Easy Peasy Caprese Salad

This is one of my favorite dishes to make this time of year. There are several variations on this salad. I also love that you can serve this over crisp lettuce leaves on its' own or as a side with a main course like grilled chicken breasts.

Ingredients:

4 red peppers

1 container of mozzarella balls

2-3 fresh basil leaves

Pinch of Italian seasonings

Drizzle of olive oil

Directions:

Slice the red peppers so that you can lay them in a baking pan skin side up. Place them in the broiler, roasting the peppers until the skins are bubbling and black. Remove the peppers with tongs place in a glass dish and cover with plastic wrap. Let them cool for about 10-15 minutes before trying to remove skins. Once you remove skins cut peppers in long sliver slices and place in a glass or ceramic dish. Next add mozzarella balls. Chop basil and sprinkle on top along with pinch of Italian seasonings. Finish off with a drizzle of olive oil and lightly toss...ready to serve and devour!

***You can also use yellow peppers for more color and flavor. 

Another thing I like to do with this recipe is toss in fresh grape or heirloom tomatoes***

Roasted Chicken with Lemon, Thyme and Rosemary

Roasted Chicken always seemed like an easy recipe, however, it took me a little while to perfect it.  This recipe is inspired by two leading ladies of the food world, the legendary Julia Child (who will always be someone who I look to and admire when cooking, she is not always given the credit she deserves...just study her perfectionist ways with mayonnaise) and the very sassy and savory Nigella Lawson (who shared in one of her cookbooks that this was a family staple in her home growing up, something I have also taken to heart).  I have taken to making this at least once a week in our home, it is a great meal to do ahead and eat cold, on sandwiches, or just for nibbles.  My husband asked me to make it for him to take for a work dinner (with eating paleo, picnics and work dinners/luncheons can be problematic and tricky, we must always plan ahead).  Well, needless to say it was a huge success and a recipe I had been planning on sharing with all of you anyway!  What amazes is me, is how little people cook anymore and how so often they grab the roaster chickens at the supermarket which are full of who knows what (and don't misunderstand, I understand sometimes in a pinch when you need a quick dinner that is an easy go to, I just worry that we rely on it too heavily).  I don't want to see any more generations losing the joy of cooking because of food industrialization, it can be a our friend, but also our enemy, we must be careful to balance both. *(One of the mistakes I think people often make with cooking a roaster chicken is cooking one that is too big, go for a 3.5-5lbs, no more!)

 

Ingredients:

1-Roaster Chicken (3.5-5 lbs) *I prefer Gerber's Amish Chicken-no antibiotcs, etc.

1-Lemon

1-Stick of Butter *grassfed butter like Kerrysgold

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil for drizzling

6-8 sprigs of fresh thyme

2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

5-6 gloves of garlic *Optional

1 celery stick cut into 3-4 sticks *Optional

 

The Rub Ingredients:

1 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. course black pepper

1 tsp. parsley flakes

1 tsp. garlic powder

(*optional add any other seasonings to the rub you like)

 

Directions:

Heat oven to 400

Line a roaster/rack pan with aluminum foil, place rack on top

Place whole roaster chicken on top of rack

Pierce lemon all over with a knife, insert into the cavity of chicken

Insert thyme, rosemary and garlic cloves/celery sticks in cavity around lemon

Cut the stick of butter (you can choose to use less butter) into two, and insert each half up and under top of skin of chicken

Drizzle olive oil all over chicken, then rub the oil to cover the chicken

Now rub, "the rub" all over the chicken

Now place chicken in oven @400 for 30 minutes, uncovered

Then set the oven back to 350, pull the chicken out, cover with aluminum foil

finish baking the chicken for 2 hours

(if it is a 5 pounder, you may need to bake it longer)

Enjoy!