Easy Roast Chicken

November 27, 2017December 31, 2020 Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

As the cool weather sets in, I have been itching to make some cozy dinners. Most days of the week I find myself sticking to the same dinner dishes, but I like to try to add a new meal to my repertoire at least once a week. On a normal weekday, I am out of the house for close to 10 hours and often don’t get home before 6:00. A busy work week makes cooking experimentation difficult!

One of my favorite weekend rituals is spending mornings watching The Food Network and The Cooking Channel. I personally find it comforting to have cooking shows on in the background as I drink coffee and attend to other household chores. One of my favorite chefs to watch and learn from is Ina Garten. I have seen her “Roast Chicken” episode a few times and I finally decided to give her recipe a try.

Although I don’t think I could make this as a weeknight meal because of the extended cook time, I think it is a great dinner option for the weekend. Minimal time is needed for preparing the chicken, and following the recipe is fairly easy. My major recommendation is to make sure to generously season the chicken {about 7 lbs} and roast it for about 2 hours to least 165 degrees.

Whenever I prepare raw chicken, I wash and put away any other dishes in the sink or on the counters to spare them from contamination. I also use a separate cutting board strictly for raw chicken. After I put the chicken in the oven, I focus my attention to cleaning the countertops. Although I have heard mixed reviews about using diluted white vinegar for cleaning granite counters, I have not had any problems. I mainly use Method brand cleaning products for cleaning the kitchen, but cleaning while cooking raw chicken is an exception.

I have a Samsung slide-in oven which has a convection roast setting. I pre-heated the oven to 425 degrees. Don’t forget to adjust your racks before your preheat your oven. First, I cut a lemon into quarters, followed by cutting an onion into thick slices and lastly cutting the potatoes into halves. To prepare the chicken I removed the innards {didn’t know they would be in a bag – how nice!}. Next, I rinsed the chicken under cool water and patted it dry. I then seasoned the cavity with salt, black pepper, Herb de Provence, fresh garlic cloves, onion and lemon wedges.

Unfortunately, as soon as I was ready to put the chicken in the oven, I realized I didn’t have kitchen twine. {Was I supposed to register for that for my bridal shower?} Twine is important because it helps the chicken cook evenly and prevents the legs from burning. I opted for dental floss {sorry, mom} and it worked out fine. It’s also important to prevent the wings from burning. I could have tucked the wings under the body of the chicken, but they seemed pretty snug as they were.

I have a roasting pan, but I opted for my wide Calphalon Dutch oven. I placed the potatoes and onions at the bottom of the pan. Looking back, I could have also added carrots and celery. I tied the legs with “twine” I placed the chicken on top of the vegetables {this helps the air circulate around the chicken}. I seasoned the outside of the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and basted it with melted butter.

I am happy and equally proud to check this recipe off my “to-try” list. I will definitely be making it again. Check back soon to see what yummy meal I made with the leftovers!

xo Miss Alyss

Gluten-Free Travel Diary: Denver, CO!

July 1, 2017 Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

This week Facebook reminded me that a year ago we took a quick trip to Denver, CO. Since I didn’t post a travel diary for this trip last year I figured what better time to post than on the one year anniversary. Our trip started off a bit rocky because Expedia (or Travelocity, I can’t remember) lost our hotel reservation. It was incredibly frustrating to get off the plane to a voicemail that we didn’t have a hotel to stay at. Within a couple of hours I got it all sorted out and we ended up getting a hotel upgrade. We stayed in the downtown area, so we didn’t need to rent a car and were able to walk everywhere.

13592710_10206845714366328_5710401956550341862_n — #hotelproblems!

One restaurant we knew we wanted to try was Snooze. There is usually a wait so we made sure to get there pretty early for breakfast. While you’re waiting you can play cornhole outside. Although they don’t have a separate gluten-free menu they do offer plenty of gluten-free options. I got pancakes AND eggs. Mike got the biggest breakfast burrito I’ve ever seen.

One of Mike’s friends plays for the Toronto Blue Jays and they happened to be playing in Colorado while we were there. Before going to the game we stopped at ViewHouse which has a great rooftop bar and views of the city. My drink of choice the entire trip was a mojito! Coorsfield has a gluten-free stand in section 142. I got a gluten-free beer and the best chicken quesadilla ever. Of all the sporting venues I have been to my food at Coorsfield tops the charts. It was a good thing my food kept me occupied because there was a crazy hail storm that delayed the game for 2 hours and trapped us in the stadium. While on our trip we also did a stadium tour which was really cool and we learned that Coorsfield is actually the home of Blue Moon.

On our last morning in Denver we went to Syrup for breakfast. The food was good, but the service was extremely slow. They also didn’t have quite as many gluten-free options as Snooze. I chose a gluten-free omelet and coffee. Make sure you ask questions about how the gluten-free toast is prepared.

13528779_10206845708686186_6589727657757864876_n — Red Rocks

Gluten Free Strawberry Scones

July 1, 2017March 28, 2021 Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

I am not much of a baker mostly because I don’t like to measure when I am cooking. Baking itself isn’t that easy. Gluten-free baking is often mission impossible. For a variety of reason that Alton Brown could probably explain much better than me gluten-free flours don’t behave the same way as traditional flours. Gluten-free baking can easily turn into a science project as you mix different flours and starches to get the perfect blend. For those of us who are less inclined to be scientists in the kitchen Bob’s Redmill and King Arthur now have gluten-free flour blends that can be more easily substituted in “normal” recipes. I have used both and feel that each work best in different recipes, so trial and error is the best approach when choosing between them.

Last summer my fiance and I went on an amazing trip to Ireland {I’m very behind on that travel blog}. While were there I was pleasantly surprised by how aware the country was of food allergies in general; not even just gluten. We ate so many scones in Ireland. Yes, gluten-free scones! While we were there we talked about how once we were settled in our new house I would make us scones and we could reminisce about our trip. Last week I decided it was time to give it a try.

On the weekends I love watching Food Network and The Cooking Channel in the morning. It’s really the only time that “real” cooking shows are on. I love watching Ina Garten {anyone else excited about her new series?!} so I decided to go with her Strawberry Scone recipe. I used King Arthur’s Measure for Measure flour and reduced the recipe to 1 stick of butter.

If you have been following my wedding blogs or Instagram you may know that I am a soon-to-be-bride and a new homeowner! We have been in our house for a few months, but I have resisted buying any major kitchen items because I will be having a bridal shower. That being said I do not have the standard kitchen equipment normally required to make scones. To my surprise the scones turned out pretty good even though I don’t have an electric mixer, measuring spoons, egg wash brush or a rolling pin. But I must admit, I am really looking forward to my bridal shower and filling my kitchen with all of the awesome things I picked out!

Using my mini-food processor I cut the butter into the flour in batches and mixed all of the ingredients by hand. I combined the dough into a ball and on a floured cookie sheet lined with parchment paper I worked the dough into a disk. I picked up a trick from a Martha Stewart show that helps keep your parchment paper in place. You can use small binder clips to secure it to the cookie sheet.

Overall I would consider this recipe a success, but it could use a few tweaks. The scones were a bit bland, so next time I may add more sugar or powdered sugar after they’re baked. They were also a bit dense which is most likely due to the gluten-free flour. Next time I would try another brand and also bump up the amount of strawberries.