Garlic, Lemon and Rosemary, Riesling=great combo!

Tonight for dinner I made Rachel Ray's "Garlic Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon" and it was yummy!! I added a side of brown rice with the leftover "juices" on top. I made some oven roasted lemon pepper Asparagus (I covered the aspargus in EVOO and some lemon juice with pepper and roasted it until it was dark green and tender). We topped it off with Chateau St. Michelle Riesling...our favorite white wine. It was a great combination.

Here is Rachel's recipe: (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/garlic-roast-chicken-with-rosemary-and-lemon-recipe/index.html)

Ingredients

* 2 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
* 6 cloves garlic, crushed
* 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves stripped from stems
* 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it
* 1 lemon, zested and juiced
* 1 tablespoon grill seasoning blend (recommended: Montreal Seasoning) or, coarse salt and black pepper
* 1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken broth

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Arrange chicken in a baking dish, 9 by 13-inch. Add garlic, rosemary, extra-virgin olive oil, lemon zest and grill seasoning or salt and pepper to the dish. Toss and coat the chicken with all ingredients, then place in oven. Roast 20 minutes. Add wine and lemon juice to the dish and combine with pan juices. Return to oven and turn oven off. Let stand 5 minutes longer then remove chicken from the oven. Place baking dish on trivet and serve, spooning pan juices over the chicken pieces.

Hadlies First Birthday-Baked Goods!

For my niece's first Birthday my Sis-in-Law asked me to help out. I decorated the main cake, and made some delicious cookies from my favorite cook book Better Homes & Garden. The cookies are called "Melt-m-your-mouth Sugar Cookies".

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Mix together butter and shortening. Add sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Beat in as much flour as you can and stir in the remaining flour.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in 300 oven for about 15 minutes or until sides are set. Do not let edges brown. Cool on cookie sheet for one minute and transfer to wire rack and let cool. Yields approximately 60 cookies



For the cake we just used a normal sheet cake. We also used the ball shaped cake pans to make the lady bugs. A hostess snowball and black licorice made the face of the lady bug. To create the grass, I just used a grass frosting tip.

Another blog?

I decided it would be fun to start a blog where I can share photos, thoughts, things learned and fun stuff about baking and cooking. The posts may be limited, but it should be fun!!