Another Chicken Dinner

Note: I don't know what is going on with some of the fonts and font sizes in this post - I can't fix them!

A lovely dinner for 4 or fewer: Lemon Chicken with Croutons, Spinach in Puff Pastry, and Plum Cake Tatin. All three recipes are from Ina Garten's book Barefoot in Paris. I can pick up any of her books and make a million combinations for an awesome meal.

This is a very complete meal, with the bread in the chicken dish and the vegetable as either the first course or the side dish. You can add any extra vegetables or potatoes in with the chicken to roast; I added quartered button mushrooms. If I'd had carrots I definitely would have tossed them in too.
Next time I make this - and I most definitely will - I'll not put all the croutons on the platter under the chicken with all the juices like the recipe instructs. I'll put some around the chicken, whole or cut into pieces, on the platter, and try not to let them get completely soaked because they end up very quickly (big surprise:) just soggy. The best part of having croutons is the crunch! I might make a gravy out of the juices too, or reduce it a little, or add a squeeze of fresh lemon to the juices right before pouring them over the chicken next time. But without taking those extra steps it was still really great! Lemon zest over top on the plate was a perfect final touch for me because I love lots of lemon flavor with chicken.
A perfect bite! Chicken, mushroom, caramelized onion, crouton, with pepper and lemon zest:
Lemon Chicken with Croutons
Ina Garten, Barefoot in Paris

• 1 (4 to 5-pound) roasting chicken
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• Good olive oil
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lemons, quartered
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 6 cups (3/4-inch) bread cubes (1 baguette or round boule)
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Take the giblets out of the chicken and wash it inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers. Toss the onion with a little olive oil in a small roasting pan. Place the chicken on top and sprinkle the inside of the cavity with salt and pepper. Place the lemons inside the chicken. Pat the outside of the chicken dry with paper towels, brush it with the melted butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.

Roast for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between the leg and the thigh. Cover with foil and allow to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. (The onions may burn, but the flavor is good.)

Meanwhile, heat a large saute pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil until very hot. Lower the heat to medium-low and saute the bread cubes, tossing frequently, until nicely browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add more olive oil, as needed, and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Place the croutons on a serving platter. Slice the chicken and place it, plus all the pan juices, over the croutons. Sprinkle with salt and serve warm.

I made a lot of tiny changes to this spinach in puff pastry recipe, so I'll note them within the recipe below.

Spinach in Puff Pastry
Ina Garten, Barefoot in Paris

• 4 T. (half a stick) unsalted butter
  
• 2 cups chopped onions (about 2 onions)
• 1 T. chopped garlic (3 cloves)
• 2 - 10 ounce - boxes frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
  
• 1/3 cup chopped scallions (2 scallions)
• 1 cup grated Gruyere cheese (I used small cubes of Swiss - flavor is perfect and it's cheaper!)
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 4 extra-large eggs, beaten (I only had 2 large eggs to use, and it turned out just fine. More eggs would have made the filling firmer, but I didn't mind because I was serving this on a plate with a fork anyway.)
  
• 1 T. dry bread crumbs, plain or seasoned
• 2 t. kosher salt (do use this full amount - it seemed like a lot to me so I didn't, but then it needed to be salted later)
  
• 3/4 t. pepper
• 1/2 t. ground nutmeg (I left this out)
  
• 1/4 cup toasted pignoli (pine) nuts (Left these out too)
• 2 sheets (one box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted overnight in the refrigerator (Without fail I forget to do this or don't plan ahead. Leave the frozen puff pastry on the counter near a hot stove for a little while and it will be fine. Just make sure it doesn't get too warm or it will get sticky.)
  
• 1 extra-large egg beaten with 1 T. water, for egg wash (so I ran out of eggs, right? So I used melted butter in place of egg wash, no problemo.)
  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat the butter in a saute pan and cook the onions over med-low heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Add garlic and cook for one more minute. Meanwhile, squeeze most of the water out of the spinach and place it in a bowl. Add the onions and garlic, scallions, both cheeses, eggs, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and pignolis. Mix well.

Unfold one sheet of puff pastry and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread the spinach mixture in the middle of the pastry, leaving a one inch border. Brush the border with egg wash. Roll out the second piece of puff pastry on a floured board until it's an inch larger in each direction. Place the second sheet of pastry over the spinach and seal the edges, crimping them with a fork. Brush the top with egg wash but don't let it drip down the sides or the pastry won't rise. (At this point I used a sharp knife and trimmed all four sides.) Make three small slits in the pastry top, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the pastry is lightly browned. Transfer to a cutting board and serve hot.

And, dessert! Hot, sweet, fruity, cakey, delicious! There are some interesting steps to this dish, but it's fun to make and can be made mostly ahead of time and then baked while you're eating dinner. I thought it looked so cool too, like an upside down cake. The red color is from the plums alone, darkened from the caramel. Andrew, my 2 year old, called it "jelly cake" because it did look like red jelly.

The intimidating part of this recipe is the sugar syrup. You have to cook water and sugar in a saucepan over high heat until it turns "a warm amber color, about 360 degrees." I think that a digital thermometer is an ESSENTIAL piece of kitchen equipment, but if you don't have one, still do make this recipe!! Cook the syrup until it turns brown - take it a little farther than you're probably comfortable with, but keep a close eye on it the entire time it's on the heat because it will burn fast once it's beyond it's perfect stage. However the syrup looks, because you will be skeptical, just continue with the recipe and it will turn out just fine.

Plum Cake Tatin
Ina Garten, Barefoot in Paris

nocoupons

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the dish
• 10 to 12 purple "prune" plums, cut in half and pitted (I just chose the purple ones over the orange/purple ones; they weren't labeled "prune." It took 5 and a half of them.)
  
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature (I used large because that's what I had.)
  
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• Confectioners' sugar (optional - I think unnecessary)
  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 9-inch glass pie dish and arrange the plums in the dish, cut side down.

Combine 1 cup of the granulated sugar and 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over high heat until it turns a warm amber color, about 360 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Swirl the pan but don't stir. Pour evenly over the plums.

Meanwhile, cream the 6 tablespoons of butter and the remaining 3/4 cup of granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy. Lower the speed and beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the sour cream, zest, and vanilla and mix until combined. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and, with the mixer on low speed, add it to the butter mixture. Mix only until combined.

Pour the cake batter evenly over the plums and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes, then invert the cake onto a flat plate. If a plum sticks, ease it out and replace it in the design on top of the cake. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Onion Rings

This is a very common sight in my messy kitchen: several cookbooks open, often all Barefoot Contessa's, flags and notes all over the place.
Oh and the butter, too, isn't a rare sight.

This isn't a rare sight either, come to think of it. This is a nice (and cheap!) bottle of Pino Noir from the Russian River Valley. And very cool Candlewick glasses from Auntie Carroll; I spotted the very same shaped glasses in a scene in Benjamin Button!
So to the onion rings.... Last week Erol was craving steaks with blue cheese, and I thought this was the perfect time to make these onion rings.
They turned out perfectly - light and crispy with great flavor. I planned on concocting a spicy mayo-based sauce (ala Outback) but they didn't need it. Unlike with a beer batter, you won't take a bite and end up wrestling with the entire piece of onion that comes out of the batter; each bite comes off cleanly, which is not a huge deal, it's just kinda satisfying.

I will make these again, but next time I will use my Dutch oven (super heavy cast iron, enamel coated pan) rather than my regular stock pot. The oil temp did not reman steady in this pot, which was frustrating. For this meal my main focus was on these onion rings and I wanted to serve them right away, so unfortunately my steaks suffered a bit and became a little overcooked. I won't make that mistake again because these onion rings hold up longer than the recipe indicates, and they stay crunchy for a long time, so I'll do them first next time and then concentrate on the steak.
Cornmeal Fried Onion Rings
Ina Garten

2 large Spanish onions (or 3 yellow onions)
2 cups buttermilk
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (medium) yellow cornmeal
1 quart vegetable oil

Peel the onions, slice them 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick, and separate them into rings. Combine the buttermilk, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Add the onion rings, toss well, and allow to marinate for at least 15 minutes. (The onion rings can sit in the buttermilk for a few hours.) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

When you're ready to fry the onion rings, preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with paper towels.

Heat the oil to 350 degrees F in a large pot or Dutch oven. (A candy thermometer attached to the side of the pot will help you maintain the proper temperature.) Working in batches, lift some onions out of the buttermilk and dredge them in the flour mixture. Drop into the hot oil and fry for 2 minutes, until golden brown, turning them once with tongs. Don't crowd them! Place the finished onion rings on the baking sheet, sprinkle liberally with salt, and keep them warm in the oven while you fry the next batch. Continue frying the onion rings and placing them in the warm oven until all the onions are fried. They will remain crisp in the oven for up to 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Pizza Party!!

How to have your own make-your-own-pizza party:

Step 1: Friends. Invite over some awesome friends, the more certifiable the better! Haha just kidding - normal people will be just fine, too.

Step 2: Ingredients. You definitely don't have to make everything from scratch, but why not?? It doesn't take much time and it's fun and satisfying. The menu was Caesar salad, pizzas with several toppings to choose from, and almond cake.

Step 3: Assembly. Do what you can ahead of time, and do what you must last minute. I prepped every single thing for this party that day, including shopping for the groceries. I first made the pizza dough, then the almond cake, the Caesar dressing, and then prepared the pizza toppings and cubed the leftover sourdough baguette for croutons. All of this can be done a day or more ahead of time.

Step 4: Party time! Fry up the croutons, toss the salad, let your friends serve themselves. Later roll out the pizza dough and set out all the toppings, and all you have to do is throw them in the oven.

I forgot to take a proper picture of the salad, so I snapped one half-way through my bowl. It was lemony, salty, creamy, cruncy, and delish! Caesar Dressing
Ina Garten

1 extra-large egg yolk at room temperature (or substitute 2 T. mayo)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
8 to 10 anchovy fillets (optional) - I used a big squirt of anchovy paste
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)
2 teaspoons kosher salt - I used only 1 t. and that was plenty
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups good mild olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Place the egg yolks (or mayo), mustard, garlic, anchovies, lemon juice, salt, and pepper into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until smooth. With the food processor running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube until thick. Add the grated Parmesan cheese and pulse 3 times.

If you don't have a food processor (or don't want to get it out and have to clean it after...), wisk together all the ingredients in a bowl. Store the dressing in a container that you can shake before adding it to the lettuce, and use it cool or at room temp.

Croutons
Bakery bread such as French or Italian bread, baguette, or sourdough
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper

Preheat broiler, or oven to 450. Cut the bread into medium-sized cubes. Toss them onto a baking sheet in an even layer and drizzle generously with olive oil, add salt and pepper, and toss to coat evenly. Broil or bake them just until nicely browned and crunchy.

Alternately, these can be made on the stove top in a large skillet. Heat the largest skillet you have on high. Add the olive oil, then the bread cubes, salt, and pepper. Stir around to coat, and cook them until browned and crunchy.

Yesterday I used a sourdough baguette and cooked them in a skillet on the stovetop.

OK, next comes pizza! Here are the before and after pics:Top left is Eric & Lisa's (aka the "Pile It On and Pile It On Good" pie). You wouldn't believe what's under that mountain of mozarella and blanket of pepperoni! They get an A+.

Top right is the masterpiece of the brothers Garcia, Marcelo and Hugo. It is supposedly Cindy Crawford with a mustach and a booger (did I mention this is more fun when your friends are certifiable??). They get a B because besides the fact that it's a creepy looking abstract face, it actually looks quite easily edible.

Bottom right is the work of Gretchen. Irratic sauce placing, sparce cheese, clemintine segments???? ("But people put pineapple on pizza!!" she says.) She gets a B-. Love ya, girl, but that's one sloppy looking pizza pie! LOL!! But she did say it tasted good.

Bottom right is mine and Erol's - his half is sausage and mushroom and mine is pepperoni and green peppers. It tasted great!

Here was the set-up: rolled out pizza dough on cornmeal, jarred tomato sauce (I was going to make my own, but decided to take this shortcut), shredded mozzarella (freshly grated in the food processor - I don't buy pre-shredded unless I really need the convenience), cooked Italian sausage, pepperoni, sliced mushrooms and green peppers. (Aparently the bowl of citrus was placed in too close proximity to the rest of the toppings; the mistake could have been made by any of us. I'll bump G's grade up to a B+.) Pizza Dough
Martha Stewart Baking Handbook

Makes 2 12-inch pizzas (I made the recipe twice for our pizza party)

1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 envelope (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
14 ounces (about 2 3/4 cups) flour, plus more for dusting work surface
1 t. table salt
1 1/2 T olive oil, plus more for bowl

In a small bowl, sprinkle sugar and yeast over warm water; stir with a fork until yeast and sugar dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

In a food processor, pulse the flour and salt to combine. Add yeast mixture and oil; pulse until mixture comes together but is still slightly tacky. Dough should pull away cleanly from your fingers after it's squeezed. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface; knead 4 or 5 times, until a smooth ball forms.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, smooth side up. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 40 minutes.

Punch down dough. Fold dough back onto itself four or five times, then turn smooth side up. Replace plastic wrap; let dough rise again in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 30-40 minutes.

Punch down dough; turn out onto a floured work surface. Using a bench scraper or knive, divide the dough into two equal pieces. Knead each piece four of five times, then form a smooth ball.

--> At this point each ball of dough can be wrapped loosely in plastic wrap and refrigerated until you're ready to use them. Let them come back to room temp before the next step though.

Preheat the oven to 400. Sprinkle your work surface with cornmeal and use a rolling pin to roll the dough to form the crust. Transfer the dough onto a sheetpan and add your favorite toppings. (Or if you have a baking/pizza stone, let it preheat in the oven and add then top your pizza on a flat surface like the back of a sheetpan, something that allows you to easily slide the pizza, with toppings, onto the baking stone.) Bake until it's done according to how you like it, about 10 minutes or so. For a crisper crust without using a baking stone, when the pizza is almost finished cooking slide it off the pan and directly onto the oven rack for a few minutes.

For dessert we had almond cake, which was so easy to make and smelled soooooooo yummy. I'll definitely be making this cake again!

Almond Cake
from Cooking for Mr. Latte, which I discovered from the Amateur Gourmet blog post that raved about this cake

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sour cream (8oz), at room temperature
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups sugar
7-ounce tube almond paste
4 egg yolks, at room temperature
1 tsp almond extract
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting the cake

Preheat the oven to 350F. Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform pan.

Mix the sour cream with baking soda. In another bowl, sift the flour and salt together.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the almond paste, a little at a time, at medium speed, and then beat for 8 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time; mix until incorporated. It will look curdled; don't worry. Blend in the almond extract and sour cream mixture. Mixing at low, gradually add the flour mixture; beat just until blended.

Pour the batter into a prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake about 1 hour, until dark golden brown and it shrinks from the sides of the pan. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack. It will sink in the middle as it cools. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve.

You can store this cake for up to two weeks in the fridge. I recommend bringing it back to room temp before serving.

Easy Sticky Buns

This recipe is from Ina Garten's newest cookbook Back to Basics, and is also on her website (lucky for me, I didn't have to re-type the recipe :o)

This picture speaks for it's self: YUM! And it was extremely easy.
I am not afraid of butter at ALL but I felt that these had an exhorbanent amount of butter. Next time I make this recipe I will use about half of the butter called for in the first step (in the muffin tins). I was impatient and in trying to soften my butter in the microwave, I accidentally (surprise, surprise) melted it completely. Maybe this contributed to the over butteryness bordering on greasyness?? Probably yes, but still it was a heck of a lot of butter.
I halved the recipe, and don't have a 6-cup muffin tin. I only have an (eeeeehhhhhhhh) nonstick 12 cup one. You should never bake a muffin tin with empty cups, so pour water into them by pulling out the oven rack, placing the pan on it, and then pouring in the water with a liquid measuring cup. You'll be very unhappy if you accidentally slosh water into the wrong cups so use care!
(By the way, are you thinking that I halved the recipe but maybe didn't half the amount of butter I used? I checked and re-checked. I did half the butter.)

If you also half this recipe, remember that the tin needs to be flipped 5 minutes after it comes out of the oven, so DON'T forget to remove the water! Roll up a kitchen washcloth and dip it in to soak up the water. The pan will be hot so the residual drops of water dry up immediately.

Sticky goodness!

Easy Sticky Buns
12 tablespoons (1 & 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup pecans, chopped in very large pieces

1 package (17.3 ounces/ 2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted

FOR THE FILLING:

2 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup raisins (I didn't add the raisins today)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place a 12-cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the 12 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of the mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly among the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.

Lightly flour a wooden board or stone surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry with the folds going left to right. Brush the whole sheet with half of the melted butter. Leaving a 1-inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, 1½ teaspoons of the cinnamon, and ½ cup of the raisins.

Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down. Trim the ends of the roll about ½ inch and discard. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces, each about 1½ inches wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups.

Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry to make 12 sticky buns.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and pecans out onto the buns with a spoon) and cool completely.

Roasted Chicken and Roasted Garlic

Winner winner chicken dinner!!!!!!!! This was dinner the day I made the Challah. (I know that this was a long time ago, but I'm trying to catch up on my posting here...)
Roasted chicken with gravy, roasted garlic, and broccoli (yes, roasted). Me like roasting.

This was the wine of choice for this dinner, and I'm mentioning it because it was absolutely splendid! I pair food and wine so generally (meat = red wine, chicken = white), but a lot of the time I just go for any wine I'm in the mood for, regardless of the food. On this occasion the pairing was spot on and all flavors were enhanced to the point where it was really noticeable. In the future I plan on paying more attention to the food-wine pairing because I see what a difference it makes, even to unrefined palates such as ours.
Hahn Piesporter Michelsberg Riesling, $10 at The Wine Shop in Leesburg.Perfect Roast Chicken
recipe from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs (I used rosemary instead this time)
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges (I didn't use fennel...)
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top. Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

Brine!
I brined my chicken, which I HIGHLY recommend. It makes the inside of the chicken meat taste very flavorful, which is especially important if, like me, you don't eat much of the skin. Wash your chicken completely inside and out with cold running water, removing and discarding the junk from the cavity. Place the chicken in a bucket or other large container that will fit the chicken and will fit in your fridge; I use the lid of my cake tupperware. Fill it with water and a cup of sugar and a cup of salt. You may also add lemons, peppercorns, herbs, all sorts of stuff, but the sugar and salt is the base and that's all I use on a normal day.

Brine the chicken overnight. When you're ready to roast, get organized because this can be a very messy process. Read the recipe again and lay out all your ingredients so that you won't have to wash your hands a million times before you get the bird in the oven. Don't for get to set aside your salt and pepper too! Dry the chicken very well with paper towels, place it in the roasting pan, then go ahead with the recipe. When you brush on the butter, it may look kinda weird and the first time I did this I was like "eww what is happening?!" As the melted butter is smeared on the cold chicken, it solidifies a bit making it look and feel funny. I may be the only one who's noticed this, I don't know, but I wanted to mention it :o)

Roasted Garlic
OK now, if you have your oven on such a high temperature for that long of a time, you simply MUST roast some garlic for that meal or for the next day. All you have to do is cut the top 1/4 of a head of garlic off, place it on a piece of foil, spash on some olive oil, salt and pepper. Bunch up the foil into a tight bundle and throw it in the oven.
Cooking time or temp isn't very important; with the roasted chicken at 425 for 1.5 hours it comes out perfectly, so you can adjust from there according to whatever else you are cooking.

You get this rich garlic smear for your chicken, bread, broccoli - everything on your plate no matter what it is pretty much. Count on one head of garlic for every 2-3 people (or if you're Erol, one per person). The flavor isn't pungent at all like raw garlic, it's roasty and toasty and mellow and delish.
Unwrap the top of the foil package, and squeeze from the bottom up and scrape the soft cloves of garlic that squirt out into a little dish. Or, unwrap the top, and then place it in the dish and let people squirt out what they want at the table.

I met Ina Garten!!

Andy and I went to Ina Garten's book signing at Sur La Table in Arlington today!! We waited patiently in line for 90 minutes, outside in the cold and inside the store which was very crowded with people and merchandise. Luckily I had enough toys and snacks for the boy so he was content in his stroller the whole time. This trip could easily have been disastrous if he failed to cooperate. Here's our first glimpse of Ina! We thought we were getting close, but inside the line wrapped around the entire store, so we weren't even half way yet at this point.In the ROOM!

So, it's not exactly a picture with Ina Garten, more like we're in the same frame, but at least she's smiling.
She talked to Andy over her table, asked his name and remarked how well behaved he was. The lady in front of us agreed he was very patient (Good Boy!!). There was a pause while she was signing my books, so I go "I'm a big fan." I'm such a dork! But she did chat with me for about 10 seconds, so that was nice of her.

Here are a few recipes I plan on trying out soon:
Parmesan & Thyme Crackers
Roasted Potato Leek Soup
Coq au Vin
Dinner Spanakopitas
Chive Risotto Cakes
Orange Pecan Wild Rice
Brownie Pudding
Easy Sticky Buns
Homemade Granola Bars
French Apple Tart

PB&J Bars

This is another recipe from our cabin weekend. I caught people eating this at all hours of the day and night! It's very rich and heavy, so a serving is just a small square and a glass of cold milk is a MUST!

The only tip I have for this one is don't spread the jelly all the way out to the edges of the pan. When it touches the edge, it gets too sticky and candy-like, and I like the end and corner pieces nice and crumbly.

I don't have a picture of mine, but this is from the recipe book. Better than nuthin??
Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars
recipe from Ina Garten's cookbook Barefoot Contessa at Home

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter (recommended: Skippy)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam (I used seedless strawberry preserves)
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

Plum Tart and Ina Garten

I halved Ina Garten's recipe for plum tart for dessert tonight, and it was really good, not too sweet. We had it with whipped cream and blackberries we picked last weekend.
Plum Tart (recipe halved; makes 4-5 servings)
Barefoot Contessa Parties! Cookbook

1 cup all-purpose flour
6 T. finely chopped walnuts
6 T. light brown sugar, lightly packed
6 T. cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 egg yolk (messy but it can be done!)
1 pound firm, ripe plums, pitted and cut lengthwise into quarters or eighths

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the flour, walnuts, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the butter and the egg yolk. Mix, either by hand or with an electric mixer, until crumbly.

Press two-thirds of the crumb mixture in an even layer into the bottom of a 8x8 dish or small tart pan. Arrange the plums in the pan, skin side down.

Sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture evenly over the plums. Bake the tart for 30 to 40 minutes, or until it's lightly browned and the plum juices are bubbling. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I absolutely LOVE Ina Garten. She is my favorite celebrity chef and I have all of her cookbooks and use them regularly, especially Barefoot Contessa Family Style. Her website is great if you have all the cookbooks because there is an index for ALL the recipes by category, plus menu ideas.

Ina's launching a book tour next month for Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, and I fully indend on being at Sur La Table in Arlington on October 29th between 12 and 2pm!