baked chicken, blackenend green beans, angel hair with cilantro chipolte pesto and bayrisches bauernbrot

Before I start posting my market creations. Please remember, I am NOT a chef. My husband came with a set of Culinary Insitute of America textbooks and I grew up in a family where my daddy rolled out his own pasta and my momma boiled her own custard, but I have no formal training. My food knowledge has evolved from many hours reading cookbooks, observing others and eating very well.

Enough about me…here’s my food!



Roasted Chicken, blackened green beans, cilantro chipolte pesto angel hair and Bayrisches Bauernbrot.

I hate to start my food blogging with a chicken dish. Maybe because I have very little respect for chicken as a protein or maybe because I have become so disgusted by the practices of the large chicken farmer that I really never eat it, but I purchased a whole chicken from a poultry farmer at the market (I didn’t get his info, I will next time). I really hate to admit it, but, this was the first time that I have purchased a free range chicken from a small farmer who raised the bird properly, and what a difference. In my opinion, the two birds should not even fall under the same nomiker. In appearance, the chicken is markedly smaller than the grocery store bird, and the taste is far superior, it even has a different texture.
I brined the chicken first for 2½ hours, next time I will increase my brining time to four hours. In my brine I used a gallon of water, a cup of salt, ½ cup sugar and ½ cup of brown sugar and some dried thyme. If you haven’t brined before , try it, it makes a world of difference in the succulence of the meat your prepare. Adjust the sugar to your preference and have fun with different herbs and spices. I then baked the chicken at 350 for about 45 minutes. Next time I will increase my temp to at least 375, the bird was small so the meat was done before it had developed a golden brown skin, and I probably should have put some fresh herbs and garlic in the cavity. After letting the chicken rest, I deboned and sliced the chicken and then topped it with a little cilantro chipolte pesto. The green beans were blanched for a few minutes and then put in an ice bath. I put the green beans in a skillet with liquid gold or mojo de ajo and Paul Prudhommes's blackening seasoning. Here is the recipe for mojo de ajo http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=244 ,this is only my first reference to Rick Bayless, please be patient with me, it is only a mild obsession I have with him. The pasta is handmade, fresh angel hair from Daniel Esses with Paul Arcenaux’s cilantro chipolte pesto. The bread is Bayrisches Bauernbrot (Bavarian Farmer's Bread) made by Captain Karl Mueller of Mueller's Real Bread.
Cost to feed this meal to a family of four, just under $25, the same price as four value meals at your favorite fast food joint.

and for desert.......



Granola and Gold Zuchinni Cookies with a schmear of cranberry cinnamon chevre

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups granola cereal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded zucchini
2 (12 ounce) packages semisweet chocolate or butterscotch chips

Directions
1.In a mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in the egg, orange peel and vanilla. Combine flour, granola, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with zucchini. Stir in chips.
2.Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Theses cookies are better served warm (not so hot that they instantly melt your chevre, but warm enough to soften it to that incredibly creamy texture). I make a batch of dough and bake off the cookies when I want to eat them. The dough keeps well in the refrigerator and you can produce warm cookies every night, in just a few minutes. I din't have any chocolate chips so I put a little chocolate syrup in the egg mixture and upped the flour a tad. One of the many directions that I am going with this blog (hopefully, soon, I will have more of a focus) is to show you how to stock your pantry well and use what you have, it is the only way to make cooking at home beneficial to your pocketbook. Part of the year, my family lives in the country twenty minutes from a gas station, so cooking from the pantry is a skill I was forced to hone.

These are a few of my creations from purchases made at the Tuesday morning Crescent City Famrmers Market in New Orleans, LA. I welcome your comments and suggestions. The purpose of this blog is not only to share my food with whomever might be interested, but also to coninue developing my culinary skills and knowledge. What would you have done with these ingredients?