Rosemary Chicken with Red Potatoes-Easy & Perfect for Company

A favorite at our house is Rosemary Chicken. It is one of those dishes that my kids request and my husband loves. It is also one of those meals that I have taken to others when they have been sick or had a baby. It is easy to prepare and can be made ahead and put in the oven later in the day if that works best for you.

*Mom hint-we are once again working with raw chicken. Please remember to be very careful with cleanup. Scrub all work areas with hot, soapy water.

I like to make this using a whole cut-up chicken, with the skin on. I think it has more flavor with the skin, and the extra chicken can be reheated, or it wonderful in chicken salad or soups. However, if you prefer to use skinless chicken, it is still very good, it just won’t get as brown. You can also make this recipe with a smaller amount of chicken, just reduce the amount of the other ingredients.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken in pieces (2 wings, 2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks)
6 small red potatoes (any potato will do, I prefer the red ones)
3 T. olive oil
3 tsp. dried rosemary (fresh rosemary is great for this dish, use about half as much as it is stronger)
Sprinkling of salt (I use kosher)

Rinse the chicken pieces and place in a 9x13 inch pan with the skin side up. Wash the potatoes, and slice them in half. Place them randomly in and around the chicken. Drizzle everything with the olive oil, sprinkle on the rosemary and a little bit of salt. Cover tightly with foil, and bake. Here is where it gets a little bit tricky as to the baking time. The chicken you see in the pictures had thick breasts and it was still frozen, so I had to bake it longer than I would have if my chicken pieces had been smaller and not frozen. You want the chicken to be completely done, no pink juices. So, I recommend if you have an average sized chicken and it isn‘t frozen, you bake covered with foil for 1 hour and remove the foil and bake it 30 minutes more until the skin browns. Mine I baked for 2 hours and had the foil off for another 40 minutes.

I served this with roasted brussel sprouts. If you think you hate brussel sprouts, you might try them like this. They taste entirely different. Simply wash the brussel sprouts and cut off the stems, cut them in half and toss them with olive oil and salt. Place them cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake until the cut side turns brown, about 20-25 minutes. I put them in while the chicken is browning with the foil off. Enjoy.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

We have become an age of technology. Obviously if you are reading this blog you are computer savvy. More than likely you email, text, blog and tweet your way through the day, just like I do. Thank you notes have become a lost art. They take time, they require a trip to an actual post office and you have buy stamps. OMG! Who has a stamp these days? It really shouldn’t matter how you thank someone, as long as you do thank them-right? Wrong.

I promise not to sound like Great Aunt Betty and lecture you on writing a note to everyone for everything. I screw this up too. Sometimes I simply forget to write a note, other times I write it so late that I can barely remember what the gift was. I’m not proud of it, I know better. There are times when an email or a text will do. You and a friend have met for lunch and she picks up the tab as a late birthday treat. You later text, Thnks 4 2day. Had fun. I think that’s okay. If she brings you a present, she should get a thank you note.

If you receive a gift or check from grandma, send a thank you note! It is in your best interest to do so. Believe me, the senior generation already thinks that baby boomers are spoiled and their kids are inconsiderate. Let’s prove them wrong. If you are the grandchild that writes the note, you move to the top of the list. The gifts will keep on coming and your cousins won‘t get your share, besides you love grandma-make her day.

I try to write a note if I’ve gone to a party at someone’s home. I’m not talking about 4 people ordering pizza. I talking about a situation where the hostess has cleaned her house more than ever before, spent a month’s grocery budget on food and is about to drop over from exhaustion when people get there. Think how nice it is for her to get a note a few days later telling her how much you appreciated being included.

I never expect a thank you note from my kids, even though they no longer live at home. My daughter has on occasion surprised me with one anyway. I don’t expect them from my parents, but my mom is really good at note writing. If you live with the person, or they are immediate family, I think an in person thank you or a phone call is more than enough. Actually grandma might rather have a thank you phone call than a thank you note, you can be the judge of that.

Anytime there is gift given, someone has given their time and their money to think of you. Spending a couple minutes to let them know you appreciate it really isn’t too much to ask.

The process is quite simple. Pick up a package a note cards. They don’t have to say thank you on the front. All you need is to follow this format:

Dear Grandma,

Thank you so much for the ear muffs. I have always loved royal blue plush and can’t wait to wear them on one of our chilly days here in Florida. I wish you could have been here for my party. I can’t wait until you come to visit. Thank you again for thinking of me.

Love, (or whatever-I suggest love for grandma)

Your name

Are Crushed Tomatoes and Diced Tomatoes The Same Thing?

So maybe this isn’t a question of great importance, but it is one that I got in a phone call from my daughter. She was standing in a grocery store, 1000 miles away from me, and wanting to make chili. I admit, I laughed at her. Of course I didn’t laugh quite as hard as the time she called and asked me what do you put in hamburgers? Uh, hamburger?

Anyway, back to the original question…no, they are not the same thing. You can sometimes exchange one for the other in a recipe, but they are a completely different texture. Crushed tomatoes are most often used for sauces and soups as they are almost the texture of thick ketchup. Diced tomatoes can be used to replace fresh tomatoes for taco dishes, salads and can also be used in soups or sauces.

Now that we have that straightened out, I had to make something with the two cans of tomato products that I opened to write this post. With a hint of fall in the air, a pot of chili sounded good.

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds ground chuck, browned and drained. (I often use ground turkey)
1 standard sized can of diced tomatoes
1 cup crushed tomatoes (I put the rest in a Ziploc bag and in the freezer for later use)
1 pkg. dry chili seasoning
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed
2 cups water
Salt to taste

Brown the ground chuck and drain. Add the seasoning mix, tomatoes, beans and water to the pan and stir. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour (or longer). Taste and add salt if necessary. Serve topped with shredded cheese, or sour cream and avocado slices.

Knox Blox-A Blast From The Past

When was the last time you played with your food? Knox Blox were a family favorite in my house. My kids loved eating Jello with their fingers! You can make them in almost any color of the rainbow, they are inexpensive, easy and fun. I don't even like Jello, but I love Knox Blox! When I'm really ambitious, or trying to show a bit of holiday spirit (red and blue, green and red) I make them in more than one color. You can also cut them into shapes with cookie cutters for special occasions. I can't take credit for the recipe, it has been around for years.

Ingredients:

4 cups boiling water

1 box (4 envelopes) Knox Gelatine

3 small boxes Jello, any flavor (do not use Sugar Free Jello)

Pour the Jello and Gelatin into a large bowl, stir in the boiling water and continue to stir about 2 minutes until dissolved. Pour into a 9x13 pan and refrigerate. Chill until firm and cut into squares. We think of this as a "kid food" but it has no fat, and makes a great dessert. Enjoy!

Booking A Hotel Room-Getting The Best For Less

Some of my earliest memories are from family vacations spent in Miami or Daytona Beach. I still remember the excitement of pulling into the motel and knowing that we would have a week or two of fun in the sun. I don’t remember many details about our motels, but I do know they were on the beach, had a swimming pool and usually a room for kids to make craft projects or paint plaster figures. I also know that we always had a kitchen, and my mother would cook most of our meals.

Fast forward a few decades and I am still blissfully happy when staying in a nice hotel. Most people may comment that they “could live here” when they walk into a resort hotel, I mean it. My entire family knows that I would be perfectly happy living in a hotel 24/7. I am picky about where I stay, and I love to get a great deal. I find that as my travel habits change, what I look for in a hotel has changed also. While I still love to stay in a fabulous 4 or 5 star hotel (at a great price), I am often picking the less expensive hotel with free parking, internet and breakfast. I’m starting to resent the high prices and the hidden charges that some of the larger hotels are dishing out. Why should I pay a resort fee if I’m paying for a room at the resort? If my room is costing $200 a night, how dare they charge me another $25 a night to put my car in their parking lot. If I can use my laptop free at a Fairfield Inn…how dare you charge me $14 a day to use it at a Renaissance.

I love making travel arrangements. I do it for my family, and for friends. I love the research, the quest for the best hotel at the best price and the planning before the trip. I have some suggestions that have worked for me over the years.

1) Most hotel chains have reward programs. Go to the websites and join for any hotel chain you might ever use. It is free. A reward number will almost always get you something. You might get a better view, a treat in your room when you check in or possibly a room when the hotel is supposedly sold out. You will also earn points when you stay towards free future stays.

2) If possible, look up the hotel rate online and then CALL THE HOTEL DIRECTLY to ask about best available rates. If you just ask for a room, you won’t get the best deal. Even when they tell me price, I will ask for a special that includes breakfast or some other benefit. It is worth the price of the phone call, as sometimes the hotels know about specials that they don’t have through the 800 number. Looking it up online ahead of time gives you something to bargain with.

3) If you can play with your dates a little bit, you may save yourself quite a bit of money. This spring we planned a trip to Michigan. We actually wanted to go the 2nd week of June. The room was going to be $279 a night. We bumped our trip up to the last days of May and first 3 days of June, beating the summer “season”. We got our room for $99 a night. It was the same exact suite that would have cost us $180 more a night 10 days later. It made our trip possible because we were flexible with the dates.

4) If you remember nothing else from this post, remember the word UPGRADE. When you check into a hotel, always ask if you can be upgraded. Many times it is possible. I have stayed in $700 suites for the price of a regular hotel room. You just never know, and I find the nicer you are to the person at the front desk, the nicer they may be to you.

5) I never make reservations without checking 2 websites. My favorite site relating to travel is Tripadvisor.com. I read the reviews of any hotel I’m thinking of booking, before I make a reservation. If I see words such as dirty, bugs, old, poor service…I know that I need to look elsewhere. Another great website is Travelzoo.com. They offer some wonderful deals at nice hotels, if you happen to catch them at the right time. One word of advice, if you find a deal on Travelzoo, make sure to check the hotel on Tripadvisor. Sometimes, there is a reason the hotel is offering cheap rooms.

6) I have a friend who has had some success with Priceline.com. She has stayed at several expensive Marriott properties for around $50 a night. But, when you bid on Priceline, you don’t know what hotel you are getting until you are already locked in. You also have no way to cancel and get your money back if your trip falls through. I believe you can buy insurance to cover that problem for an extra fee. I like to know where I’m staying, so I don’t use this service. Remember, I said I was picky!

It really doesn’t matter if you are staying at a 5 star Ritz Carlton, or a 3 star Holiday Inn Express, there are deals to find. With a bit of prep work, you may save yourself quite a bit of money, get a few freebies thrown in and be able to really enjoy your trip.