Food and Recipes while under Coronavirus quarantine

[PayrollNerd]

I roast a whole chicken in my rotisserie. It can also be done in the oven. The original recipe was in Cooking Light magazine at least 20 years ago.

1 whole chicken, about 5 lbs, rinsed inside and out.
1 orange, quartered
2 bay leaves
Powdered spices: onion, garlic, salt pepper

Use metal or wooden picks, seal the flap of skin at the bottom of the bird. Fold the wings back (pointed end tucked behind the middle bone) to prevent them from dangling loose. Insert the rotisserie spear into the bird right thru the skin flap you just sealed. It should poke up thru the neck. Sit the bird on rotisserie platform, or in a bowl, to hold it upright while you fill the cavity. In the cavity, squirt the juice of 2 orange quarters. Discard orange quarters. Add 1st bay leaf. Add the other 2 orange quarters but don’t squeeze the juice out. Add the second bay leaf. Seal up the neck with the picks. Tie the legs and wings to the body of the bird snuggly. Use cotton string that has been moistened.

If using the rotisserie add the final top piece, push down snuggly and tighten. Now, spinning the bird slowly sprinkle with all the spices. Insert into the rotisserie and cook following the machine directions. (15 min per pound?).

If using an oven place the bird in a foil lined 9” x 13” pan, bake uncovered at 450 deg until meat thermometer is the temp for a bird (165 deg?). Usually 90 min or so.

I’ve been known to do 2 birds, debone them and freeze one and use the other for meals during the week. Best chicken ever!!

 

[Mind your biscuits]

I do the halved lemon also! Works like a charm each and every time. Never thought to do an orange so am going to try it the next time I make roasted chicken in the oven.

It doesn't even have to be a fresh lemon or orange, I've used an old one that I was about to throw out. The Orange works great if you roast a duck too.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

We usually go to a popular Mexican restaurant for Cinco de Mayo. It's too far to drive for takeout which they are offering with a limited menu. We're going to have seafood tacos. I will marinate mahi mahi and shrimp for 30 minutes in Tequila and lime juice. DH will grill, and we'll enjoy the seafood on whole wheat tortillas with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, and Mexican cheese blend. I'll miss having one of Mexican Village's gigantic Margaritas and the Mariachi band and dancers that entertain outdoors while people wait to be seated.

 

[Gardener1850]

We had bean enchiladas for dinner: Vegetarian Black Bean Enchiladas Recipe

I left out the corn, used jarred roasted red pepper and used corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas to make it gluten free. I also made my own refried beans from dried beans using my instant pot.

 

[PayrollNerd]

We had bean enchiladas for dinner: Vegetarian Black Bean Enchiladas Recipe

I left out the corn, used jarred roasted red pepper and used corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas to make it gluten free. I also made my own refried beans from dried beans using my instant pot.

I dont know if these would be something you could eat. My kids love them.

 

[Gardener1850]

I dont know if these would be something you could eat. My kids love them.

Thanks. I have had those before and have used them for enchiladas in the past but we prefer the corn ones. The GF flour tortillas tend to fall apart if used for handheld things such as burritos or tacos and they are more expensive, so I don't buy them as often as I buy corn. I always have corn tortillas or masa harina for making tortillas on hand.

 

[PayrollNerd]

If you are in Sarasota County, FL, the all Faiths Food Bank is setting up a mass food handout this Sat in Venice and next Sat at the stadium in Sarasota. It is 8-2pm or until the food runs out. I am wondering if this is the farmer’s food products that are hitting the food banks. This has to be a ton of food for them to do this.

 

[MsMarple]

Tonight I'm feeling sorry for myself . Don't worry, it's only temporary and will pass.

Anyway, to cheer myself up I'm making an apple cobbler. I only had 3 Fuji apples so I tweaked the recipe a bit. The recipe is very flexible.

Ingredients:
9x9 baking dish (I don't have one so I used an old 10x10 Corning Ware dish).
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Filling
3 baking apples (about 2 cups) peeled and cut into pieces
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TB lemon juice
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch nutmeg (optional)
2 TB water (if pre-cooking the apples)

Topping
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk

Directions
1. Combine the apples, brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg (if using) and raisins (if using). I put them in a small saucepan and add the water and cook for about 10 minutes on low to meld everything but you can just mix it all and use it as is.

2. Mix the flour, baking powder, white sugar together. Add the vanilla to the milk and pour into the flour mixture a little at a time. Mix well.
3. Melt butter in the dish.

4. Pour batter into the baking dish over the melted butter.
5. Pour the apple mix on top.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Currently we're without a stove and oven (long story) so I'm using an iFoodie Toaster Oven and rotating the dish after 1/2 hour. Anyway, this recipe is very forgiving so have at it!

I often punt with recipes but if you want an actual real recipe here's a good one:
Easy Fruit Cobbler Recipe

Tonight we're indulging ourselves (cuz feeling sorry, remember?) with a couple of filet mignons that I ordered from Schwan's. It's the first time I ever ordered from them and the filets look really good. They're 1.5 inches thick which lets them cook to my preferred rare/medium rare without over doing it. I bought some from another online ordering meat place awhile back and while the steaks were tasty they were too thin.

I'm baking a couple of potatoes and hubby will steam some asparagus. I recently learned about partially slicing the potatoes open and then squeezing the ends to open them up like they do in restaurants.

And to top off our meal I'm making a bernaise sauce from a packet as I was too lazy to make homemade. For diehard cooks here's a good recipe.

Hopefully a high-calorie, totally indulgent meal will shake off the blues.

 

[MsMarple]

Okay, dinner is done. I want to say that the Schwan's tenderloin filets were absolutely amazing. I'm a freak about fat and not one bite of my steak went to waste. Tender and flavorful.

Not trying to be an advert or anything, just reporting on the outcome of our order. I'll be using them again.

 

[Mind your biscuits]

A friend gave us one of his homemade 'Smoked beer can chickens'. Not even the cat would eat it! It was only partially cooked on one side, eww. Too much smoke, not cooked enough, so I threw it in a large pot and made chicken and vegetable soup. I'd never even heard of 'Beer can chicken'. Shudder.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

A friend gave us one of his homemade 'Smoked beer can chickens'. Not even the cat would eat it! It was only partially cooked on one side, eww. Too much smoke, not cooked enough, so I threw it in a large pot and made chicken and vegetable soup. I'd never even heard of 'Beer can chicken'. Shudder.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/beer-can-chicken-recipe-1939861

 

[PayrollNerd]

A friend gave us one of his homemade 'Smoked beer can chickens'. Not even the cat would eat it! It was only partially cooked on one side, eww. Too much smoke, not cooked enough, so I threw it in a large pot and made chicken and vegetable soup. I'd never even heard of 'Beer can chicken'. Shudder.

My word that even sounds nauseating.

 

[MsMarple]

Something else I ordered from Schwan's was a box of mahi mahi filets. Hubby plans to crust them with pecans and serve with a coconut curry sauce. The filets look pretty good - for some reason we don't see mahi mahi out here which doesn't make sense. When we lived in Florida they were a staple. Out here we see halibut more often.

Anyway, stay tuned...

 

[Tbone144]

We freeze our lemon juice from our lemon tree every year. So if you go through a lot of citrus and want to cut down on your grocery trips, buy what you would use in your time frame juice and then freeze in ice cube trays for different sized servings. Pop them out and into freezer bag. Ours last about a year. With the rinds, I’ll zest them into sugar or salt and bake at low temp for about an hour and when I need zest it’s in the sugar or salt. Lemon zested salt is really good, I go through a lot. Kosher salt works best. Standard salt is a bit fine and sea salt is too big. The sugar gets a bit hard but it crumbles well enough. Works best to dissolve it in the liquid phase if you are baking.

 

[PayrollNerd]

We freeze our lemon juice from our lemon tree every year. So if you go through a lot of citrus and want to cut down on your grocery trips, buy what you would use in your time frame juice and then freeze in ice cube trays for different sized servings. Pop them out and into freezer bag. Ours last about a year. With the rinds, I’ll zest them into sugar or salt and bake at low temp for about an hour and when I need zest it’s in the sugar or salt. Lemon zested salt is really good, I go through a lot. Kosher salt works best. Standard salt is a bit fine and sea salt is too big. The sugar gets a bit hard but it crumbles well enough. Works best to dissolve it in the liquid phase if you are baking.

I actually frozen a bag of lemons whole. I don’t use that many and didn’t want them to go to waste. Looked up what to do online. I feel so much better that they didn’t spoil.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I bought Mason jars intending to make preserved lemons that I had seen on Barefoot Contessa. I also remember having preserved lemons in tagine at a Moroccan restaurant. I love lemons! Above posts about lemons/lemon juice have inspired me. Maybe I'll finally get around to this project

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/preserved-lemons-recipe-2012376

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Here's another recipe for preserved lemons. We have a few lemons right now, but I will put them on my grocery list for next market trip. Salvaggio's usually has bagged Meyer lemons that would be perfect of this

https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish...e-to-make-preserved-lemons-heres-how-to-do-it

 

[Mind your biscuits]

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/beer-can-chicken-recipe-1939861

Now I get why it was half cooked. I'll pass. Lol.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Now I get why it was half cooked. I'll pass. Lol.

We tried this once, and the frickin' chicken refused to "sit" on the beer can Most of the beer ended up on the coals and made a mess of the grill.

Besides plain grilled chicken breasts, this is a recipe that we really enjoy. We have the butcher butterfly a whole chicken, and we keep it flattened on the grill with a brick covered in foil. It's delicious!

Tuscan Lemon Chicken | Barefoot Contessa

 

[IceIce9]

Now I get why it was half cooked. I'll pass. Lol.

The first time I saw the beer can chicken recipe was when I was working at a NASCAR race back around 2000 or 2001. Quite a few fans were cooking beer can chicken on their grills, and it all looked very unappetizing to me. By their behavior I could tell where they came up with the empty beer cans