Today's fun with the new oven was Toll House cookies. I used the classic recipe but I used Giridelli milk chocolate chips. Yummy!
The new oven's Convection bake setting in addition to using parchment paper made for the most even cooking cookies and no cleanup. I am so in love with my new oven. (Which by the way is a Kenmore Gas range with true convention.)
Now that I have a fancy schmancy new convection oven I have been dying to make some "Beer Can Chicken."
First got an all natural no hormone chicken from Publix - their GreenWise brand. I got some Shiner Bock beer. (It came in a 6 pack box of the right size cans. Since we don't really tend to drink a lot of beer I didn't want to get a big 12 or 24 pack and I wanted to try something new. You have to drink 1/2 the can - (It's in the recipe, I had to do it!) so its good to get a beer you will like. Shiner Bock seems to be a sort of halfway beetween an ale and a dark beer. It has a light taste, but you can taste the hops and yeast. Very nice.
I have a cheapie beer can chicken cooker thingy I got from Big Lots last year. It basically helps hold up the can - nothing fancy. I put it all in another oven proof pan so I could use the drippings to make gravy. Oh god that was some good gravy.
I washed and dried the bird, then I rubbed a mix of kosher salt, Hungarian paprika, garlic powder, and different kinds of fresh ground pepper all over it. I set the oven to convection bake at 425 and when it came up to temperature I put in the chicken with a meat thermometer in it. I like having the meat thermometer because it takes the guesswork out of when your bird is done. A meat thermomter is a cheap item that is useful over and over and doesn't take up much space in your drawer.
In my new oven, the chicken cooked in just over an hour. It came out so yummy! I made a simple gravy with the pan dripping - just adding some corn starch, a buillion/seasoning packet from Trader Joes, and some water. Easy peasy. I served up this lovely tender chicken with rice and green beans.
For New Years Eve I cooked up some of the famous "My Mother's Brisket." That's the name of the Epicurious recipe, not my mother's actual recipe. (Although me and my mom do both make it this way!) I made about 5 pounds of brisket and it was pretty much all gone the next day. I pretty much follow the recipe but after I brown the meat and do the onions I then cook it in the slow cooker instead of the oven. Since my oven was broken at the time that was handy.
"People don't understand what's in that picture," she told me. "He had just been outside standing in his new swimming pool. It was just being filled up, with a garden hose. I was dressed to go out with him for the evening, all gussied up. And what we're doing is, he had just taken the train back from New York, where he had recorded some new songs for RCA Victor. He had brought back the recordings -- they had not been released yet. We were listening to one of them. He wanted to know if I thought it was any good. I said yes, I thought it was. It was 'Don't Be Cruel.'"
via www.cnn.com
I'v emade four earflap hats recently. Two were for a co-workers soon to be step daughter and neice, and one is for my niece. Then there's the one I have on in my Facebook profile picture. I think I might have to keep that one because it's so silly.
The Hanukkah and Christmakkah shopping is almost done. I've been really smart with online deals and lots just coming directly to the recipients. Other stuff I need, cell batteries, cables, widgets, and stuff, are coming from Amazon.
Terpsichore, Cosimo Tura (detail)
All the single babies, all the single babies!
via uglyrenaissancebabies.tumblr.com
OMG - this Tumbler blog is funny.
