The WHOLE thing

There were no "cluckings" to be heard in my kitchen tonight. Sad news for my raw chicken sitting on the counter. But sacrifices must be made for the good of a GREAT meal. Thank you little chicken.

Roasted Garlic&Herb Chicken
Ingredients:
1 whole roasting chicken (mine was about 5 pounds)
1/2 cup roasted garlic (**see below for instructions)
2 1/2 cups water
1 lemon
2 bay leaves
rosemary
salt and pepper
paprika
1 tbs. olive oil

Directions: To prepare the brine, combine roasted garlic, water, salt, pepper, and olive oil in a blender. Squeeze in juice of half a lemon (save other half). Blend well. Stir in bay leaves.
Place the chicken in a plastic ziploc bag. Pour brine all over. Squeeze out all the air from the bag and place it in a big bowl to prevent problems with leakage. Refrigerate 12-24 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees [F]. Remove chicken from brine and place in a roasting pan. Sprinkle salt, pepper, paprika, and rosemary all over the chicken. Place the remaining half lemon and some extra rosemary inside chicken cavity.
Roast for 1 1/2 hours or so, or until juices run clear from thigh when pierced with a fork. Let rest for a few minutes so the juices stay in the meat when you served.

**To roast garlic, peel outer layer of garlic bulb and cut off tops to expose cloves. Drizzle olive oil over garlic and cover with foil. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 400 degrees [F]. Let cool until they are manageable. Use a fork to gently pull out the tender garlic cloves.
The smell of roasted garlic is definitely one of my faves! Wow.

It's okay to be cheesy

I remember my first attempt at making pizza dough ended as a complete disaster because I thought I could get away with "adjusting" my ingredients and measurements. Big mistake. My pizzas came out worse than chewed up cardboard (that pretty much summarizes what they tasted like too).
This time I was determined to make a damn good pizza so my brother would shut up once and for all about my horrible pizza making. And I'm pleased to say that he has been thinking of something else to make fun of now since he took his first bite of my improved pizza... 20 bites ago.

Pizza








for the dough (two 12-inch crusts):
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 package active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. salt
1 tbs. sugar
1 tbs. honey

Combine water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. Let the yeast dissolve for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and mix by hand or on low speed for about 1 minute, Knead for 10 minutes. Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly coated with olive oil. Cover with plastic and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes).
Punch down the dough and divide in half. Roll each piece into a ball and let rise another10 to 15 minutes, loosely wrapped in plastic.
Flatten each ball of dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch round. Place each dough circle on a prepared baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Lift the edges and pinch to form a lip. To prevent the filling from making the crust soggy, brush the top with olive oil. The pizza is now ready to be topped and baked.

The beauty about pizzas is the infinite number of combinations of toppings that can complement each other. Of course, you can make it really sophisticated and add anchovies and roasted asparagus and what not, but for the sake of my simplistic brother I made a classic cheese pizza (with extra extra cheese) and pepperoni.

For each 12-inch round, you will need:
1/2 cup pizza sauce or marinara
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella or 6 oz. sliced mozzarella (I cut my own)
feta cheese
parmesan cheese
seasonings (salt, pepper, italian seasoning, coarsely chopped basil)

Once you have prepared your dough, preheat the oven to 475 degrees [F].
Before I spread on the marinara, I like to gently rub some garlic over the surface of my dough so that it adheres to the olive oil and flavors the crust a little more. Put an even coating of sauce and seasonings. Layer cheeses and pepperoni (or whatever your heart desires) over that and pop one pizza at a time into the oven. Bake for approximately 12 minutes.

I finally feel content. =)

Daring Bakers Challenge 4

Cheesecake Pops

(Makes 30 – 40 Pops )
5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.
In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.
Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.
Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.
When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.
Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.
Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.
Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.


Perfectly asymmetrical.

Freshly Baked

Doughnuts

And from the little holes I cut out from the centers of my doughnut rings...

Doughnut Holes

When life gives you poppy seeds...

...make these:
Poppy Seed Orange Bars



Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons softened butter
2 to 3 tablespoons orange juice
1/3 cup poppy seeds
grated orange zest (optional)

Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees [F].
Comebine sugar, sourcream, 1/2 cup butter. Mix in flour, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and orange juice, and poppy seeds to the sugar mixture. Spread batter into a 13 x 9 baking pan. Bake for 17-22 minutes. Cool completely.
For the frosting, beat powdered sugar, 2 tbs. butter, and orange juice until you achieve a thick and creamy consistency. Spread over cooled bars. Sprinkle the top with orange zest for a citrus punch!


Poppy Seed Dinner Rolls
I made these for a casual dinner with friends, and they looked and tasted absolutely delicious. They were soft and flaky... just perfect.

Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
2 envelopes of dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1 large egg plus 1 egg beaten with 1 tabslepoon cold water (glaze)
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 stick butter, melted and cooled
5 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chilled butter, cut into small pices
poppy seeds

Directions: Add yeast and 1/4 tsp. sugar to warm water and stir. Let it dissolve and stand about 8 minutes.
Whisk 1 egg, milk, salt, and remaining sugar into yeast mixture. Add melted butter and whisk until smooth. Mix in 1 cup of flour. Combine 4 cups of flour and chilled butter in a food processor and combine until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add this to the yeast mixture and stir.
Knead in bowl until it is smooth. Add more flour if it is too sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
When you're ready to bake, roll dough into 24 balls and place on greased baking sheets. Cover rolls with a damp kitchen towel and let them rise until they are doubled in size (1 hour).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees [F].
Brush egg glaze over the top of rolls and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake these for approximately 25 minutes, until they are golden brown.

(dont) get it twisted

Almond Pretzels (Mandelplattchen)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tesp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar plus more for garnish
2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
chopped blanched almonds

Directions: Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and lemon zest. In a large bowl, beat 1 cup of sugar with softened butter until well blended. Beat in 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, sour cream, vanilla, and almond extract.
Stir in the flour mixture. Divide the dough in half, shape into disks, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until form enough to handle, about 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees [F]. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets. Working with 1 disk as a time, divide dough into pretzel shapes, and arrange about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets.
Brush the pretzels with 1 beaten egg yolk. Sprinkle tops with almonds and sugar.
Bake 1 sheet at a time, until the edges are tinged with brown, 10-12 minutes. Let stand briefly, them remove to a rack to cool.

Just because

Meat & Vegetable Lasagna


Deep-fried Dumplings



watching people devour my food makes me feel super tingly in a good way :)