Oven Roasted Onions

Onions.
Bittersweet.
They make me cry.
But I still like them.

I made a decision this week.
It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make,
it was also the easiest.
I feel sadness.
I feel relief.
Bittersweet.

I've been chasing loons for weeks now.
The babies are diving and learning to feed themselves.
There's a lesson in that.

I'm back in the kitchen.

Yay to that.

Oven Roasted Onions

Ingredients:

Sweet Vadalia onions
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Fresh Rosemary


Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375
Peel and slice onions into halves or quarters.
Its really just a matter of preference.

Drizzle onions with olive oil
Salt, Pepper and Rosemary them.

Roast in oven until the bottoms are caramelized.




It's good to be back.


: )

Roasted Red Bell Peppers

I appreciate convenience. I do.
But when it comes to minced garlic or roasted peppers
which require what, a little time a little effort, I'll do just that.
Put in the time and the effort and save convenience for other things
like...

double charbroils. HA!

It's as simple as taking your fresh bell peppers and putting them in the oven on broil.
You want to watch them closely, as soon as one side starts to char, flip it over.
You do this until all sides are charred.

The secret to an easy peel of the skin, is a brown paper bag.
When the peppers are done, put them in the bag.

Close the bag.

Let them sit and steam for a good fifteen minutes or longer.
I never really time it so honestly, I have no clue.

The skin comes right off.

Speaking of honest...
I had a commenter from someone who chose to remain anonymous,
comment on my Hemingway/radish blog about the "annoying" center formatting.


Anonymous said...

hey, centering your text is annoying. cool post, annoying format.

nobody
writes
like
this

Dig?




Right on. I have no problem with what this person said. It was honest.
Actually the editorial tone, sounded familiar. Someone I used to know,
always liked to edit my work. He usually made a few good points.
And not many people I know use the word "dig".
In fact I stole it. More often than not, I'll say "I dig that",
instead of saying "I like that".

Anyway...
The thing is, I don't disagree. What I need to know is how to CSS/html. I don't.
I need it center tabled, so that my text runs in the center, but lines up left to the left of the center.
So commenter if you know how to do this, school me please, I'd appreciate it.
If anyone else knows how.....I'll thank you muchly for showing this girl how to do it.

Morning Bed Post...

It's nine twenty seven am.
Yes I write out my numbers.
I can fly on the keyboard.
Except when typing numerics.

I'm still in bed.
I doubled out yesterday so I could have
two days off. Go me!

I'm looking at my blog.
It's very blue.
I like this color blue.
There's just so much of it.
Like, it's A LOT of blue..
I really need to get a picture in my header.
Which leads me to this mornings ramble.
I'm not even out of bed and I'm stalling.


Things I want to get done:

Taxes
Break down the cardboard boxes in the garage
(I've been on a cook book ordering bender this winter)
Cook something today.
Photograph it.
Clean out the frig.
(I think I had a cucumber die)
Work on my website.
Work on a secret project.
Read.

Mostly I'm hungry.
Speaking of food,
I have red onions to photographs
for a friends book cover.


I'm still stalling aren't I?

That's a big fat YEP.

Marinated Onions

Salt
Black Pepper
Rice Wine Vinegar


Let sit for an hour.

Six Ingredients

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup with Cream

(MASTER RECIPE)

Ingredients:


Red bell peppers roasted
(I added yellow as well)
Three large cloves of garlic smashed
Salt
Pepper
Heavy whipping cream
Vegetable or Chicken Broth


Preparation:


I don't measure.

I roast my own peppers.

Puree the roasted peppers
(make sure you have removed all the seeds before puree'ing)
(as well as the skins if you have roasted them yourself)

Add enough broth to thin it out to your liking.
(remember you are adding cream to this)

smash the cloves of garlic.
add to the soup.
salt and pepper to taste

simmer on low for an hour.

Add the heavy cream.
I like a lot of cream.
but that's me.




I like more cream than what's in this picture
and this cream was added
after i poured the soup
for prettiness.

The Cook's word on soup:

It always taste better the next day.
Everybody knows that right?

It doesn't take 3290485675 ingredients
to make something spectacular.
Everybody knows that too ...

Sometimes,
we try too hard.
We over season, when we didn't need to.
it ruins what was already good.


This is just a base recipe...
the roasted bell peppers could be switched out for
pumpkin
butternut squash
broccoli
corn
asparagus
cauliflower
garlic
potato



y'all have a good weekend.

xo

It's Vegetarian!

Yes I know, a meatless recipe!
For those who do know me......have jaws dropping to the floor.

Joshy Gets Slawed

Joshy and I went out for chinese and he ordered a spicy little salad.
Freakin tasty as he would say...this is my attempt to duplicate it.
I think we've gotten pretty damn close. And it is good.
Always amazes me that the simplest of recipes often times throw the biggest punch.
I think there's something to that...and not just when it comes to food.


The slaw at the restaurant was thickly chunked.
I opted to julienne my cabbage and I added red bell peppers.

Three parts vinegar to oil.
Red pepper flakes.
Sugar.

The Vinegar
Originally we thought maybe Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar.
I used that the first time, and it's good.
You can use either.
Regular vinegar or Seasoned Rice wine vinegar.

The Oil
After testing, what I liked best was Canola oil splashed with toasted sesame oil.
Toasted sesame oil, obviously has a nutty flavor, it can be over powering.
Go easy.


The Heat
I'm pretty much a wimp when it comes to anything hot.
It's all up to YOU.


The Sugar
I never measure.
Maybe a tablespoon?

it's good stuff.
really good.

Sunday Roast Chicken and Acorn Squash Puree

I've been posting mostly soups.
I thought it time I give you something to bite into instead of slurp.

Roast Chicken

These days I like beer butt chicken

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, you're basically shoving
a can of beer up inside the bird.
Because it stands upright all sides are evenly cooked.
And cooked right this bird is SUCCULENT.

I salt and pepper the bird, inside and out.

I've tried high heat. I've tried low and slow.
My preference is 15 minutes on 500
then cook at 275 until you can easily pull the leg
or the juices run clear.

Simple is best.

*****






Pureed Acorn Squash

Ingredients:
Two acorn squash
Salt
Pepper
Saffron
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Heavy Cream
Chicken broth.

You all know I don't measure.

Microwave the squash.
Remove the seeds
Scrape the squash out and put into food processor
(you also use a blender or a mixer)
Add 1 cup chicken broth.
Puree.
Put mixture into a pot.
Medium heat.
Add pinches of:
salt, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon
(heat a 1/8 cup of broth)
Add pinch of saffron to the heated liquid
so that it will evenly distrubute when added to the squash puree
Add a half cup of heavy whipping cream.
Let mixture simmer until it thickens.
(if you want to turn this into a soup just add more liquid, broth and or cream)

*********





I almost forgot dessert!

Sweet Ricotta filled Crepes with a Blueberry Sauce
(will post recipe tomorrow)

Good comfort food...
and a few of you could use a little extra comfort right about now.
you know who you are.
loving you I am
the only way I know how.
Eat.

Wishing you all a great week ahead.

A Roasting of Chicken and Vegetables

The simplest food is usually the best.
This is some serious LOVE YOU food.
So EAT I say!

Ingredients:



1 Chicken
(whole)

Potatoes

Rutabaga

Carrots

Corn


Brussel Sprouts and Cabbage


Sweet Potato

(or a yam)

Green beans

These are what I happened to have in my frig,
Use vegetables you like.

Ah, and chicken broth.



Preparation:

Liberally salt and pepper the chicken.

The salt that falls into the bottom of the pan will season your vegetables.

I dig these little handy props for the chicken roasting,

roasts the bird evenly on all sides.
You can find them anywhere,
either one like this or one of those beer butt chicken holders.

I put my chicken in first because I want to give it a head start,
while I work on the vegetables.

Remember how we chopped up a potato?
Same thing here with the rutabaga, and yam. Cut both ends off.

Slice the skin off the sides

I like to chop them relatively small, they'd be overcooked
and nothing but mush if I put them in right away.

*Ack, let me say this also,you can make this dish in a crock pot,
you can substitute ham for the chicken,
you can cook this in a closed casserole dish.......doesn't really matter.



Chop the vegetables.
Leave the brussel sprouts whole.

Remove the cabbage core

Cut the cabbage in half.

V out the middle white core.

Hey! About the celery, don't throw out the hearts,
the leaves in the middle... there's a ton of flavor in those little things.

As for carrots, I leave the skin on.

I cut my corn into pieces, they'll cook a little faster.

You'll rarely see me use a food processor.



I love the slicing and dicing.
I like my hands on the food.

After giving the chicken a half hour start in the oven

drop the vegetables in the roasting pan.

Add enough chicken broth to almost cover them.

All the aromatics are going to flavor the chicken.
I can't begin to tell you how freakin good your house is going to smell.

I never pay attention to time.
I watch the chicken.

When I can move the legs, or the wing easily it's done.
(Roughly and hour, hour and a half if I had to guess)

Oh and this will make one hell of a pot of soup the next day.

Might look a little plain here,


but I don't really care.....
I was WAY too hungry to fuss with it. And I was losin daylight fast.
What it lacks in presentation it makes up for in taste.
.The chicken was so succulent, and the flavor imparted from all the aromatics...

It had flavor that's good enough for me.

DAY TWO



Best part of this dish is what happened today........soup.
Take the chicken meat off the bone, tear into small pieces
and add to soup, add more chicken stock, little salt and pepper.