Foolproof Roast Chicken

Is your mouth watering yet?  I know mine is.

Roast chicken is one of those things that is incredibly impressive and impossibly easy.  It mostly just requires that you give it tons of love, care and time.  The only trick I have with this: high heat and clean oven.

This recipe is super tweakable.

Foolproof Roast Chicken

(List of ingredients are on the fly – use what you have, don’t use what you don’t.)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (on the roast setting, if possible.)

Clean your chicken. Yes, yuck. Yuck, yuck, yuck.  This may mean taking off its neck, taking out some organs, trimming the flappy skin off, cleaning out the inside of the carcass.  Yes, I will admit it, I’m a wimp and I wore gloves. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Put your chicken into a baking dish.  Rub your chicken down with room-temperature butter.  Similarly, you could give it a nice douse of olive oil – but butter tastes better.

Salt and pepper generously on both sides of the chicken.

This is where you can get creative.  What do you want to stuff your chicken with?  I like a few chunks of butter, a cut up onion, a bundle of fresh herbs (thyme or something else peppery and savory) and maybe half a lemon, sliced.

To-Die-For Lemon Cookies: Packaged for a Birthday

It was two of my friends’ birthdays, so I used that as an excuse to bake and get creative.

I decided to make for them a jar of homemade cookies, and decorate the jar with ribbons and simple, homemade birthday cards.  This is a really great gift idea for anyone.  It is a perfect way to package and transport the cookies, without needing to worry about the cookies breaking or cracking.  In addition, for the days to come the cookies will stay fresh until they are done! And then the gift receiver will have a useful, beautiful jar for them to store anything they want – flour, sugar, pasta, etc.

Firstly, I needed the perfect cookies to put in the jar, and I couldn’t think of anything better for the season or for the occasion than Giada’s lemon ricotta cookies with a lemon glaze.  They are bright, cheery, full of flavour cookies, and they are perfect for packaging up and giving away.

Summer Zucchini Bread Recipe

When the weather is warm, I love zucchini bread.

I love zucchini in general – especially yellow zucchini, because the colour is so fabulous.  Gently sautéed and mixed in with baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, and rotini.  Cooked with chicken stock into a sauce and served with a veal filet. Bright and simple in a red beet and green bean salad with a crack of salt and pepper.  Zucchini can be found everywhere in the summer, when it’s in season, and I just love its clean, earthy flavour.

And zucchini bread is a light, cheery, fun substitute for a side in place of your normal pastas and rice.  At the same time, it’s just savoury enough to stand up to meats and wines.

This recipe is relatively quick and easy, and doesn’t require any fancy equipment or ingredients.

Mom’s Numbers Marinade

My mother left me with this delicious marinade recipe after I had seven lip-smacking helpings of a dish she made with it.  (To tell you the truth I only stopped eating because I wanted to leave food for the rest of the family.)  Mom used pork but you can essentially use it for any meat you want.

It’s called a “Numbers” marinade because it only has five essential ingredients – of which you need increasing increments of. I’ve found that you can easily replace ingredients with whatever you have on hand or whatever you like, as long as you keep the taste profile similar.

The Numbers Marinade

You’ll need:

Fudge as Food or for Face

Meghan Telpner, you are a genius! 

This sweet-toothed nutritionist and holistic lifestyle consultant has created a series of delicious recipes – which can be used either as a beauty product, or they can be snacked upon.  Same recipe – no joke.  According to Ms Telpner, 

“Are you getting it yet? That everything we put on skin is edible (and delicious are that!)”

Here is her latest musing: chocolate fudge, besides being the ultimate sweet treat = antioxidants and a bajillion other benefits for your skin. 

Read her mouth watering and skin soothing recipe, along with all the benefits chocolate has for your skin, right here.

PS I will update after I try this mask for myself!

The Lazy Man’s Mac and Cheese

This is my mac and cheese.  It doesn’t require eight different (expensive) cheeses, vigourous whisking, or making a roux.  It is just scrumptiously cheesy, incredibly rustic, and ridiculously easy to make.  It reminds me of a mac and cheese that a friend’s grandmother made that I once tried and loved.  Best of all, it holds up in the fridge really well, so you could make a batch and feast off it for a few meals.  Now don’t expect some rich saucy type mac and cheese.  You’ve already been told that I’m not a fan of sauce.

DIY Bubble Tea on Midnight Poutine

Read about my attempt at creating the perfect bubble tea here.

Crumb Topped Banana Muffins on City Bandit

I love breakfast.

This is the one meal I rarely ever skip, with the exceptions of the weekend mornings that I sleep in and then promptly resort to brunch.

My breakfasts during the week generally consist of a yogurt, a bowl of oatmeal, and fruit – usually chopped berries or a banana.  Everything is prepped to be on-the-go.  I usually eat my breakfast standing up as I wait for the metro, or at the hostess desk of the restaurant where I work, chowing down while I check reservations.

Recipe – Crustless Veggie Quiche

Something that always brightens up my day: quiche.

This quiche is super quick, tastes superb, and only requires ingredients I already have at home.  And it can be made crustless – though sometimes I throw in an easy crust for fun.