, and it all looks so good too! You go girls!

Simmer Till Done - Marilyn's posts are great and they're always good for a chuckle or two. She's got fantastic recipes, too.

Ezra Pound Cake - This is just such a nice looking blog. Rebecca's got wonderful stories to go along with her recipes and fantastic photography.

The Dogs Eat the Crumbs - Her success with the Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte (it's gorgeous!) alone is worth giving her this award (but she's got a great blog, too).

Proud Italian Cook - A fellow Italian cook, need I say more? Beautiful blog and food - I nearly drooled all over my keyboard at her Daring Bakers Eclairs.

These are some really great blogs and I hope you all visit and enjoy them! Congrats to all!

Food Blogging Link Love

I haven't made anything interesting in the last few days because all 4 kids have been sick with the welcome-back-to-school icky nose and fever thing (all my shirts are covered in ...... well, I guess I'd better not gross you all out, this being food blog afterall - wouldn't want to ruin your appetite.)

Anyhoo, here are a few great looking recipes I've read about and am most definitely going to try (as soon as I can unbury the house from tissues):

The best darn banana bread from Flannel Hippos

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits from Ezra Pound Cake

Hot Crash Potatoes from Honey B

Go Get Em Smoothie from Matt's Kitchen

And, for those of you feeling really adventurous, you can make some Chocolate Eclairs (at the Mele Cotte blog) like the Daring Bakers group did last month.

Happy cooking!

TWD: Chunky Hazelnut and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was for Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters which, to me, sounds as great as the name is long - I love PB and chocolate, Reeses being my fav-o-rite candy. As I mentioned before, however, we've got a little one 'round here that may have a peanut allergy, so I had to ditch the Peanut Butter.

Enter in

If you've never tried this chocolate hazelnut concoction, well, you simply must. It's realllllly good, especially on a slice of french bread. I like it this way for nostalgia sake I guess, because I first tried nutella when I was in France as an exchange student way back in high school. Unfortunately, it's not particularly inexpensive, but c'est la vie.

I really needed to add some chunkiness to these, too (mainly because I like nuts, but then there's also the whole "Chunky" thing right in the front of the title). So conveniently, I snagged the very last bag of chopped hazelnuts at Meijer (for a minute there I was sweating in the baking aisle - you gotta be kidding me, no hazelnuts in the nut section?! but then there it was, buried under the walnut pieces - yessssss!). This was quite a find, because if you've ever had to crack and skin hazelnuts, you know what a real chore this can be, and I just wasn't up to doing all that.

These cookies were very easy to make. Really, I'd only have to recommend one thing and that's to follow the chilling directions. I didn't chill the dough after the first batch went in the oven and, in hind sight, I wish I had. The cookies that were chilled looked better (see exhibits a and b below) and tended not to spread as much:



The kids really enjoyed these, and yeah, so did the grown-ups. All in all, I'd have to give the nutella twist on these the thumbs up. Try it, you'll see.


Little Miss K approves, too (sorry for the blur, but this was definitely an action shot - had to hurry before that cookie was a-goner):



Thanks to Stefany at Proceed With Caution for choosing this week's recipe! (You can find the recipe on her site.)

Looking forward to next week? I sure am: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops.