Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken, one of my favorites

I thought it might be appropriate to share a chicken recipe with you all considering my recent chicken shenanigans.  If I'm going to kill them, I've got to be able to cook them! I also have been promising this recipe to a dear friend of mine; Sarah, this one is for you, . . .

This recipe has been adapted from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker,  by Beth Hensperger, which is an awesome cookbook for those of you who are interested in crock pots.  I love mine, nothing better than throwing ingredients into a pot and having them ready to grub down on five hours later.  I've made this particular recipe so many times that I've landed on my own flavor preferences and recipe tweaks, which is what you will see below.  Be careful though, I've noticed that this dish can be easy to over salt depending on what type of soy sauce and bouillion you use, so it's good to be mindful of that.  For this, I use my 6 quart slow cooker, big enough to put the entire chicken in.  It is so easy to prepare and is one of my "go to" meals as most of the ingredients are always in my fridge or pantry. 

Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken:

Ingredients:

4-5 large potatoes chopped into 1/8ths, skin on

1 Large onion chopped into long slivers

10-15 Mushrooms, whatever you like, chopped into large chunks, I use Cremini

1 lemon, juiced, keep the rinds available too

1 Boullion cube

2 Tbs of Soy Sauce

1 1/2 Tsp of Paprika

A dash of Sea Salt

A few twists of Black Pepper

To Prepare:

-Prepare and have available all ingredients.

-Put the chicken into the crock pot.

-Drizzle lemon juice over the chicken and stick the rinds into the chicken cavity.

-Add Soy Sauce.

-Break boullion cube in half, put one section inside the chicken, crumble the rest on top.

-Season with paprika, salt and pepper

-Add potatoes, onions and mushrooms to the crock pot, snug them around the chicken, you can even put some inside the chicken to give the juice more flavor!

Sometimes I cover the entire chicken, piling mushrooms, potatoes and onions on top, it just depends on how much I have to add.

-Cover and cook on high for about 4 hours (or till chicken is done!).

You will end up with a delicious stew that usually lasts (us) for two days!  Yummo!  Such a perfect re-heatable dish too.

Last but not least, . . . .

Make your stock!

This stock is so good, thick, dark and delicious.  See all the gelatin on the top, that's the good stuff!

-Keep the carcass inside the crock pot with any leftover juices.  

-Pick out lemon rinds and other large leftover pieces of meat and skin.  

-Add 1 Tbs of Apple Cider Vinegar.  

-Fill crock pot with water and turn on low.  

-After 24 hours I usually open it up and use a ladle to help break down the bones, all that marrow is so good for you and makes a yummy flavor in your stock.  

-Then you can let it sit bubbling away for another day!  (Sometimes  I even take some stock out to drink or use in another recipe only to add more water to the crock pot and let it cook even longer!

-Once my stock is finished, I strain it well and put it in a jar.  I take the bone mush and mash it up even more and give it to the dogs, . . . they LOVE it.  

Voila!  Now you've got the stock for the soup you're going to make tomorrow!  I always try to use the stock within the next 4-5 days, if you don't plan on using it, stick it in your freezer!

. . .

"Why?" (A Breastfeeding Rant!)

I just don't get it.  I'm dumbfounded.  Breastfeeding.  Why is this such an issue in our "modern" world?  I've said it before and I will say it again, . . . what the heck is wrong with our society that breastfeeding is even a question?  How disassociated from nature have we become? Why should we deny our children of one of their basic needs?  

Yack!  It makes me so angry.  Women should be able to choose where and when they feed their children and not be harassed for it!  I have been in and out of the breastfeeding movement; following the nurse-ins, participating at times, or sitting and stewing in my own juices, and then sometimes I just let go and roll my eyes.  I am obviously a tried and true supporter; however, I find that the issue has such a charge for me that instinctually I push away from it.  This time, ha ha, I've decided to get it out of my system, . . . . you are warned!

"ATTENTION WORLD! LEAVE ME, MY CHILDREN, AND MY BOOBS ALONE!  IF MY CHILD WANTS TO BE FED, I WILL FEED MY CHILD!  I WILL NOT GO TO A BATHROOM OR USE A SHEET TO COVER UP!  I WILL NOT LET YOUR COMMENTS OR LOOKS GET IN THE WAY OF MY CHILDREN AND THEIR NEED FOR LOVE AND NOURISHMENT!  

WHY DO YOU CARE IF I'M FEEDING MY CHILD IN A RESTAURANT, ON A PARK BENCH, OR OTHER PUBLIC VENUE?  I SAY, CONCENTRATE ON GETTING YOUR FOOD IN YOUR MOUTH INSTEAD OF GETTING PIZZA SAUCE ALL OVER YOUR FACE?  MY BABY HAS BETTER TABLE MANNERS THAN YOU! STOP STARING!  IF YOU WERE LUCKY, YOU WERE FED IN THIS WAY AS WELL! 

THEY'RE JUST BREASTS!  YOUR TEENAGER IS PROBABLY EXPOSING THEMSELVES MORE THAN ME!  BREASTFEEDING IS ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCES!  I AM FEEDING MY CHILD FROM MY BODY!  HOW MUCH MORE PRIMITIVE AND INSTINCTUAL CAN YOU GET?  WHY SHOULD I FEED MY CHILD WITH THE MILK FROM A COW, WHEN I CAN NOURISH THEM WITH MILK THAT IS ACTUALLY MEANT FOR THEM!  

WHY DO YOU CARE IF MY CHILD IS 3 MONTHS OLD OR THREE YEARS OLD?  WHY DO YOU CARE?  SERIOUSLY!  WHY THE FUCK DO YOU CARE?"  

Sigh, . . . I feel better now.  

;)

Beans and Rice (oh yeah, and split peas too)!

An easy sensory bin as well as sorting challenge!  

Miss Serafin was at this for about 40 minutes, . . .

Here Goes, . . .

A little bit of rice and beans, I added split peas too for a splash of color!

She got straight to it and wanted to stick her hands in and feel the grains running between her fingers.  Part of the challenge was to keep everything inside the pan (wink wink).

When she was done "feeling", I gave her two plates to separate the beans and split peas from the rice.  She managed the black beans, but the split peas were a little too small and she lost interest after a while.  Note to self, next time, maybe garbanzos or kidneys!  Perhaps a set of tweezers might make it interesting!

After she was finished sorting she wasn't sure what to do with herself, enter spoons for another ten minutes of fun!

I decided to call it quits when she wanted to stick her face in the pan, after all, what comes after that?  I'm sure whatever it would have been,  it would have been fun, but I wasn't in the mood for any major cleaning!


When you're done, throw it in a pot, cook 'em up for the birds!

Farewell Goldie

Farewell Goldie

A lot of you know that our family is crazy about animals (sounds like a contradiction given my last post about killing chickens, I know, but that has it's own story).  I believe at one point we had as many pets as we had fingers (5 cats, 2 dogs and 3 birds). As I've said many a time, in reminder to myself, the cycle of life is never ending and we have lost many of our animal friends along the way.    

This blog post is dedicated to my feathered friend Goldie, who passed away a few days ago.  We are not sure what happened, Gary found him laying in the bottom of the cage and his spirit had left him.  We were all shocked at the suddenness of it.  Also, the proximity of this happening so close to the chicken butchering has left  me feeling like karma has come to kick me in the ass.  Big bummer.  This will be the second pet we have buried since we got to Orcas.  

If any of you have ever been to my house, you would have known Goldie.  He was the loud one.  His squawk was so loud that it made people cringe at times (which always made me giggle, sorry).  Goldie got everybody's attention.  Me, I was used to it.  After the initial getting used to his "song", I hardly even noticed it after a while.  It was part of the background of our crazy house.  Now, his voice is gone, and for the first time since I've known Gary, our house is quiet.  Now, . . . the silence feels loud.

Serafin says her "goodbyes"

  
I never handled Goldie, I was always afraid he was going to bite me, a very rational fear I think.  Our relationship consisted of conversations and food exchange, I would give him the goods and he would work his way over to the food pot.  I loved watching Goldie flying around the room, that bird loved to spread his wings.      He was such a beautiful bird.  I felt his presence each and every day.  He filled a big space in our house and I miss him.

Goldie and Henry

We had a funeral for our beloved Goldie today.  We waited a couple of days till the weather cleared up and boy was it worth the wait.  It was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining, but it was still cold.  The frost was kissing all the plants with its white glow.  We made our way down to Henry's grave and dug a hole right next to him.  They are together now.  Their spirits somewhere, and their bodies within the soil of the earth.  

We are sad, but events like this bring me back to my heart center, where only love spills.  Farewell sweet Goldie.  Thank you for your presence.  

Goldie's farewell sunset, . . .

Orcas Dreams 5: "Thank You Chickens!"

Hi friends,  I'm not quite sure where to begin with this one.  I guess I'll dive right in.  I had the honor of participating in a not so romantic part of country life the other day.  The night before, I had received a call from a friend who had taken me up on an offer I had proposed a few months earlier.  He had mentioned that he planned to kill some of his chicken flock and eager to learn about the process I offered an extra set of hands.  Now was the time.  Yikes!

Since I got to Orcas I've been very interested in self-sufficiency.  Becoming more connected with my food source is an important part of this.  If you can't feed yourself, you can't survive.  Coming from a place where most foods come out of a package, Orcas has been a huge leap in bringing me closer to my food.  Most of the meat we get here has been raised and then killed on the island.  And yes people, there is a significant different in the taste and energy in this meat.  Amazing.

The night before the deed was to be done, my nerves were running high.  I knew it was an important thing to learn, but I still found myself wondering if I could really do it.  I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to harm a fly.   My friend sent me a link to take a look at so that I would have an idea of what was to happen.  As I did my "homework" I felt a knot in my tummy.  This was going to be interesting. 

When I got to their place the next morning, I put all my nerves aside and went in full throttle.  If I was going to do this I was going to give it my %100 and I was not going to let my unease stop me from learning a very important skill.  

Chicken Plucking

Chicken Guts!  

Although the experience was not very pretty, it was very rewarding.  The chicken you buy in the grocery store must come a long way before it ends up in your hands.  It must be killed, plucked, be-headed, de-footed, cut open and gutted.   Hopefully, during the process, there is respect, compassion, and sensitivity; this animal has just given its life for the sake of another.  I felt fortunate to be learning this skill amongst people who carried with them all of these traits.  When I think about the slaughter houses across america that mass produce animal meat, admittedly, I get even more queasy imagining what goes on there.  Ugh.  

Anyway, I won't go on too much about the gory details, you get the idea from the photos.  I did a little of everything because I wanted to experience it all.  Mostly, I wanted to get good at butchering and gutting the chicken.  By the end of the day I was definitely a  little less shy about sticking my hand up a chickens back end and trying to slowly pull its insides out, no easy task.  

Before the chicken swallows it's feed, it goes into the crop which is a big bulge in the chickens neck.

From the crop the feed moves into the gizzard where it is slowly digested.  In the picture above you see a whole (top left), a gizzard that was cut open (see the feed in it?), and then a cleaned gizzard (bottom).

Overall, I'd say that the actual killing of the bird is what stuck with me the most.  When I did go to kill my first (and only) chicken, by breaking its neck, you can imagine my horror when I pulled a little too hard on it's feet and decapitated its head by accident.  I was trying so hard to not let it suffer, thinking if I pulled too lightly that I might just hurt it and not kill it.  Suddenly I had a headless chicken in my hands.  Sorry chicken.

Regardless of the days errors, in so many ways I'm proud of myself.  Pushing past my comfort zone is never an easy thing.  When I came home that night, after a nice hot shower, I sat down in the quiet to really compute what I had done.  I felt heavy, there was definitely a weight bearing down on me.  Perhaps the city girl part of me was feeling guilty for participating in the slaughter.  Maybe it was because I felt bad for the chickens, they knew what was going on.  All the death.  I think it was the totality of it all.  

But after a few deep breaths I reminded myself of the never ending cycle of life.  Death brings life.  Life brings death.  Sigh.  This life!  How lucky I was to be able to thank these beautiful animals before they end up on my plate.  

My next test will be to keep our own chickens and deal with all that comes up with that!  Will we allow our chickens to live out their lives in retirement as thanks for their yummy eggs?  Or, do I put my new found skills to the test?  We'll see!  But for now, all I gotta to say is, . . .

"Thank you sweet chickens!"

Orcas Dreams 4: Lucky Lady

Happy New Year everybody!  This New Year was a really nice one.  On New Year's Eve I was out walking the dogs and came home to snow falling on my head.  I grabbed the kids and we went outside to play.  The snowflakes just kept getting bigger and bigger and I just couldn't seem to get enough of it.  Have you ever just stood there and looked straight up into the sky while it's snowing on you?  It was so magical.   There is something mysterious about snow, the way it smells, the way it feels when it hits your face.  So far this ex-California girl is loving our little snowy encounters.  

Afterwards we had an awesome dinner, thanks to Gary's b-day present and Jamie Oliver.  Then we just hung out some till Silas told us he was tired and I took him off to bed.  Both Serafin and I attempted to make it till 12 AM, but alas, I think we both conked out minutes before and Gary said "Happy New Year" to himself.  C'est la vie.  I don't think I've seen a midnight celebration of the new year since Serafin was born.  I've been told on more than one occasion, I'm a "lightweight bed wetter" when it comes to sleep.  

In the morning I woke up and dragged everybody out of bed to cheer me on while I partook in the Orcas Island annual Polar Bear Plunge.  I thought it was kind of a nice way to kick in our first New Year here on the island.  Plus it's something that I've always been kind of intrigued by.  Why not run into freezing cold water in the middle of winter?  Admittedly I was kind wimping out on the idea as the days came closer and closer to New Year's,  but while sitting at our breakfast table on the morning of, the sun actually came out for a moment and I thought, I have no excuse now!  

We literally walked up to the event when I heard "5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" Everybody ran screaming into the water and then ran screaming out all shivery.  It was over in a matter of seconds.  I was pretty amused, however, after seeing the looks on their faces I wasn't sure if I could go through with it.  I'd say 3/4s of them looked like they were in pain.  Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I thought, "I gotta do this!" I stripped off my clothes and did my own screaming run into the water and quickly came back out.  

I was surprised to realize that it actually felt quite good.  My entire body tingled in a pleasant way and I definitely felt more energized.  I think my downfall came after I decided to walk around the beach with Serafin in my bathrobe and wet shoes for 10 minutes without drying off.  Yes, stupid, I know but I was on an adrenaline rush from my plunge and not really thinking.  All the way home I had my seat heated to the max and my toes on the heating vent.  It was worth it though, and I'd do it again (keep that in mind if you ever come and visit us around New Year's, you will be subjected to copious amounts of peer pressure).  Anyway, yay for another thing checked off my bucket list and thanks to Gary for some fun photos!  

Us on our Orcas land with Ms. Serafin handling the camera!  She takes after her father in regards to her photography, not bad for a 3 1/2 year old!

On the 2nd Gary and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary.  I can't believe we've been married for that long!  I've always said that if he and I managed to make it to 10 years then I'd like to have some sort of a ceremony.  Since we have just moved here I'm noticing that things don't really happen unless you make them happen, I guess that is kind of standard with life in general, but I'm finding that here, especially in the cold and dark of winter, it's easy to fall into a routine and just stay in the house.  It dawned on me that I wanted to do more to celebrate this day.  Gary, the trooper, followed along, what a love.  So after some tromping, we found a tree (you know how much I love trees) and proclaimed our love in our own little ceremony surrounded by our kids, our dogs and mother nature.  Somewhat cheesy, but perfect.

Gary and I have come a long way together.  I look around me now and see what we have created and feel so incredibly blessed.  Our family.  Moving to this magical place.  Being surrounded by nature.  If you would have asked me 10 years ago where we would be now,  I wouldn't have known, but I also would have never guessed that it would be here.  And you know what the kicker is?  After 10 years, I can honestly say that this "thing" he and I have, our dynamic, this life we have created together, whatever it is, . . . it only seems to get better.  

This is our only wedding photo!  We got married at the Chapel of the Bells, in South Lake Tahoe, 10 years ago with a couple of friends and our dogs.  We had a party a few months after to celebrate with everybody else.  It's funny looking at the two pictures and comparing then and now.  Nothing and everything has changed.  Love to you all!

Blessings.

Staying up late with Jamie Oliver!

Bittersweet chocolate on one side, and a picture of the Bombe on the other.  This dessert was a success and will be made again (and again, and again, and again, . . . .).

So the hubby gave me a great gift for my birthday, Jamie Oliver's cookbook, Great Britain.  It's a pretty fun read and the recipes look good.   My mom always said that, "A way to a man's heart is through his stomach,"  so this cookbook is right up my alley. Not only am I learning about dishes that my sweet-heart has always talked about, but now I get to try my hand at cooking them!  Eager to get started I dug straight in!

For New Year's Eve dinner I decided nothing would be better than the full monty, entree and dessert (both British style).  For a first timer, the Toad-In-The-Hole turned out better than I thought, I would post a link to his recipe, but the one on his website isn't the same as the one I did from his cookbook (I guess you'll just have to buy it, wink wink).  Here was our yummy meal, and we devoured it!

This recipe does the sausage separate from the Yorkshire pudding, it was nice because we could all dig in family style.

This blog post, however, was mostly inspired by his Winter Pudding Bombe.  It was one of the first things I saw as I was flipping through the book and I new I had to make it.  I threw everything together the night before and melted the chocolate onto the frozen pudding just before serving.  If you are one with a sweet tooth (as I am), you will find making this is easy and fun.  The colors were so pretty and as I prepared the ingredients I admired their beauty and munched on the bits.  

For the inside of my Bombe, I used frozen cherries, mandarine orange slices, pistachios, caramelized ginger and malt balls.

I couldn't find exactly what we he was asking for in the recipe, so as usual, I substituted with my own ingredients.  It would be nice to try out his exact flavors one day, regardless though, you can't go wrong when it involves fruit, ice cream, nuts and cake.

I also had to make my own Panettone since I couldn't find any here on Orcas.  I found an easy recipe in my bread machine cookbook which did all the work for me.  All I did was let it rise and throw it in the oven.  Voila!

After putting it all together, the final product was a cross between an ice cream Sunday and a giant bon-bon.  CRIKEY BLIMEY IT WAS GOOD!