Lavender and Honey Crock Pot Chicken

A couple months ago several friends from my house church got together to kill, pluck, and gut some chickens. Yes, we slaughter chickens together. No, we are not a cult. I promise!

So at the end of that night, I got to take home two organic, free-range chickens that cost me nothing but a few hours of labor. Well, that, and the feeling that I still smelled like chickens after two days and three showers. As one who doesn't even like to handle raw meat from the store, that was certainly an experience! Perhaps I should write a whole post on that. But lest I ruin your appetite . . .

Since I worked hard for these chickens, I felt like I needed some really epic recipes to cook them. And since they were older chickens, one of the chicken experts in the group warned us that the meat would be tough--so she recommended soup or crock pot cooking methods.

Around the same time I decided to try my hand at cooking with lavender, which I'd eaten twice but had never been brave enough to cook with myself. And then this recipe happened. It used lavender, it featured a whole chicken, and it was easily adaptable to the crock pot. Sold.

I decided to skin my chicken for two reasons: 1) the skin brings a lot of fat to the party, and I wanted a leaner dish; and 2) whoever plucked that chicken (quite possibly me) didn't do the best job, so there were still some feather remnants. However, though I basted this little lady every 30 minutes, she still came out really tough. So if you make this, I'd recommend using more liquid, cooking on low instead of high, leaving the skin on, or a combination thereof.

But the flavor was excellent! The lavender definitely came out, but the dish didn't taste flowery or perfumey, as can happen if you use too much lavender. I don't think I'd change a thing about the marinade ingredients or amounts. For the past couple days I've been using this chicken in some peach quesadillas, and I plan to use the bones to make home-made chicken stock (a first for me).

Lavender and Honey Crock Pot Chicken

Adapted from food.com

Yield: 1 chicken

Ingredients

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried rosemary

1 tsp. dried lavender flowers

1-2 sprigs fresh marjoram, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 red onion, finely chopped (2-3 Tbsp.)

1 whole chicken

Salt and pepper

2 lemons (oranges would probably also be good)

Additional sprig or two of marjoram or other herb(s) of choice

Directions

Combine first eight ingredients (honey through red onion) in a 1- or 2-cup measuring cup. Cut one of the lemons into wedges and slice the other one.

Skin the chicken, if desired, and remove any giblets or anything else that came packaged inside the chicken. Season with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Place the lemon wedges inside the body cavity and place chicken in a greased crock pot.

Pour honey-lavender mixture over the chicken, place additional herb sprig(s) on top of chicken, and spread lemon slices on top of that. Cover and cook 4-8 hours* or until chicken is tender and juices run clear. Since I skinned my chicken and since I was home all day, I basted my chicken every 30 minutes or so to try to keep her nice and juicy.

* Crock-pot.com suggests that, for a 6-lb. whole bone-in chicken, you cook on low for 7-1/2 hours or on high for 6-1/4. Obviously, individual crock pots vary, so adjust your cook time accordingly based on your crock pot and the size of your chicken.

Orange French Toast with Salted Caramel Syrup

French toast has become my weekend breakfast of choice. There are so many ways to vary the basic French toast to create a vast array of breakfast treats. You can change up the kind and flavor of bread, add various ingredients to the egg and milk mixture, polish the dish with different toppings, or all of the above. The possibilities are endless!

This orange French toast recipe is definitely a keeper! For a simpler version, skip the salted caramel syrup and top with your syrup/fruit/whatever of choice. But I highly recommend you try the salted caramel syrup at least once, as it complements the orange French toast flavors beautifully!

Orange French Toast with Salted Caramel Syrup
Adapted from diamondcrystalsalt.com, as seen in Cooking Light
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients
1 cup milk
3 large eggs
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
8 thick slices of honey oat bread (or other bread of choice)
2 Tbsp. butter

Salted Caramel Syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light cream or half and half
1 tsp. kosher salt

Orange French Toast Directions
Whisk together milk, eggs, orange juice, zest, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl. (This mixture can be prepared up to 1 day in advance.) Pour egg mixture in a shallow pan. Dip bread into egg mixture, and soak for 45 seconds.

Melt 1/2 Tbsp. butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium to medium-low heat. Place 2 slices of bread into skillet. Cook to golden brown, about 3-5 minutes on each side, and keep warm until ready to serve. Continue with the remaining slices of bread.

Serve immediately with the warm Salted Caramel Syrup, with a bit of extra salt sprinkled on top. Garnish with slices of fresh orange, if desired.

Salted Caramel Syrup Directions
Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir to dissolve sugar. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 8 minutes or until golden. Watch carefully to keep the caramel from burning.

Reduce heat to low or medium-low. Gently stir in cream or half and half, using a long-handled spoon or whisk. The syrup will get glumpy, but just keep it on low heat, stirring frequently, until it gets melty again. (Warming the cream in the microwave before adding to the saucepan would probably help the glumpiness factor.)

Stir in kosher salt. Set aside, and keep warm until French toast is done.

Black Bean and Quinoa Bowl with Peach Salsa

One of my best friends got married recently, and for her wedding present from me and another friend, she asked that we make her a cookbook of some of our favorite recipes. In the process of compiling recipes for this cookbook, I’ve been reminded of how much I love cooking. And adapting recipes. And writing about food. And sharing food with others.

So I am resolved to post recipes and food pictures more often—I’m going to aim for about once a week. Photographing my food inspires me to make my meal a work of art, an experience. To not just throw something on a plate and scarf it down while catching the latest episode of Community or SVU.

Posting the photos and corresponding recipes provides a way to share the experience with others, even on evenings I eat alone.

So today I present to you this recipe from a food blog I’ve just started following within the last week or two. Surprisingly, I followed it pretty closely. The only significant change I made was to cook only 1 cup of quinoa rather than 2, and I’m very happy with that decision. I think the quinoa to bean to salsa ratio was perfect.

Black Bean and Quinoa Bowl with Peach Salsa
Adapted slightly from acouplecooks.com

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
6-8 green onions, sliced
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Peach Salsa Ingredients
4 ripe peaches, pitted and chopped (peeling is optional)
1/2 medium to large red onion, finely chopped
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped (more or less to taste)
Juice of 1 lime
Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
Kosher salt, to taste

Directions
Rinse the quinoa well and drain. To a small saucepan add the quinoa and 1-1/2 cups water, and a few pinches of salt, if desired. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until water has been absorbed. Turn off the heat and let sit covered to cool for about 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and add salt and pepper to taste.

Note: Quinoa package directions often call for a 1 to 2 ratio of quinoa to water. On this site’s recommendation, I tried a 1 to 1-1/2 ratio (1 cup of quinoa to 1-1/2 cups water), and the quinoa turned out fluffier and less watery/mushy. I’ll definitely stick with this method for future quinoa needs.

While the quinoa cooks, chop/prepare the salsa ingredients and combine them all in a bowl. Set aside.

Combine the beans, green onions, cumin, chili powder, 1/4 tsp. salt, and pepper. Mix well. Adjust seasonings, if desired.

To serve, dish the quinoa into bowls, top with black bean mixture and peach salsa.

Result
So good! Fresh, summery, and hearty, with a very healthy taste that the quinoa brings to the party. I enjoyed eating this for dinner last night and am excited about eating the leftovers throughout the rest of this week. Sadly, I forgot to buy a jalapeno while at the grocery store. I did miss it, but the dish didn’t suffer from it. Also, while in the checkout line, I thought, “I should have picked up an avocado or two to dice onto the top of this bowl!” I really wish I’d had that thought earlier, because after tasting the dish, I definitely think avocado would have taken this dish up a notch. Next time!

Nutritional Information Per Serving (compliments of My Fitness Pal)
423 calories; 4.9 g. fat; 78.6 g total carbs (18.4 g. dietary fiber, 13.2 g. sugars); 19.6 g. protein.

A Person's a Person, No Matter How Small

Apparently I'm really bad at blogging regularly. This semester I've been trying to form the habit of working out two to three evenings a week, plus I'm trying to cook the majority of my meals, and I'm trying to be more intentional about spending time with friends more regularly than I often do. And last week I spent a lot of hours reading the Hunger Games trilogy. So blogging hasn't been top priority lately. Sigh.

A couple weeks ago, I was invited to a meeting which included several mid- to high-ranking people on campus. I was the first one there--mostly because I didn't really know where the room was terrified of being late--and thus was the first one there. From the moment the receptionist showed me in to the conference room, I could tell she thought I'm more important than I am. She seemed nervous. She overflowed with apologies that the room was cold and that there were rings on the table from people's drinks the previous day. "I am so sorry! There were back-to-back meetings in here all day yesterday, but I should have cleaned this for you this morning before you arrived." On and on. I kept assuring her it was fine, that I wasn't bothered by the rings, and knew it wasn't her fault that other people didn't use coasters. In fact, I kind of wanted to help her wipe down the table and straighten the place mats but was afraid that offering to help would make even more nervous and embarrassed! I tried to be very friendly and easy-going, but she kept her jitters as she sprayed and polished parts of the table.

After a minute or two of small talk, she asked, "Do you work here on campus?" to which I replied, "Yeah, I'm the admin coordinator over in such-and-such department." As soon as the words "admin coordinator" came out of my mouth, the woman became noticeably calmer, more at ease. Because she had discovered that she and I are equals. For all she knew when I walked through the door, I was a big wig from an important company or represented a large donor to our institution. She assumed that I was a V.I.P. who considered herself to be superior to this lowly receptionist. That I expected to be waited on hand and foot.

I left that encounter with mixed feelings. First, it felt really weird to be treated with that much politeness and respect. Usually I feel I'm struggling to convince people that I do much more than they realize--not trying to convince someone that I'm as low on the totem pole as she is. Truth be told, I wore my best new outfit that day and accessorized with an (office-owned) iPad because I felt like I had to prove myself to this room full of higher-ranking colleagues.

Second, I kind of hated the way this receptionist treated me. Because I hated that she felt like she was less valuable than me. And I hate that the reason she feels like she's inferior is because people probably treat her that way every day. Because, no matter what her job title is--and no matter where on the pecking order she sits in relation to someone else--she is a human being who is an equally valuable individual and who deserves to be treated with just as much dignity as the next person.

In my interactions with people of all shapes and statuses, I try very hard to treat everyone with the same level of decency and respect. I sometimes fail when I call a customer service line or refrain from saying something kind to the person cleaning the glass doors leading into my building. And certainly it's appropriate to honor those who have worked hard to earn multiple Ph.D.s or who have been teaching and publishing twice as long as I've been alive. But from the people who empty the trash cans in my office to the people who are highest in command, we're all human beings created in the image of God, and I think we should treat each other with dignity.

If I ever graduate from administrative coordinator into a title that would tempt me to demand special treatment, I sincerely hope I'll have the humility to resist that temptation. Because a person's a person, no matter how (big or) small.

Egg and Pesto Breakfast Pizza

Weekend breakfasts are a treat for me. During the week, I do well to grab a Chobani yogurt cup on my way out the door because--as much as I like an elaborate breakfast--when given the choice between that and sleep, I’m going to choose sleep every time. So on weekends, I can have my sleep and eat yummy breakfast too.

This pizza did not disappoint. In fact, if I had had the stomach capacity to do so, I would have eaten the entire pizza in one sitting. And would have felt no shame. My pizza was actually a combination of three recipes from Naturally Ella (pizza), Faux Martha (no-rise crust), and Food Network (pesto). This pizza is definitely best for a leisurely morning when you have nowhere to be and no one to see, because there are quite a few steps—and you’ll get quite a few dishes dirty. But it’s so worth it!

It looks a bit like a face

This piece had two yolks. Heavenly!

Egg and Pesto Breakfast Pizza

Crust:                                                         

1/4 cup water, heated to 110 degrees

1/4 Tbsp. sugar (yes, this is unusual to measure 1/4 Tbsp.)

1/4 Tbsp. olive oil

Heaping 1/2 tsp. rapid rise or bread machine yeast

1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp. all purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp. salt

Pesto: This will actually make about twice as much as you need for one pizza, but even this amount was almost not enough for my food processor. So just save the leftover pesto for something else.

2 cups fresh spinach

1/2 cup walnuts

3-1/2 oz. Feta

2 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried rosemary

1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

Freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Olive oil

Pizza toppings:

1 cup grated mozzarella (approximately)

4 eggs

Freshly cracked pepper

Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray with olive oil. Add the walnuts and toast for 5-6 minutes, until fragrant. Set walnuts aside to cool. While the walnuts cool, add the rest of the pesto ingredients (except the olive oil) to the food processor bowl, with the spinach on the bottom and everything else on top. Set aside.

Put pizza stone in oven and preheat oven to 500 degrees.

For crust, add flours, Parmesan, and salt to a single-serving size blender or food processor (such as a Magic Bullet). Pulse until combined and Parmesan is powdery.

Heat water and whisk in the sugar, oil, and yeast. (The recipe says to heat the water to 110 degrees. I don’t have a thermometer, so I just went for water that was hotter than my skin but cool enough that I could hold my finger in the water without discomfort.) Allow yeast to proof for 5 minutes.

While the yeast proofs, finish the pesto. Add the cooled walnuts to the rest of the ingredients and pulse until combined. Turn the processor to “on” and drizzle in olive oil until pesto reaches desired consistency, stopping periodically to scrape down the sides of the bowl. I kept my pesto pretty thick. Taste and adjust herbs, pepper, etc., if needed.

Finish up the pizza crust. When the yeast is finished proofing, combine the liquids with the flour mixture, and stir until combined. Then knead into a dough. At this point, you can set it aside if needed, to finish up other steps. But the author of the recipe recommends going straight into rolling it out, so that's what I did.

On a floured surface, roll out pizza dough to about a 9-inch circle. Transfer to parchment paper. Spread with pesto and top with mozzarella. Moving quickly, remove pizza stone from oven and place on a wire rack. Put parchment paper with pizza onto stone, crack eggs over the top of the pizza, and put the pizza back into the oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cheese and crust are browned and eggs are set.

Remove from oven and slide parchment paper with pizza onto a cutting board. Sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper. Cut and dig in!

Yield: 3-4 servings (1 nine-inch pizza)

Results: Is it too dramatic to say that this pizza is life-changing? Seriously, though, I never knew you could take something as awesome as pizza and marry it to something as awesome as breakfast. My mouth was so unbelievably happy! The pesto alone was good enough that I could eat it with a spoon. Then you throw in a hearty crust, cheese, and eggs with rich, creamy yolks . . . be still, my heart! Make sure that each serving has a yolk on it, because the yolk takes this pizza from good to delicious. After 8 minutes in the oven, my cheese was very browned but the egg whites weren’t quite set. Next time I might decrease the oven temp to 475 and cook for a couple minutes longer.

                                   

Variation ideas for next time: Add sliced fresh tomato and/or fresh asparagus (1-inch pieces) to the pizza. I would put the veggies on after the cheese, before the eggs. Maybe garnish with some cooked, crumbled turkey bacon?

Lamb, Apricot, and Olive Tagine

Back in September I bought some ground lamb on a bit of a whim, then couldn't settle on a recipe special enough to use said lamb (it's not cheap, you know). So into the freezer it went, and there it stayed until last week when I discovered this Slow-Cooker Lamb, Apricot, and Olive Tagine recipe from Real Simple. I'd never heard of tagine, it sounded like a really interesting combination of flavors, and I thought that using a slow cooker might be good in case the lamb was freezer burned.

Not the most photogenic dish, but very tasty!

To my surprise, the meat was not freezer burned (points for HEB packaging!). And the flavors were, in fact, interesting and incredible! I also just Googled "tagine" (also "tajine"), and it's a Moroccan dish named after the unique pot it's traditionally cooked in. There's also Tunisian tagine, but it's very different and resembles a frittata. Who knew?

I followed the recipe almost exactly, though I used ground lamb rather than 1-inch pieces. I also decreased the olives a tad since green olives aren't my favorite. And I left out the pistachios.

The original recipe says it serves 4, but you can easily do smaller portions and get more servings out of this. In fact, it's pretty rich, so I've been eating portions that are probably about half the size that Real Simple intends.  Smaller portions also helps make it more nutritious since this is not the lowest-calorie dish out there.

Slow-Cooker Lamb, Apricot, and Olive Tagine
Copied word-for-word from Real Simple

1 1/2 pounds lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup dried apricots, halved
1/2 cup pitted green olives
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
kosher salt and black pepper
1 cup couscous
chopped pistachios, fresh cilantro leaves, and lemon wedges, for serving


In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, mix together the lamb, carrots, onion, apricots, olives, garlic, flour, paprika, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and ½ cup water.

Cover and cook until the lamb and vegetables are tender, on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours (this will shorten total recipe time).

Ten minutes before serving, cook the couscous according to the package directions. Serve the lamb on the couscous with the pistachios, cilantro, and lemon wedges.

Song Leading

I got to lead singing in chapel last week, which was both awesome and terrifying. I appreciate graduate chapel SO much, and one of the biggest reasons is because it's one of the only places I've worshipped where gender really, truly doesn't matter. Any and all positions of leadership--from planning to praying to preaching--are equally open to women and men.

But back to last week...

As many experiences are apt to do, it got me thinking about women in church leadership. You see, this was only my third time ever to lead singing. No one has ever taught me how to do it. I don't know how to do the hand-waving tempo-keeping thing. It didn't even cross my mind to direct the congregation to stand or sit. Everything I know about song leading, I've just picked up by watching other song leaders over the years. Because, while we do an excellent job of training our boys to lead from a young age, girls just don't get that same training (maybe things are better now, but when I was kid, that kind of training wasn't an option for girls). So while many men my age have been leading singing for 15+ years, I didn't start until last year. When little Billy Bob gets up, leads a song, and bombs it, people think, "Aww, he's 12 and cute! Let's encourage him to keep doing this and keep getting better!" It's less cute when a 27-year-old leads singing and bombs it.

I was talking about this with a friend last night, and she made a really good point. For us women, it feels like there's more pressure to be excellent at any act of leadership we perform. Since there are so few women doing public leadership tasks in church, each woman who does do something up front--at least to an extent--sets the tone/expectation for how women do that particular thing. For instance, say Billy Bob grows up and never becomes very good at leading worship but still volunteers every now and then. When he gets up and leads poorly, people just kind of accept that he's not awesome at song leading, but most people probably don't make assumptions about the rest of the male population's ability to lead singing. But as a woman, I feel like my performance--however good or bad--is a reflection on ALL women who may want to lead. "She really messed up the tempo on that last song. Maybe Paul was on to something when he said women should keep silent." Or, "She did a great job! We should get more women to lead singing!"

So here are my pleas:

Church - bear with us. So many of us desperately want to lead but don't know the ins and outs of how to perform certain functions within a worship service. Just because we're adults doesn't mean we've ever led a public prayer or served communion--much less done so lots of times. When we stand behind the pulplit and read a passage of Scripture, extend the same level of grace and encouragement you would extend to a 12-year-old. Oh, and starting teaching girls how to lead from a young age.

Worship planning teams/individuals - be intentional about inviting women to do things. Since public leadership roles in church are new to us, we may be hesitant to volunteer because we fear we'll do a bad (or even a mediocre) job. So we may need some extra pushing and encouragement. And if a woman bombs a Scripture reading, ask her to do another one anyway! Pretend she's 12 years old.

Women - jump in there and lead! Yes, it's terrifying. But it's also wonderful, and it gets less terrifying with time and experience. And the more your sisters in Christ see you lead, the easier it may be for them to step up and do the same. The church so desperately needs to hear your voice. Let it be heard.