Cooking a whole chicken. Excuse me if you "don't eat no meat!"

Today is the first time I bought and am going to bake a whole chicken; skin, bones and all. I asked my facebook fans for advice and some chimed in with amazing recipes and tips:

" I like stuffing mine with lemon and thyme and roasting with root veggies around it."
"Use plenty of fresh herbs and put lemons on the bottom of the pan. Also, I cook mine at a higher temperature to get it crispy. 400 degrees for an hour."
Simple recipe where they do not use butter: Her advice "watch out for your smoke detector b/c of the high temp... Also get twine and truss it! (this video is helpful)"
Herb Roasted Chicken Recipe
"Boil it and make chicken noodle soup. Its easy, just labor intensive. "
" I like to have a thin layer of water on the bottom of the pan too - keeps it moist and baste, baste, baste!"
"Stuff it with lemon. Put sea salt, fresh ground pepper and a little bit of olive oil on top."
"I was scared the first time I cooked a whole chicken too but it's super easy. I use Ina Garten's recipe. Also I don't eat the skin (and I'm guessing you don't either) so I cook it breast side down and it stays super moist!"
Roast Chicken Magic, their secret is Citrus!

I have decided to cook my chicken tomorrow because I will not get home until 7:30 tonight and my chicken will not be ready until 8:30pm, which is kinda late for me. Because I have the chicken today, but am not going to cook until tomorrow, I am thinking about brining the chicken in order to make it super moist. Have you ever tried this? Does it work?

I am looking forward to my adventure today when I brine, and tomorrow when I cook. I have no problem (usually) eating a nice cleaned chicken breast, but when it comes to touching the raw chicken it kinda grosses me out... anyone else?! EW I am flinching just thinking about it. I have to over come my fear of raw chicken and cook it. I am going to cook it like a CHAMP!

One of my favorite movie scenes from My Big Fat Greek Wedding! Skip to 4:15 for the "eat no meat" reference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3N5V9ml2VU

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Brandon Bettencourt and filed under food, entree, savory and tagged chicken entree dinner meat cook cooking recipe savory.

cauliflower and spinach soup... SOUPer easy!

Thanks to my client for sharing this easy to make recipe with me. She got it from her mom who got it from Boston.com! It's filling, yummy, and makes you look like you can cook! I tweaked it a little and left out the butter. Still tasted wonderful.

Ingredients:

1 medium size cauliflower head (pulled into pieces)
1 bag of spinach
EVOO (to coat the pan and cook the spinach)
3 cups of vegetable broth (you can add more or less depending on your preference)
seasonings: salt, pepper, anything else...

Directions:

place a soup pan on medium heat and add EVOO let it heat a little then add bag of spinach. Cook until wilted. Add salt and pepper.
toss in pieces of cauliflower, mix a little
add in vegetable broth and bring to a boil
lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes, mixing occasionally

Try to stick a fork though the cauliflower. If it pierces easily then you are ready for your next step!

Let the soup cool off a little then puree. Food processor or blender, both work! Mix until smooth. I left some chunks of cauliflower. I thought it added a nice surprise. Sorry, no final product picture. But it pretty much turns green and smooth :) enjoy.

One more thing, if you think the soup is too thick when you are done, you can add water to it. Just a little goes a long way.