Lemon and Herb Roasted Chicken

Remember earlier this month when I mentioned that Dave and I don't exist on sugar and butter alone?  Well, here's the proof--I actually cook real food from time to time.  And my favorite way make real food is to use my crock pot.  I super dooper love my crock pot.  It's so easy to throw a meal together in the morning or the night before and let my crock pot make dinner while I'm at work or busy with other stuff.  Plus is makes the house smell so good.  And this recipe is a perfect way to make a beautiful meal in just a few minutes.  I've never actually roasted a chicken in the oven because it's just too easy to do it in the crock pot.  The lemon and garlic in this recipe are complimented by the herbs and the meat is juicy and completely falls apart.  A little messy for a pretty table presentation, but tasty and easy nonetheless.

A friend of mine turned me onto Stephanie O'Dea's blog a couple of years ago when Stephanie challenged herself to use her crock pot every day for a year and blog the recipes.  While I'm not quite as hard-core as Stephanie, there are currently 5 crock pots in my house and I've been known to run more than one (or two) at a time.  Stephanie has a lot of wonderful recipes for crock pot beginners and more experienced cooks.  Since I didn't have any fresh rosemary I used dry, but otherwise I followed the recipe, right down to skinning the chicken first (with all the butter I go through, I do try to cut the fat and calories when possible).  I served this with jasmine rice and green beans for a simple dinner that was both healthy and tasty.

In Memory

It's been a challenging week and those of you who have followed me for a while know I don't like to abandon you like I did this past week or so.  Unfortunately something in my life took precendence and required me to take some time away to be with my family.  Last week my Mom passed away after battling pancreatic cancer for over a year.  While she had been sick, her passing was sudden and heartbreaking for my family and I.  The woman who taught me to bake and cook is no longer a phone call away to guide me through the mistakes I make or talk me off the ledge when it really isn't that bad.  It's hard to comprehend, but there is some comfort knowing she is at peace.  Many friends and family have shared their sympathies and memories of Mom.  It's been overwhelming and emotional and really, there aren't many word to explain this hole in my heart. 

Two Thanksgiving's ago, I hosted the feast and cooked my first turkey, complete with all the sides and traditions.  I had no idea what I was doing, but Mom was with me, guiding me through each step and making fun of my detailed and annotated timeline to ensure all the dishes would arrive to the table in time and hot.  But when my dish of salt accidentally fell off the top of the stove and into the gravy, she immediately helped me fix it and brushed it off as no big deal.  The gravy was a little salty, but without her help it would have been very salty.

I have many wonderful memories of Mom and I in the kitchen, me sitting at the table watching her roll dough, chop vegetables, make potato salad, or decorate cakes.  I would watch every move, not just to learn, but in awe that my Mom was so good at that stuff.  While most of my friends got store bought birthday cakes, Mom would make detailed replicas of Cookie Monster or whatever struck our fancy that year, and she made it look easy (but I know it wasn't).

I'll look forward to teaching my nieces, with my sister, how to make perogis and chocolate and fudge.  It won't be the same, but somehow her memory will live on.

Love,
The Cookie Princess

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Ooey, gooey cinnamon rolls.  Is there really anything better to wake up to?  On a cold winter morning when you don't really want to get out of bed.  The type of morning where you know you'll end up wearing your PJs all day, unless you put in the effort to throw on a pair of yoga pants.  The day you know you'll just want to snuggle on the couch watching trashy TV and eating guilty pleasure food all day.  Well, if you know the night before that you're going to wake up to that kind of day, you want this recipe.  You do all the work ahead of time and in the morning you'll actually want to get out of bed just to turn on the oven and get these lovely, sweet, messy, warm, tasty cinnamon roll baking just so you can devour the whole pan while watching [insert favorite reality TV marathon here].  Totally. Worth. It.

I made these when Dave's cousin Mike and his wife Donna came to visit because I knew if I made them for just Dave and I, we'd eat the whole pan.  Having guests eat a couple made it feel less indulgent.  At least I guess so because Dave ate three of them.  These were phenomenal.  The filling is amazing and the dough is soft and perfect.  Start to finish these guys do take about 16 hours, but most of that is resting time (in fact, I was surprised how little I worked with the dough). But you'll still want to plan ahead to make sure you'll be in the kitchen when you need to move on to the next step.  Again: Totally. Worth. It.

Bulldog Banana Bites

For about a year and a half, Dave and I have been fostering dogs for a rescue group called All Dog Rescue. It started as a way to volunteer and have a dog in our lives without committing to having a dog of our own.  One day we'll be ready for that, but until then, wayward dogs come into our home, get love, attention, and training and eventually they move on to their forever homes.  I like to think they occasionally think about us and all the belly rubs they suckered us into.

Right now we have Mia, aka Mia Monkey, who is adorable and affectionate.  And Mia loves cookies.  While I can't verify the tastiness of these cookies, I think the fact that Mia would sit pretty every time I picked up the bag and look longingly at me is a testament that the puppy in your life will approve of these treats.

Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Remember the other day when I said I only wanted to make a dozen cupcakes for Dave's birthday because I didn't want lots of leftovers?  Well that was until the morning of the party when I learned everyone I invited was coming which would have meant only one cupcake per person.  Ever the prepared hostess and not wanting to run out of cupcakes, I knew I needed to make another batch.  But making second batch of the same kind of cupcake would be (of course) ridiculous (to me only) so I set upon finding another perfect recipe.  Since I had Dave's vanilla fix covered with the Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes, I figured I'd go with his second favorite flavor combo: chocolate and peanut butter.  A little variety for our guests and a little chocolate for me.  Plus I was interested in the peanut butter frosting.  Both the cupcake and the frosting were phenomenal.  The cupcake was rich and chocolatey with a fluffy texture.  The frosting was amazing with a full on peanut butter flavor--almost like it was just whipped peanut butter with some added sweetness.  They paired together beautifully.  In fact, they were so perfectly rich with flavor individually that they begged to be paired with each other:  the frosting needed to be matched with a rich chocolate to cut the intense peanut butter and the chocolate needed the saltiness of the frosting to tone down the richness of the cake.  Truly a thing of beauty among chocolate and peanut butter desserts.  Dave even commented on how they were so good they tasted better than our wedding cupcakes (which included both a vanilla vanilla version and a chocolate peanut butter version).