The Best Roasted Chicken Ever!

This is the BEST chicken recipe that will feed your family for a couple of days, for around $9.00-$15.00.

Fresh Produce Still Available

I still have some produce available: Beets, carrots, arugula, spinach, chard mix, some turnips and broccoli florets, and lots of fresh herbs, like rosemary, thyme, lemon thyme and tarragon.

360-298-0012

Beet, Stilton and Walnut Salad with Apple...

This salad is The Best Salad Ever!  And an old-time favorite that Chef Jacquelyn Buchanan N.E. made as one of her signature dishes, back at the St. Andrews Hotel on Post Street in San Francisco.

The only place I've been able to find Stilton cheese (from Stilton, England) in the Islands is at Rose's Bakery & Cafe on Orcas.  The stuff we get here is stilton blue -- it's not the real stuff!

It's Fall!  Which means it's beet, apple and pear season, so here we go.

Recipe feeds 2:
Two handfuls of fresh, organic, salad mix
2 small gold and red cooked beets
1/2 thinly sliced apple
1/4 cup toasted walnuts (which you can spice up a bit if you like)
2 tablespoons hazelnut oil
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
A good pinch each of salt and pepper
1/2 cup large crumbled Stilton

Add all the ingredients (except the salad greens and the cheese) to a large stainless steel or wooden bowl and mix with your hands, then add salad mix and gently mix again with your hands.  Plate and add crumbled cheese, then drizzle with balsamic reduction drizzle.

Bon Appetit!

Oven Roasted Tomatoes and Cambazola Cheese Crostini

Easy, comfort food for adults, kids and boaters!

Recipe:
Sliced sourdough bread
Tomatoes
Cambazola cheese, Brie, Stilton or ??
Fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic reduction drizzle

Set your oven at 300*.  In a roasting pan, place sliced tomatoes as thick as you want them, a little less than a 1/2", cover them with a sprinkle of olive oil, then add a pinch of salt and pepper, and place them in the oven for about 1 1/2 hours.  Meanwhile, take your cheese out of the fridge and get it to room temperature until tomatoes are done.  When tomatoes are done, lay sliced bread in a pan and drizzle it with olive oil, add a little salt, then roast for about 20 minutes, until it is a bit crunchy.  When bread is ready, spread cheese on it, add tomatoes and basil, and drizzle with balsamic reduction... Bon Appetit!

Back to Basics: Stock

Just starting 

Restaurants have the luxury of being able to break down their own chickens, lamb and beef, so they have plenty of fresh bones, which are then washed, dried and covered with tomato paste and roasted.  Here's how to make a less prep-intensive cooked chicken or meat bone stock.

In my kitchen I have two containers, one on the counter for compost, and the other in the freezer for parts of vegetables and chicken/meat bones that I can use for stock.  So you need to save trimmings from onions, carrots, celery, celery tops, celery root tops (celeriac), garlic and parsnips -- stick to these vegetables.

In a large pot, like a canning pot, add the saved chicken carcasses or meat bones (with fat mostly removed), add veggie trimmings, one cup white wine, two bay leaves, one tablespoon tomato paste, and a couple of sprigs of rosemary and thyme.  The pot should look so heaping full that it looks like there may be no room for water.  Fill the pot with water and bring to a boil.  Once it has boiled for a minute, reduce the heat to a really low simmer -- you just want to see a bubble once in a while, but be sure it's still simmering.  (I always check about 10 minutes after turning down the heat.)  Now leave it on the stove for 8-12 hours; restaurants make stock just before going home at night!  Trust me, your home will smell wonderful and so will your clothes, so close the closet door...

After 8-12 hours it's finished cooking, so fill your sink up with water and ice, then strain the stock though a colander into a stainless steel bowl which has been placed in the sink filled with ice and water.  When cool, skim off any fat with a ladle, and then transfer to containers for freezing, leaving any sediment behind.  If you must use plastic containers, make sure the liquid is completely cold to avoid being exposed to the toxins in plastic...

Bon appetit!  (Warning, if making fish stock do not cook it for more than 1-2 hours.)

Finished!

The Perfect Egg

Hard boiled eggs Hobbes style.

Eggs are a healthy snack for kid's when they get home from school, and they are quick and easy to make.

Put eggs in a pot and cover with enough cold water to cover eggs by about an inch, add two teaspoons of sea salt. Bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer, and cook for 7 minutes.  This will give you yolks that are bright and a tiny bit soft.
Peel eggs under cold running water.

Breakfast of Champions...

If you have time to cook in the morning, then this ones a winner!

Recipe:  Feeds Two

1 onion chopped
1 cup sweet potato or yam
1 cup cherry tomatoes quartered
1 cup spinach or arugula chopped
1/4 cup Madeira wine
1 Tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil
1/2 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon paprika
Pinch each salt and pepper

2 eggs any style

Garnish with avocado

Over high heat add oil and butter and shake back and fourth to mix oils, when butter is foaming add onions, sweet potatoes and cook until tender about 2 minutes, add paprika and salt & pepper, add wine then lower heat and add tomatoes and spinach or arugula, you just want to warm the tomatoes though so they keep their shape.

Serve with an egg for protein and garnish with thinly sliced avocado and tomatoes.

Bon Appetit!

Lunch: Fall Pear and Arugula Salad with Balsamic Drizzle

In large bowl add the washed and dried arugula, then add the vinegar, oil, salt and pepper, now gently mix all ingredients with your clean hands, do not use tongs or spoons, you don't want to bruise the leaves. Arrange on your plate and garnish with thinly sliced ripe pears, and shaved Parmesan cheese, then drizzle the balsamic reduction.

Recipe: serves one

Hand full of arugula
1 Tablespoon Hazelnut oil
1 splash balsamic vinegar
1 large pinch each salt and pepper
1/2 thinly sliced ripe pear
shaved Parmesan cheese to taste
drizzle balsamic reduction

To make reduction drizzle, add one bottle balsamic vinegar to a saucepan, over high heat bring to a boil making sure hood fan is turned on!  Reduce heat to slow to medium roll, it takes some time for it reduce down about 30-45 minutes, you will end up with only about a 1/4 of the volume you had before you started.  Most people add sugar at this point, I use honey, so turn the heat off and add the honey stirring until dissolved or the reduction has thickened, keep your eye on it, don't let it get to thick.  Let it cool and transfer to bottle or jar..

Bon Appetit!

Coconut Shrimp Martini

Use fresh, wild, local, spot shrimp for this recipe, if possible.

Peel, de-vein and wash shrimp, then dry the little buggers and lay flat on a plate, salt and pepper, then throw them in a bowl with organic, non GMO corn starch and mix gently with your hands...

Add some coconut oil to a heavy fry pan and heat until it's really hot, add shrimp, cook for 2 minutes +/- then turn. While waiting add julian carrots to a martini glass, add hot cooked shrimp and then drizzle with spicy coconut milk...

Coconut milk: Add milk to a bowl and whisk adding cayenne until the desired heat is required...

Caesar Salad

A Classic French Caesar Salad For Four

1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
3 fillets anchovy finely minced
1 pinch each of sea salt and pepper
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 heads romaine/cos lettuce, whole leaf or chopped
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil + or -

In a large bowl add all the ingredients, except the lettuce and olive oil
With the back of a tablespoon smear the anchovy until it appears smooth and not lumpy, and then whisk by hand for a bit to combine, then slowly add the olive oil in a fine drizzle while whisking fast, have someone hold the bowl or do the drizzle bit if needed, what you're looking for is the texture of the dressing to have shine to it but not be to wet, remember drizzle very slowly stopping the flow necessary or the dressing will break!  It's really hard to fix it, so don't let it break!!
Add the lettuce mixing with your clean hands, do not use tongs or other items, just plan on getting dirty....  Plate the salad, add hot croutons and parmesan cheese.  You also add grilled meat, fish or shrimp at this if you want..

Croutons
With oven hot set at 350* cut croutons to your desired size and shape, brush with olive oil, salt and pepper, place in the oven shaking occasionally, check for doneness often, you won't be the first to forget them, so set the timer for 5-10 min intervals.

WAKE UP PEOPLE...

Alright then, here we go, my first blog.  I'm sick of seeing Obesity in Kids and Adults, It's sad.  There's something wrong here, our Doctors and Nurses are overweight, even our Teachers are overweight, because of processed food.  Wake Up San Juan Islands!  It's time to get back in the kitchen and start cooking again.  We all wanted that fancy car and the big house, and I think there lies the problem, there's nobody cooking real food anymore, because we're all out at work trying to make ends meet, maybe this is what 2012 is all about!

The collapse of America's Diet!  There's no family time either, Hannah is up at 6:00 in the morning practicing basketball, and then she's off to school, so that means no food until lunch time, who's bright idea was that?  And then we have soccer practice until 7:00 at night and games on the weekends, so who has the time to cook??

For crying out loud, I went to a soccor game last week to watch Sammantha play, and guess what they had for snacks, how about three trays of cup cakes!  I even saw the coach, a Doctor, having a pastry on the field, and it gets worse, three Moms watching the game were eating cup o' noodles!!  Bloody Hell. . .

Well, I'm pissed off!  And I want to help.  If you don't know how to cook and want to learn, call me, I'll teach you.  Watch my videos, and if that doesn't help, call me or email me and I'll teach you at your home.  Organic produce and eggs are expensive.  If I have enough and you can't afford them, I'll give them to you.  My passion is to save you and your children from getting diabetes and heart disease.  If you haven't got it already, I'm a big Jamie Oliver fan.  I love his shows, he's really hitting a nerve, and he has inspired me to make San Juan Island a showcase for America.  We can do it as a community, we can save our children, and maybe there will come a time when we don't see as many fliers on the post office doors of people who have died early.  WATCH FOR ME, I'll be around town cooking food and handing it out for free, showing you how easy it is to cook healthy foods.

Cooking videos coming soon!  Bon Appetite!