Engagement chicken

I'm a regular watcher of the Food Network and one of my favorite chefs is Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa).  The other day she made what she called "engagement chicken," which is named after the fact that women who make this chicken for their boyfriends usually get engaged shortly thereafter (recipe here: Ina Garten Engagement Roast Chicken).  I don't happen to have a boyfriend at the moment but I do appreciate tasty new ways to make chicken and so I'd thought I'd give it a try.  Before I share the results, I should mention that I've never cooked a whole chicken on my own and I thought it wouldn't be that hard.  I'd heard horror stories of people forgetting to take out the giblets so I made sure I didn't fall into that trap.  As it turns out that my biggest mistake would be one of the simplest - I cooked the chicken upside down!  For some reason, I put the chicken in my new roasting pan with the breast side down.  Needless to say, the top part cooked to a crisp, golden brown but the breast (the best part in my opinion) came out juicy but with pale, slimy skin. 

Here's the upside down chicken ready to go into the oven:

Here's the chicken after it came out of the oven:

 

Here's the onions and lemons after roasting:

And here's the gravy that you make with the caramelized onions and lemons:

In spite of my mistake, the recipe was easy and very tasty so I'll be adding it to my list of recipe favorites.  Bring on the boyfriend!

Red Velvet Cake...

By some twist of fate, I'd never actually tried red velvet cake until last year.  I remember hearing about it from the movie "Steel Magnolias" and imagined that it was white cake with some serious red food coloring added.  It wasn't until I saw a "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" episode which featured red velvet cake that I learned that it's actually a chocolate cake with red food coloring added.  This year for Christmas I was able to go home to Chicago to be with my family and was delighted when my lovely sister-in-law took on the challenge of making a red velvet cake.  I helped guide her through the frosting process (the crumb layer is even more important when you're trying to put white frosting on a very red cake) and the final product looked nearly professional.  Here's a picture of the final product, judge for yourselves:

A handy tip about eggs...

One helpful tip I've learned along my journey with food is that if you crack an egg and a piece of the shell gets in the bowl as well, the easiest way to get the shell piece out is to use part of a larger piece of shell to fish it out.  There's something about the inside coating of the shell that allows it to cut through the yolk and egg white to get to the piece so that you're not chasing the piece around the bowl.  I can personally vouch for this tip since I've been using it for awhile.  It doesn't seem to be common knowledge so I thought I'd share it.

Green peppers are not what they claim to be...

I recently learned that green peppers are not an unique kind of pepper like, say, serrano peppers are.  Rather, it refers to any pepper that has not yet fully ripened.  Who knew?

Birth of a food blog...

I've always been into food and have enjoyed learning to cook since I was old enough to stand on a chair to see over the counter so I could watch my mom cook.  I've experienced some highs and lows during my foodie journey so I thought I'd start a blog to share the journey with you - complete strangers.  Any time I try a new recipe, eat at a great restaurant or learn something cool about food - I'll post here.  I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do.