A Tip for Making Roast Chicken

Hey! I tried out a tip I heard about once last night on my roasted chicken and thought I'd share with you all. I read somewhere that cutting up a celery stalk and stuffing the inside of the chicken cavity with these 2-inch or so pieces will make your chicken really moist. Typically when I roast a chicken, I put liquid in the bottom of the roasting pan (usually some chicken broth and white wine) so that I can baste my little bird with it while cooking. Last night I skipped all basting and just put celery in the cavity and it turned out just as moist! I was pretty impressed! I am guessing all the moisture in the celery sort of steams the bird from the inside.

Roasted chickens are not all that hard, but in case you've never made one, here is what I do:

Rinse the bird and pat dry.

Remove any gizzards from the cavity. (Isn't "gizzard" an amazing word?!)

Drizzle with a little olive oil.

Sprinkle with your favorite seasonings.

Cut 1-2 stalks of celery into approximately 2-inch pieces and put these inside the body cavity.

Roast at 350 degrees until a meat thermometer reads 180 degrees.

Let rest for 10 minutes or so and carve.

If you don't have a meat thermometer, go buy one! They take all the guess work out of cooking meat. I don't know how I ever got by without one. (Thanks Larae and Jonathan!!)

Hunger Pains and Frozen Nose Hairs

I have no recipes to share tonight, just a few thoughts on the topic of hunger. One of my coworkers and I got into a conversation last week about food and hunger and how hard it is to actually pay attention to hunger signals, like an empty stomach or the sensation of fullness. If I'm honest, I don't think I pay too much attention to either of these in my eating habits.

So... My coworker and I decided to try a little experiment this week for three days. We decided that we would only eat when we felt a literal hunger pain and we would go carefully and stop as soon as the hunger pains went away. We were curious how much more often we would have to eat and if, at the end of the day, we would wind up eating less.

To my surprise, this has been EXTREMELY difficult for me. Also to my surprise, it hasn't been the waiting for hunger pains that has been hard, it has been stopping when they go away! I'm not sure why this surprises me, but it does. I find that I have a super strong desire to continue eating even after I feel satisfied. Perhaps I am used to feeling overly full? Perhaps it is just fun and enjoying the way things taste is a form of entertainment? Perhaps it just bugs me terribly to leave a 1/3 of my meal on my plate and feel that I have wasted food? I have no idea. But this has been an interesting revelation.

I've also found that my psychological desire for food sometimes outweighs my physical hunger. Today I was having hunger pains around 3pm, enough to be uncomfortable. But I did NOT want the carrots and hummus that I had brought as a snack. So I just didn't eat anything until I could get home and devour a handful of dry roasted macadamia nuts. Interesting... I'm hoping I'll be a little more aware after this of what is going on inside of me when I reach for a snack or plow through my lunch.

And lastly, I just needed to post out there into the great, wide world that it is RIDICULOUSLY cold here!! Maybe the coldest it has ever been since I moved to Colorado. Cold enough, yes, to freeze your nose hairs when you go outside, which results in a funny tickling prickling sensation that makes me wrinkle my nose like a rabbit while I am trying to get to my car. Yesterday we had a "High" of -7 degrees with a wind chill factor of somewhere around -30 degrees! This morning, for fun, my coworkers and I tossed cups of hot water up into the air just to watch it turn instantly to powdery snow. (SUPER fun!) Below is a picture of some girlfriends and I who braved the cold last night to get together and watch a movie. We watched it under blankets with hoods on and hot tea just because it took me 45 minutes to get warm after being outside for 5 minutes!



That's all. Those are my deep thoughts for the day. Hope you have a lovely evening!

Super Easy, Super Quick (Almost Cheating) Cinnamon Rolls

Does this picture make your mouth water? It makes mine water, but of course I can't eat these right now. However, I made them anyway yesterday for a breakfast potluck we had at work. I chose them because I've been wishing I could eat them and if I can't, the next best thing is to make them for people I care about and watch them be enjoyed that way. That was my thought, at least. What I forgot is that (literally) everyone in my office is either fasting or dieting right now. So pretty much most of us just sat and looked wistfully at the cinnamon rolls while we chose to eat healthier things. It was bonding of a different kind :)

These are not your typical yeast-bread cinnamon rolls. These are Bisquick, sour cream and milk and and have more of a biscuit consistency. And they take almost no time to throw together! I have sweet childhood memories of my Mom making these on Sunday mornings before church or on holiday mornings. I hope you have time to whip up a batch and enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
GENEROUSLY grease 12 muffin cups

3 cups Bisquick
3/4 cup sour cream
4 1/2 T milk
1 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Powdered sugar
Vanilla extract
Milk

- Combine Bisquick, sour cream and milk and beat with 20 strokes. (I remember getting really intense about the "20" part when I would help my Mom make these when I was a kiddo. Don't worry too much about it. Just mix it as little as possible to get your ball of dough).
- Place ball of dough on a lightly floured surface and knead approximately 10 times.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out to a 12'x10' rectangle



- Spread dough with softened butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon



- Roll lengthwise and cut into 12 equal slices using a sharp knife or dental floss
- Place in muffin tin and brush with additional softened butter.



- Bake 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool approximately 15 minutes.
- For icing glaze, mix powdered sugar and milk until it has the desired consistency and then add a few drops of vanilla extract. Spoon over rolls and ENJOY!

Quinoa Carrot Breakfast Cake

Serenity... The picture above is my view as I sit here typing but I don't think it quite captures how cozy and peaceful my apartment feels on this Saturday morning and how quiet and happy I feel to be here cuddled up on my couch with a glass of orange juice. But they say a picture is worth a thousand words so I thought I would give it a try!

I felt a little funky (or "tweaked" as Jeff would say) upon waking this morning and decided I needed something beyond a handful of nuts and a banana for breakfast. I actually had all of the ingredients on hand for Quinoa Carrot Breakfast Cake, which makes me feel like my gluten-free pantry might officially be called "well-stocked". I love the idea of naming something "breakfast cake". I mean, why not just come out and call it what it is? We eat essentially eat "cake" for breakfast all the time in the socially acceptable form of muffins, doughnuts, pastries, waffles, cinnamon rolls, etc. So breakfast cake just seems like a very direct and shameless way to say, "I know I should be eating my oatmeal and a grapefruit, but gosh darn it, it is Saturday morning and I had a long week and I want cake!"

So I had it. And it was wonderful, even without the gluten. I'll let the Gluten Free Goddess tell you how to make it. The only adjustments I made were to 1/2 the sugar amount (only used a 1/2 cup) and omit the raisins (because I think the bag I had in my pantry might have been upwards of two years old. Yikes!)

Quinoa Carrot Breakfast Cake

Wishing you some peace and quietness and a very happy Saturday!

Thai Pineapple Curry

Hello! I have to sincerely apologize for my 6 week blog absence! I have been having some stomach problems and rather than be fun and inspiring, food has been a source of pain, frustration and, if I am brutally honest, a bit of depression over the last couple months. As I write this, I haven't figured anything out yet, but I do have an appointment with a guy who specializes in digestive disorders coming up in a week and half and I am feeling hopeful that he will help me to figure some things out! I am a bit nervous that he is going to restrict my diet even more (beyond gluten, dairy, yeast, peanuts), but need to just prepare myself for that because it is a good possibility. So I make no promises about the nature of the recipes you will find here over the coming weeks! It's quite possible that strange and funky dishes will become a more regular occurrence.

In the meantime, I have been on a major Thai food kick in the last few weeks! There is an awesome little restaurant here in town called Arharn Thai that has become my favorite because I can eat almost everything on their menu. I wanted to try my hand at some Pineapple Curry last week and my sweet boyfriend (who I am sure is getting sick of Thai food!!) agreed to serve as my taste-tester :)

I looked online at recipes and then tweaked a few things. Here is what I came up with:

Thai Pineapple Curry

1/4 cup red curry paste
2 - 13.5oz cans light coconut milk
3 T fish sauce
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
1 cup pineapple chunks or tidbits, drained
1 T vegetable or olive oil
Meat of your choice: chicken, pork, beef, fish, cut up into 1/2" strips
Cooked white rice
Lime wedges
Cilantro for garnish
Sriracha sauce, optional
Salt to taste

- Heat oil in a pan and add the curry paste. Saute for 1-2 minutes. Add meat and continue cooking on medium heat until meat is cooked about 1/2 way through.
- Add in coconut milk, fish sauce, and sugar and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add in bell peppers and onion and simmer for another 2-3 minutes or until meat is cooked all the way through.
- Remove from heat and add pineapple.
- Salt to taste
- Serve over cooked white rice topped with lime, cilantro and Sriracha sauce

When I served this to Jeff, I had not added any salt. His feedback was that it needed some salt and some heat. I love Sriracha sauce and had a bottle on hand. We thought it was pretty good drizzled on top. You could also add in some red Thai chilis with the bell peppers. I also think I might add in a little fresh ginger at the step where I am sauteing the meat next time.

Here is a couple photos:

The finished product:



Slightly blurry photo, but he finally told me I could put one of him on here!!!



I'm off to reheat some of this for lunch. If you are here in Colorado, hope you are enjoying a lovely, snowy, Sunday!