Chicken Chateau Du Fey With Garlic

Chicken Chateau Du Fey With Garlic

Note: This is a simpler version of the recipe. I did not truss the bird nor turn it over during the roasting time. I also skipped the gravy as we are not gravy fans.

1 roasting chicken 4- 4 1/2 lbs
salt and pepper
2-3 large sprigs of fresh thyme
2-3 large sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1/4 - 1/3 cup butter
garlic

Although the recipe calls for fresh herbs I used the rosemary drying on my counter, a dry bay leaf and some dry thyme (not shown).


Rinse the bird and dry the inside with a paper towel. Stuff with the herbs. Place breast up in a roasting pan and place the butter on top of the skin. Roast in the oven at 350, basting every 15 minutes.


Since we love garlic I made the variation with garlic. While the chicken is in the oven separate the head of garlic into cloves, but do not peel. Add the garlic to the roasting pan the first time you baste the bird.


The chicken comes out a lovely color and the flavor between the herbs and the garlic was wonderful. The bones made some great chicken noodle soup.

Some Comfort Food

Everybody has their version of comfort food, sometimes several types of comfort food. This is a cool to cold weather dish I like to make, its part of our comfort food list.

First, assemble all your ingredients: onion, bacon, pork chops, an apple and some sauerkraut.


Chop up the onion and about 4 slices of bacon. Saute them together in a pan. If the bacon is lean you may need to add a little olive oil.


When the bacon is cooked and the onion in tender remove them from the pan and place on paper towel to drain.


Keep only about 1 tablespoon of drippings in the pan, add your seasoned pork chops and brown well on both sides. Remove from pan when done.


While the pork chops are browning, slice and core the apple.


After the pork chops have been browned and removed from the pan put the sauerkraut in and mix in the cooked bacon and onion, stir well to combine.


Place the pork chops into the pan, nestling them into the sauerkraut, put the apples on top and add a hearty splash of dry white wine. Cover and simmer until the apples are tender.


Enjoy!

Zuppa Osso Buco

Yesterday while digging for something to make for dinner I happened upon a pound of ground veal. Never having used ground veal before I thumbed through my cookbook collection looking for a recipe. Aside from meatballs it was a fruitless search. So I turned to the Food Channel website and found this recipe from Rachel Ray. And while it looks long it only took about 30 minutes start to finish

It turned out to be the perfect recipe for after a day of house cleaning and playing with wood. It was easy to make, very tasty and hearty. I am grateful for a well stocked pantry as the only thing I did not have was the 2 ribs of celery.

Zuppa Osso Buco

Veal Dumplings:

1 lb ground veal
1 large egg beaten
1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
course salt and pepper

Stoup: (not a typo, exactly as the recipe prints out)

2 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
2 carrots peeled
2 ribs celery and their greens
1 medium yellow skinned onion, peeled and halved
course salt and pepper
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup white wine
1 can (14oz) cannellini beans, drained (white kidney beans)
1 can (15oz) diced tomatoes in puree
3 cups chicken stock
2 cups beef stock
1 cup egg pasta, broken egg fettuccine or medium egg noodles

Gremolata:

2 cloves garlic, cracked away from skins
1 tin (2 oz)flat anchovy fillets, drained
handful flat-leaf parsley
1 lemon zested

Directions:

Combine all ingredients for the veal dumplings. Mix well and set aside.

Heat a medium soup pot over medium to medium-high heat. Begin to chop veggies while the pot heats up; dice carrots into 1/4 inch pieces, chop celery and onion. Add olive oil to hot pot and carrots. Turn carrots to coat them in oil and add celery and onion as you get them chopped up. Work near the stove so you can chop, then drop into the pot. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and a bay leaf. Stir vegetables and cook for 5 minutes to begin to soften. Do not let vegetables brown; reduce heat if necessary. Add wine and cook for 1 minute. Next, add the beans and tomatoes and stock to the pot. Put a lid on the pot and raise heat to high. When soup boils, about 3 minutes, add 1 inch balls of veal dumplings directly to pot. When you are done adding the veal, stir in the egg noodles. Simmer soup for 6 minutes to cook noodles and meat dumplings. Adjust seasonings, turn off heat, let soup stand a couple of minutes.

Make the Gremolata:

Pile the garlic, anchovies, parsley and lemon zest on a cutting board and finely chop the mixture, then transfer to a small dish.

Serve stoup in shallow bowls with a couple teaspoonfuls of gremolata on top. Mix the gremolata throughout the soup.

Pass with crusty bread.



I did not have any egg noddles os I used regular fettucchini. I don't think you really need the noodles as the soup was very hearty. This will be a regular when I can get ground veal during the winter.

Winter's Coming,,,,,Winter's Coming

Chicken Little used to run around saying "the sky is falling, the sky is falling". Instead of that I am staring at Richard and saying "winter is coming, winter is coming"

Yes, I am fully aware that according to the calendar and the weather guessers it is not even really fall yet, but up here we always and I do mean ALWAYS get a light snowfall before Halloween. So while the weather is gorgeous we are getting ready for the upcoming colder weather.

About 2 weeks ago I harvested all the basil and then hung it to dry. Once dry I picked off the leaves and put them up to be used in the future. I also made some tomato-basil jam which has a kick to it.


Now that I had the basil out of the way I brought in all the rosemary (sorry for the blurry photo). The stuff on the left is regular rosemary. On the right is a curry variety which can be used to flavor eggs, soups and such. We love curry and I want to try it on the Rosemary Chicken legs I made a few weeks ago.


Our cayenne pepper plants are dropping their leaves and the mass quantities of peppers are starting to turn red. Richard will not let me pick all of them until they are red even though I read that they will turn red once picked. Here are a few on the counter.


We took down another tree yesterday, cut it, stacked some fireplace lengths and split some and stacked a small amount on the porch to be used during the next few days.


Once we had wood on the porch, Richard sat in the last of the day's warm (63 degrees and dropping) sunlight and chopped up a bunch of kindling while enjoying a beer to quench our thirst after a hard day's work.


The woodshed is now full except for one small row near the far left. Just so we are on the same page, each row is stacked up to the peak of the roof. 2 rows equals a full cord of wood which is 4 feet high by 4 feet deep by 8 feet long.


But we have a whole lot more wood to be split once it dries out some and we still have 2 large trees on our property to take down and the Village has promised us a truck load of 5-12 foot lengths of wood once they start cutting all the dead trees along the main road and side streets in the Village limits. Note to Fred: you may have missed this summer's splitting but there will be plenty to do next summer.


Here is a pile of small stuff which will help fill the only open spot in the wood shed.


After a hard day's work I made us some really good, hearty soup for dinner and that ladies and gentlemen will be my next post.

Also before I harvested the basil I put up 4 pints of pickled Banana peppers and some pickled jalapenos.

Labor Day Weekend

We have some neighbors who have several dead trees in their yard and asked Richard is he knew of a good tree service to take them down. Richard said that as long as there was "no chance" of the trees hitting their house we would take them down for the firewood.

When I came home from work on Thursday before the long weekend I could see that he had been busy splitting the logs that had been lying in the backyard all summer.


On Friday afternoon, he went up to the neighbor's house and took down three trees and cut them into fireplace lengths. We and I do mean WE went up on Saturday morning and started splitting them. We also took down another tree, cut it into lengths and spilt it. We then had to haul our wood home and stack it.

This is the first tractor bucket full stacked into the wood shed.


Here comes the second tractor bucket full,,,,


And the third.


On Sunday we moved the pile he split on Thursday into the wood shed. That took 2 tractor bucket fulls.


Needless to day I was extremely grateful to wake up and see the rain falling this morning.

There are still a couple more trees at our neighbor's house that need to come down plus a few dead ones around our house. Before the snow falls we will have the woodshed stocked chock full plus some.

Pantry Pork Chops

Pantry Pork Chops

For the marinade:
1/4 cup plus 1 tblsp fresh lemon juice
3 tblsp soy sauce
1 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp light brown sugar
1/4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

4 pork rib chops, about 1 1/4 inches thick each

To make the marinade: In a medium bowl whisk together all the marinade ingredients.

Place the pork chops in a resealable plastic bag. Pour the marinade over them. Press the air out of the bag and seal tightly. Turn bag to distribute the marinade, place in a bowl and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.



Remove the pork chops from the marinade and discard the marinade, Allow to stand at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before grilling.

Sear the chops of direct heat heat for 6 minutes, turning once halfway through searing time. Continue grilling over indirect medium heat until the juice run clear, 6-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm.



These were really good and I was happy to be able to use some of the rosemary growing in our garden. Will make these again but with a little less lemon juice.

Baked Lake Trout

Our friend Paul called a few days ago and said he had been fishing again and would we like some Rainbow Trout. Of course we jumped at the chance for more great fish.



Now I know that Rainbow Trout are not lake trout but I figured I would try this recipe anyway. The fish came out very moist with a nice flavor. Sorry to say that we inhaled our meal before I remembered that I hadn't taken a picture of the finished product,,,oops.



Baked Lake Trout

1 large trout, cleaned and gutted with skin on
5 tblsp butter, divided
garlic salt
freshly ground black pepper
chopped fresh herbs, such as basil, oregano, marjoram, chives, parsley or a combination. (I used oregano, basil and parsley)
1 lemon thinly slice
2 tblsp lemon juice
tartar sauce

1) preheat oven to 400. Place prepared fish on a backing sheet that has been covered with aluminum foil. Thinly slice 2 tblps of butter. Open the cavity in the fish, sprinkle garlic salt, pepper and herbs to cover the inside. Place the lemon and butter inside close the fish and turn on its side.

2) Melt remaining 3 tblsp butter,combine with the lemon juice, Pour over the top of the fish and bake for about 20 minutes, Serve with tartar sauce.

Notes: I used granulated garlic instead of the garlic salt. I did not use lemon slices because I didn't have any and we did not use any tartar sauce. I also had to triple the recipe which used an obscene amount of butter.

Irene Visits Oriental, NC

Back on Saturday, August 27th Hurricane Irene decided to make a visit to Oriental, North Carolina. Richard went down and moved Hale Kai to a safe spot and then rode out the storm while on-board. Here are some photos he took while the eye of the storm was passing over and then the next day.

In the center of this photo is poor Gertrude, Richard's pickup truck. We are very pleased to report that while the carpeting is now shot from water getting in she started up the first try after the storm and runs perfectly. Not bad for a 1992 truck with 500,000 miles on her.


This was taken from the bow of Hale Kai looking over at Deaton's Boat Yard. All those boats were sitting on dry land before the storm surge. Another 2 feet of water and they would all be floating away.


Those little white things in the water are the tops of pilings which are normally 10 feet above the water. There was a hefty storm surge in Oriental. Some places reported 9 1/2 feet, other spots reported 11 feet. Either way that was a lot of water.


The next day was a lovely day. Richard shot this photo of Hale Kai from the bow looking back. In the lower right hand there is a pine branch. At the back of the boat you can see our mangled American flag. Richard said he is not sure why he didn't think to take the flag down.


Here is a close up of the flag. Richard brought it home and asked me if I could fix it. I could not help laughing and said I don't think I can untangle the ends of it.
NOTE: Per proper flag etiquette we are going to burn the flag later on today.



This is a shot of the Oriental Harbor Marina. On "A" dock notice that all the finger piers which go out between the boats are gone. Several dock boxes are gone also including our two. The pedestals which provide the power and water connections are all destroyed.


Over on the "B" dock of Oriental Harbor Marina Richard found Robin's Nest. Story goes that during the storm surge the winds blew her over a finger pier and when the back of the storm came and the winds changed directions, as the water went down her propeller got snagged on the finger pier and she toppled into the water. She was raised the next day and sent for repairs.


Here is a shot from the other side of Robin's Nest.


Alas, here is another boat that sank. Supposedly Journey's dock lines snapped and she got swamped and sank in her slip.


And yet another boat. This one and the one above were at Whittaker Pointe Marina not far from where we keep Hale Kai.


In the end we are happy that Richard and Hale Kai both came through safely.