Paprika garlic chicken - so great

 Upon returning from the holidays, and rather inspired by a new Jamie Oliver cookbook I received for Christmas, I decided to cook my first whole roast chicken. I found this recipe whilst browsing magazines between these weird spa treatments (well, they were rather normal, but they were weird... at the same time). I decided to turn the other cheek when it was from Martha Stewart. I especially don't mind now because it was so damn delicious!

Serves 8 to 10 (if you made two chickens - I only made one)

• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Coarse salt
• 2 whole chickens (3 to 3 1/2 pounds each)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 8 heads garlic, halved horizontally

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix together paprika, oregano, and 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt. Place chickens, breast side up, on a rimmed baking sheet, and tuck wings under. Tie legs of each bird together with kitchen twine. Pat chickens dry with paper towels. Rub skin of each with 1 tablespoon oil, then with paprika mixture. Stuff 2 garlic-head halves into each cavity.
2. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees. Roast chickens for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and baste with pan juices. Scatter remaining garlic-head halves around chicken; drizzle garlic with remaining 1/4 cup oil, then turn cut side down on sheet. Roast for 10 minutes. Tent birds loosely with foil. Roast until juices run clear and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of each thigh reaches 165 degrees, about 30 minutes more. Uncover chickens, and let rest for 10 minutes before serving with roasted garlic.

Paprika Rubbed Chickens with Roast Garlic

The roast garlic was sooo good. And the chicken made amazing leftover sandwiches! I enjoyed a couple on squirrley bread with a salad of tomatoes, lettuce and pea shoots and some quinoa. Anyways, I highly recommend it!

I also made some amazing white chocolate cranberry oat cookies - but I'm unsure of where the recipe came from. So delicious!

ALRIGHT IT'S NOVEMBER

^Bee that is busy.

Okay, so long time no posts. Busy as a bee, universe likes to throw weird things at me. But that is normal. I've had a few days this week that I have just been as sick as a dog. This has made me pretty sad. As no one really likes getting sick.

I made some awesome cookies that I found via Stumbleupon last week from The Picky Palate. I substituted the dried blueberries with frozen ones, rolled oats with regular oats and (disappointingly (if that is, in fact, a word)) butterscotch chipits instead of caramel bits. They turned out delicious and chunky. Damn good, I say! I highly recommend them.

I also made some fairly awesome potato and leek soup that I found in one of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks (and apparently, on the internet, HERE). I froze a bunch of it, storing up for winter I guess. Although it is a little bland, it's quite hardy and extra awesome when you crush up A LOT of soda crackers in the soup. Mm. So delicious. I am hoarding food. Tomorrow I make a huge amount of curry, which I will subsequently divide and freeze into happy little packets.

Via.

In other food news: check out the best hot chocolate in existence from Big City, Little Kitchen. Nutella. WHAT?

More food news: THESE. Minty chocolate goodness. In a cookie.

I like food too too much.

In and around Vancouver? Pretty please check out the Beaty Biodiversity Museum! I went there with my Pops a few weeks ago. Go see a blue whale skeleton! Find out that it's heart is the size of a car! Find out what the skull of a platypus looks like! Check out my flikr slide show of my experience! I even got to do a treasure hunt! Life was swell!

I've got some VIFF reviews coming. REALLY REALLY late reviews. But they exist.

I've been getting my astronomy on lately via the world of books. I finished reading The First Light by Richard Preston last week. It sort of amped up the 6 year old child that lived in my brain and brought back the wonder that comes with stars. The First Light is about the history and construction of the tremendous Hale Telescope. While on this binge, I watched Apollo 13 the other day (while in a neocitran/soup/tylenol daze) and am reading Out of Orbit: The Incredible True Story of Three Astronauts Who Were Hundreds of Miles Above Earth When They Lost Their Ride Home by Chris Jones. The book is tremendous. It has put space in perspective (I think we so often lose perspective of what is outside our atmosphere) once again for me. The amount of work that goes into sending people to space and maintaining them there is astronomical (ha.) and absolutely incredible. The idea of being in space, of surviving in zero gravity and in an environment so few people have touched. Absolutely amazing.

Another thing that has existed for a while, but I just discovered it's awesomeness? Dangerous Days, the Blade Runner documentary. I've been a huge fan of Blade Runner for a long time, but this just blew my mind. One of the last, great science fiction films made without computer effects. That's right. No CGI. All effects are in camera, hand made wonders. The number of highly skilled artists all working manually - with film, with paint, Plexiglas,  wood - it actually blew my mind. Most of the time I was wondering why modern day Hollywood sci fi flicks cost so much when everything is done on computers. Dangerous Days made Blade Runner even more incredible to me. If you haven't seen Blade Runner? See it. Probably see some sort of directors cut that doesn't have a narration. If you haven't seen Dangerous Days? Please, please see it. The amount of craftsmanship that went into the film puts everything that has come out in the last 30 years to shame (well, with some exceptions). It makes me sad that I will never have the opportunity to make such an incredible work without the aid of computers. *sigh*

Check out this excellent film I helped out on (a.k.a. put lasagna's in the oven and gave some people coffee sometimes). It's called MANTIS! (It's full of some gross things, so viewer's discretion!) We made it for the 2010 Bloodshots film festival. We won for Best Cinematography, which was pretty awesome. But no dice for best picture or audience choice! See the rest of the contender's videos at the Bloodshots MySpace page!

Something awesome is happening this Saturday. STAY TUNED.

On a final, political note, I want to say one thing. Now I don't pretend to know a whole ton about politics. I really do not. BUT. A president who does not make your lives infinitely better in two years dumped for a bunch of right wing yahoos. Something does not compute. This does not compute. Ta dah.

Via.

Things, more things, other things

Well, it's October now. September went poof, and I am listening to Christmas carols periodically THREE MONTHS early. No big deal, I've just fallen off my rocker.

Things that have happened in the past while: I've succumbed to student loans, joy of joys. I guess this will keep my mind off money for a little while. Job hunting's been a little difficult here, I've been told numerous times it's because of the economy, but because I don't understand the economy, I just take out my rage by swearing loudly at Craigslist. I think I've killed my ficus by repotting it. It just... dropped all of it's leaves and now it's this tremendously sad skeleton of a plant.  Two of my fish, Leonard and Androcles, turned a year old a couple weeks ago. One of my fish, Julian, died before he made it to a year (sad panda). Starbucks and I have developed a love/hate relationship.

On Wednesday, I had the most super day! I started at the Vancouver Aquarium - where I volunteer! I got to pick up a tortoise, which was all kinds of amazing! I sort of made up excuses to pick them up; like 'Oh, you're standing on a piece of lettuce I need to take out - I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO PICK YOU UP NOW!'. I also saw red tree frog eggs, which, turns out, are the most bizarre colour of seafoam green. I can't wait until they hatch and wee tadpoles emerge! Then I went to spend time in Victory Park downtown before class - soaking up the sun! I had a shifty fellow come up to me and ask me, 'got any weed, darlin'?' which makes me laugh because I look like the biggest square in town. I also had to shift my position every little while, because jerks kept sitting upwind from me and lighting up cigars or doobies. But generally, it was a magnificent couple of hours spent sitting on the grass. THEN I went to my film lab, which is always tremendous. The mysteries of 16mm film, exposure meters and the nature of all things film production are slowly unraveling before me! Anyways, on this particular lab day we were paired up and sent out into the city with a Bolex and a 100 foot roll of 16mm film to shoot whatever we please! We're always told that it's awesome we're shooting on such old cameras - in a digital age it's always a topic of conversation. We also had a weird lady come up to us and give us contraceptives - which was awkward, but Hastings has a weird sort of local colour that I love despite everything.

Favorite things of the week: 

Kunstformen der Natur by Ernst Haeckel

The images in this book are amazing. I have Stumbledupon it a couple of times and have just found it tremendously inspiring. I have always loved naturalist drawings - and these are top notch. Please have a look here for zoomable, gorgeous, full pages of the book. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

The new season of The Venture Brothers

Favorite television of the time being:

Breaking Bad and Star Trek: Next Generation. I can't seem to stop watching either of them.  Breaking Bad just breaks my heart. It's such a good show - so emotionally devastating! I feel like I need to either scream or cry into a pillow after watching a couple of episodes. I highly recommend it, two whom in particular, I don't know... but it's about a high school chemistry teacher who turns to cooking meth with a former student to make money so his family can sustain itself after he dies of terminal lung cancer. Yeah, it's an emotional well. Seeing Bryan Cranston NOT being the weird, whimsical dad on Malcom in the Middle is bizarre. I don't like it. But then again, I totally do. Just watch the show.

Via Fuck Yeah TNG

I seriously spent most of yesterday watching Next Generation. Now, this is the science fiction show that my mom always would watch, and I would always find outrageously boring as an eight year old. But the seeds of science fiction fandom were planted (well, in addition to the ritualistic watching of Star Wars on VHS every time I was home sick from school), and I got into Deep Space 9. And now, all things have lead to me watching Next Generation from the very beginning. It's very interesting to see everything in context, as opposed to random walk by's of "Whacha watchin'?" "Engage. Make it so. Those aren't muskets." "Oh. I'm going to go stare at a wall instead."

Favorite Artist of the day!

Shuichi Nakano! Supremely surreal gigantic animals gracing cityscapes! Check it out! I'm a big fan of the humungo fish in the sky!

Via Empty Kingdom

Via Empty Kingdom

Next thing I intend to bake: 

These absolutely amazing looking Rhubarb Oat Muffins from Shared Sugar!! I think I'll make a ton of them before my aunt comes to visit and freeze a bunch, so then my dad can also have some when he comes to visit! SO MANY VISITS.

Via Shared Sugar

Anyways, sorry for the lengthy/link heavy/photo heavy/video heavy post. It's late (early) and I probably should be going to bed (but will instead lie in bed playing gameboy for like... two hours instead). All of my VIFF tickets are purchased, including Cold Weather, The Ugly Duckling, Rubber, Armadillo and R. I was really hoping to see Feathered Cocaine, but it would seem all of the screenings have been canceled. I may try to pick up a screening or two if I have time. Maybe Cold Fish or Psychohydrography. WE SHALL SEE.

Via Fuck Yeah TNG

Hope everyone has a FUNtastic October!

PS. Check out this frigging huge pepper I picked up at the Main Street Vancouver Farmer's Market last week. It blew my damn mind. Then I cooked it into a curry.

PPS. My new, most favorite rhyme: WEIRD BEARD.

Catching up! Pie-Wise!

First up: my pie making adventure! This thing was frigging delish, I'm not going to lie. I got this recipe from the tomb that is The Joy of Cooking!

I did the basic pie/pastry dough:

Blueburries!

Basic Pie/Pastry Dough for one 9 inch or 10 inch double crust pie (page 665)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

3/4 chilled veggie shortening

3 tbs cold unsalted butter

6 tbs ice water

THE MIXTURE.

Bottom shell.

Sift together flour and salt - add half the shortening and the butter, work lightly with fingers until it has the consistency of cornmeal. Add the other half of the shortening and work until it forms pea sized bits. Sprinkle with the ice water! Work it gently into the dough until it all holds together, add a little more if it's not working together yet. Divide dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap.

THEN, pie time!!

Blueberry Pie - One 9 inch double crust pie (page 677)

The lattice.

Puking pie.

5 cups blueberries

3/4 to 1 cup sugar

3 1/2 to 4 tbs cornstarch

1 tbs fresh lemon juice

1/8 tsp salt

1 to 2 tbs unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 425 F and position a rack in the lower third of the oven.First, combine blueberries, sugar, cornstarch (use the larger amount if you're planning on doing a lattice top like I did) lemon juice and salt in a bowl and let stand for 15 minutes or so. Pour the mixture into the bottom crust and dot with the little bits of butter before covering the top!

BAKE.

My only supreme mishap with this was the fact that, about 10 minutes before being done, my pie decided to throw up all over the inside of my oven. I opened the door and smoke comes billowing out, sets off my idiot fire alarm and fills my low-ceilinged basement right up with smoke. I'm really glad the people upstairs weren't home, because they probably would have kicked open my door and blasted the place with a fire extinguisher - shooting first, asking questions later. A couple weeks a pork chop I was pan frying caught a little and they came downstairs and made sure I wasn't going to burn down their house, haha.

In other baking news, as apparently I've been doing a lot lately, I made my first red velvet cake, which was pretty delicious. I got that recipe out of Joy of Cooking as well. My plan with this two layer cake was to fill it with buttercream icing and cover it with fondant. Fondant is horrifying. I'm never making it again. I ended up filling the cake with it, just so it wouldn't go to waste, then icing it with basic butter and confectioners sugar icing. Because the butter cream icing didn't ever become anything but a runny liquid in a pan. I call this cake the 'Diabetes Cake'.

Also, made more booze cupcakes for my boss' birthday. They're always a huge hit whenever I bring them anywhere - here's the recipe again if you're behind the times! Unfortunately, I ended up slightly undercooking them, and in my haste, the gnache was still super runny while I was filling and the icing was also slightly runny and they got slightly rained on, so I got there holding a box of cupcake sludge, but they still turned out pretty tasty.

Made banana bread last night, mostly to use up bananas in the old freezer and to warm up my fricking house.

This post is getting a little lengthy, so I think I'll just post more things later!!

Mele Kilikimaka

It's the thing to say, on a bright, Hawaiian Christmas day!

I hope everyone's holidays are proceeding with excellent excellence. I have been doing masses of sewing myself, but wont be uploading anything here until after the holidays. There's a couple examples of holiday things over on DeviantArt , if you're really bent on having a sneak peek.

I've also been baking a little here and there. All I can say, is that these are the best cookies I have ever made, ever. Possibly the best cookies I have also ever eaten. I've made them twice with cadbury white and semi sweet chocolate chunks, and I really can't stop eating them. Tomorrow (or later today), I am embarking on the baking of these for my folks to enjoy over the days leading up to Christmas. I'm pretty stoked about them, except for the cost of the booze.

Anyways, I suppose this is farewell until the new year. Have lots of fun, eat well, get together with old friends and celebrate!!