Good Oral Hygiene

Kelly believes strongly in good oral hygiene for man and beast alike.  Shelagh helps enforce proper spitting.

Kelly Loves WILL.I.AM

Kelly's moves are becoming legendary.  From this morning, a little Drop It Low from the movie Rio, which all my kids love.  It is pretty catchy.  I must get Rory on video doing this too - he's a ham with the rap-py part.

NH Fall Wknd - cont

Bubbles, too much candy, too little sleep, enough fun for the kids to forget to fight!






























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NH Fall Wknd Away

Joe's birthday, Santa's Village, Storyland...exhausted!!






























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Roast Chicken Diavolo

Everyday Food came out with a special issue this summer that was very much like the original magazine, but focused on seasonal summer food and cooking.  I made the Roast Chicken Diavolo the other night which called to spatchcock the chicken (remove the backbone, spread the chicken out and press down for faster cooking).  I had seen my mom do this with a chicken in a class I did with her last year and just hadn't done it myself yet.  It was easy to prep and much easier to cut up than a full roasted chicken.  The recipe I followed was pretty good, but I over salted the outside and couldn't eat the skin, which while disappointing was not the worst thing for me with my high cholesterol.  Recipe is not online yet, but here is what I did:

Roast Chicken Diavolo

• 1 Tbl finely chopped rosemary
• 1 Tbl finely chopped oregano
• 2 whole dried chiles de arbol (I skipped this)
• 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest + 1 Tbl lemon juice
• s & p
• 2 Tbl + 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 whole chicken
• 2 red peppers cut into 1/2 inch strips
• 1 lg yellow onion cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch wedges
• 1/2 cup dry white wine

1. Preheat oven to 425.  In small bowl, stir together rosemary, oregano, chiles, lemon zest and juice and pepper. 
2. Lightly coat a 9x13 baking dish with oil.  Place chicken in dish, skin side up.  Spread herb mixture over chicken and under skin of breast.  Season with salt and drizzle oil over it as well.
3. Roast chicken on upper rack, 10 minutes.  Meanwhile place peppers and onion on a baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tbl oil.  Toss to coat and arrange in a single layer.  Add s & p and put on middle rack. 
4. Add wine to chicken.  Roast 20 minutes.
5. Remove pans from oven.  Transfer veggies to pan with chicken arranging around bird.  Roast until skin is golden about 20 minutes.  Rest for 10 minutes. 

Braised Scallions & Braised Celery

I had to do something with the CSA celery and scallions I've had for awhile.  So, last week on my cooking extravaganza before the "hurricane", I went nuts cooking the veggies out of my frig.  Also, I had to clean the frig - it was disgusting in there.  The local farm celery was so fragrant and small, I wanted to cook it delicately and get the most flavor out of it.  I went to the old school Time/Life cooking series for Vegetables and found a recipe Stewed Celery, Michigan-Style.  If I hadn't waited so long to do something with the celery I think it would have been a little less tough.  The dish came out good either way.

 

 

Stewed Celery, Michigan-Style

• 2 large bunches celery
• salt
• 3 Tbl butter
• 6 scallions, trimmed and most of the green  parts removed
• 1 small garlic clove, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups chicken or beef stock
• pepper

1. Separate the celery ribs, then remove the tops.  Wash the ribs and cut into 3 inch lengths.  Throw celery into boiling water and cook, uncovered, for 3 minutes.
2. Bring stock to a boil. 
3. Melt butter in saucepan then add scallions, garlic, and celery. 
4. Pour in the stock and cook, covered, over low heat until veggies are quite tender (about 30 minutes), adding more stock if necessary.
5. When done, the stock should have cooked away entirely.  Season with salt before serving.

And, because the scallions came out so yummy in the celery dish, I did close to the same thing with the remaining, huge bunch of scallions I had as well.

 

 

Braised Scallions with Anchovy & Garlic

• Large bunch scallions, slice in half lengthwise if not of uniform size to others
salt
3 Tbl butter
1 small garlic clove, sliced thin
3 anchovy filets
1 1/4 cups chicken or beef stock

1. Melt butter in saucepan then add anchovies.  Saute until melted and broken down.
2. Add garlic and then add scallions after garlic is fragrant. 
3. Pour in the stock and cook, covered, over low heat until veggies are quite tender (about 15 minutes).
4. Season with salt before serving.

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First Day of 2nd Grade

Over the last few weeks Shelagh found out that NONE of her good friends would be in her class this year.  She kept positive though and, as expected, she has a nice collection of friends from K and other activities that she now has an opportunity to develop friendships with.  She likes her teacher and has been up and ready for school before I get out of bed for 3 days in a row.  This is unheard of in Shelagh's world...I take this as a really good sign and will choose to forget the world class meltdown that occurred 2 nights before the 1st day.  All is good in 2nd grade.  I buckled on my no dance and gymnastics at the same time rule and now Shelagh will have Dance all year for the 4th year, gymnastics for a couple of months, soccer for the season, and Brownies twice a month.  It's a whirl of activities, but if I don't keep her busy she spends her time annoying Rory and being totally bored.  Plus if she ends up switching schools to Rory's school at some point then she'll hate me a little less, right?

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