Fox 8 Cleveland and Sassy Chicken Salad.

So.  I was on Fox 8 Cleveland this morning!  I made Sassy Chicken Salad and tried not to make  a fool out of myself.  Here's the clip:



The whole experience was super fun.  And pretty surreal.  Everyone there was very, very nice:

Me and Kristi Capel from her instagram page.  I love that our outfits coordinated.  Yay set design!

From the producer to the hosts to the nice lady who set up my mic they made me feel right at home an totally at ease.  Which was good because I was NERVOUS.

Backstage where I set up my cooking segment and also TRIED NOT TO FREAK OUT.

The set is really cool.  Both bigger and smaller than I imagined.  The cooking area was wheeled in to that empty space on the left:

And this is the news desk:

The response via facebook so far from family and friends who have watched has been pretty positive.  But when after preschool pickup I asked the Dude - my 4 year old middle child - how I did he said this.  And I quote:

"You looked weird.  I missed you.  ..... How do turtles go to the potty?"

THANKS, BUDDY.  Then he wanted to know why I didn't cook something he likes.  I asked him what I should have made and he said without hesitation "Apple Raspberry Sauce and Peanut Butter Jelly"  So there you have it.  Forget Sassy Chicken Salad.  I should have just shown off my mad pbj skilz.

But!  They seemed to be happy with my performance.  And I don't think that I looked... weird.  Honestly once I got rolling with it it wasn't so much nerve-wrecking as just full on FUN.  I would do it again in a heartbeat. 

And since someone asked here's a better picture of the shawl I wore in the segment:

Fragile Hearts knit out of Destination Yarn Silk Road in "Daiquiri"  Many, many more details about it here.

If you are new to this blog and want to play along you can like Life in Cleveland on Facebook and follow @LifeinCle on twitter and instagram.

If you're a knitter or into the whole yarn thing there's lots more pretty at Destination Yarn and @DestinationYarn on instagram.

Yay for new experiences!

Snow Ice Cream.

So How did I make it this far and not know about Snow Ice Cream?  Because Ice Cream made from Snow?  SURPRISINGLY DELICIOUS.

And we certainly have enough snow to go around:

I've heard rumors that we've had more snow this Jan than any other Jan EVER.

Seriously I am SO over this winter.  Just the time it takes me to get hats and boots and coats and mittens and scarves on everyone is DAUNTING.  Let alone keeping track of all of that stuff.

But on the other hand the stuck being inside thing is making us all crazy.  There's talk of school being cancelled again tomorrow because of the cold and well... all  work no play makes Jeanne a dull girl.  all work no play makes Jeanne a dull girl.  all work...

YEAH.

I"m trying to stay positive about it with the kids because they really take their tone from me.  If I am constantly complaining about it they will, too and the last thing I want is for them to hate winter.  Winter can be fun!  Really!  Just maybe not so much of it?

The girl was DONE with the snow about 10 min after going out into it preferring instead to hang out in the warm house with me while her brother threw snowballs at the window.  Funtimes.

So when my daughter mentioned that she her teacher said she could make ice cream from all of this snow I was all "TO THE GOOGLE!"

Even if this doesn't work just having a big bowl of snow in the house was pretty fun.

Turns out you can.  It's delicious. And EASY.

Boom.  Ice cream.  Who knew!

Matt was highly skeptical at first but as he was reaching for his second bowl he summed up the experience:  "This is surprisingly really good and not just passable!"

Especially when you add sprinkles.

It's light and fluffy and really just straight up delicious.  I highly recommend trying it.  I also have big plans for lots of other flavors... chocolate!  mint!  Caramel!  The possibilities are as endless as this snow.  And the best part is that when your ice cream melts into that puddle in your bowl you can just add more snow to it and make more ice cream!

We had a bunch of snow leftover after the ice cream so I let the kids take it into the bathtub with them.  We made ice burgs.  It was hilarity.  Snow inside = funtimes.  Noted.

Anyways to make the Ice Cream I looked at a couple of recipes and ended up with my own technique.  Here's what we did:

How to make Lemonade from Lemons... or Ice Cream from Snow.

Please to enjoy!  And if you have any tips for getting through the next week of cold please let me know...

Apple Raspberry Sauce & Bacon Sage Porkroast.

So last weekend we owned Fall.

Pictured.  Fall.

 Seriously.  I"m pretty sure it snowed because we owned fall so hard it took it's ball and went home.  I started the day by making pumpkin bread from My Baking Addiction's Recipe.  Then we played in the leaves with the kids who were wearing beautiful handknits (which you can see a million pictures of here).  And while that was happening I made a huge batch of Apple Raspberry Sauce to freeze.  Which meant our entire house smelled like apples and cinnamon all day.

Fall on Lake Erie b/c applesauce is not very photogenic.

Then I finished off the knitting portion my Tomtem sweater:

Which is going to be so, so adorable on this little guy:

It's blocking now while I figure out how to seam garter stitch.


Then I made bacon and sage pork roast to go with the apple sauce.  Which was holyshit good.  So I figured I'd share some recipes.  You know... in case anyone else wants to make fall their bitch.

Crockpot Apple Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients:
12ish apples.  A crockpot full once they are peeled, cored, and sliced.
12 oz of raspberries (2 - 6oz containers)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1.5 tablespoons of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup water

So you put fill the crockpot with apples:



add in the Raspberries:



And then the spices:



Mix together:



And cook on low for 6ish hours. I took the lid off for the last hour b/c it seemed a bit runny.  But that's a personal preference thing.  Also I like my applesauce chunky so I just mashed it all up with a fork when it was done.  If you like a more smooth sauce you could throw the whole thing in the blender but that seemed like a lot of work:

Yum.  But not photogenic at all.

It made enough to eat for dinner and then freeze 2 big containers for future meals.  Yay!

Bacon and Sage Pork Roast.

This is one of those looks crazy hard/impressive but is really super easy meals that is perfect for holiday entertaining.  Also it's super delicious - I mean seriously, It's wrapped in bacon.

Ingredients:
Pork Roast (this one was around 2lbs)
1lb of thick cut bacon
Salt and Pepper
Fresh Sage
Fresh Thyme

So this recipe is stupid easy. Season your pork roast on all sides with salt and pepper. Then lay out overlapping strips of bacon on a plate.  Throw on some fresh thyme and sage:

There's thyme and sage underneath the roast, too.

And wrap that bad boy up:

I added pieces of bacon on top lengthwise b/c I had a few more in the package and I didn't see the point in saving 3 strips of bacon.  Also it looks really pretty that way.  Then you bake the whole thing on a baking rack (so it's up off of its juices.  you can ghetto one with a cookie cooling rack on top of a baking sheet), at 350 degrees for about an hour.  Cooking time depends on the size of your roast.  Check the package it came in for specific times.  I used a meat thermometer to make sure the internal temp hit 145.  Let the whole thing rest a few min after you take it out of the oven before you slice it up.  DELICIOUS!

Yay Fall!

As a footnote:  I started this post last week after our wonderful fall weekend.  Then I never finished it b/c all of us came down with colds.  Our entire family was miserable.  We're starting to come out of it now but so much for claiming we owned fall.  Seems like fall actually won this round.  Boo.

Grilled Apples.

So!  This weekend we took the kids Apple Picking at Patterson Fruit Farm:

Double Fisted.

We've never been there before but will most definitely be going again.  The kids had a ball:

Slides in the woods!  Tractors! Facepainting!

It was basically the perfect fall day for outdoor activities:

But!  Now we have a ridiculous amount of apples.  We wanted to bring home some of all of the ones we tried and that added up quick.

Like 15lbs quick.  I.... yeah.  I have no defense.  They wanted to eat something healthy and local!  You say yes to that and figure out the rest later.  But we aren't really huge fans of applesauce so it's not like I can cook the whole mess and freeze them.

Instead we're getting creative and doing things like this:

Can we grill apples?  Well..... let's see!

And it was amazing.  

So how about a recipe?

I feel silly even calling this one a recipe it was so simple.  Basically slice, soak, grill, season.  BOOM.  Delicious.  But I'm not one for brevity so:

Ingredients:
 Apples.  Any kind.  I used 4.
 Lemon Juice (if you don't have this don't even worry about it.  It just keeps the apples from getting all brown)
 Cinnamon
 Brown Sugar

Slice up your apples.  Core them but leave the skins on. I used my fancy schmancy peeler/corer thing because I was itching to show off my mad apple spiral making skillz to my kids.  Blew their minds.  Honestly just big hunks of apple would be fine, though.

Then let your apples soak in cold water with a splash of lemon juice for awhile.  Like while the grill gets hot.  So 10-15 min or so?

Then throw those bad boys on the grill:

Let them cook for awhile. MEANWHILE.  Make up a mixture of half brown sugar, half cinnamon.  I used about 1.5 tablespoons of each for 4 apples but you can adjust per your taste.  I also think these would be good with a dash of nutmeg.

Then flip your apples:

Let them cook until done.  Around 10 min or so?  They're apples.  If they are undercooked you won't catch some terrible disease so it doesn't really matter.  We let them cook until they started to get soft but they could have gone longer.  As soon as they get off the grill sprinkle your cinnamon/sugar mix on top.  I took a few rings off the grill, sprinkled, took a few off, sprinkled, and so on so that every layer was covered.  The key here is to do this when the apples are still VERY hot.  That way the brown sugar kindof melts and caramelizes a bit.

By sprinkle I mean slather.

Then cover the whole plate for a little while so that everything comes together.  We let our apples sit while we ate the rest of our dinner:

Brats, peppers, and the last sweet corn of the season.  Just in case you were curious.

That's it!  They are delicious on their own but I took it to the next level and dumped the warm apples on top of a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  YUM.

Yay for fall!

Linking up with Share Your Stuff Tuesday,

We've Been Married Awhile Now Chicken.

So our CSA started this week - we did Fresh Fork Market again - and the first big thing we received was a whole, pasture raised chicken:

I knew right away I wanted to roast it.  May as well since we're just sitting here waiting on a baby.  And since we're still waiting I figured I'd share my fav. roast chicken recipe with you guys.  It evolved from this recipe for "Engagement Chicken"  The legend is that if you make it your guy will propose - something that I find kindof hilarious.  And also a bit disturbing.  I mean if you have to make chicken to get him to propose.... but who am I to judge?  I have a husband who will freely admit he married an Italian so he can eat well for the rest of his life so.... yeah.

Anyways!

The recipe is just simple lemon and chicken.  Which, while tasty... well....  We've been married for 8 and a half years now.  We have (almost) 3 kids.  It takes more than a little lemon to impress us anymore.  So I punched up the recipe a bit and this is the result:

We've Been Married Awhile Now Chicken.

Ingredients:

Whole Roasting Chicken
Fresh Sage
5 or 6 whole lemons
1 or 2 onions
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
Seasoning for Chicken (I use the Giant Eagle grinder one - delicious!)

1.)  Preheat oven to 325.  Remove giblets from chicken.  Rinse out chicken and then let drain cavity side down for a few minutes while you chop up the rest of the stuff.

2.)  Coarsely chop your sage (I used about a quarter of what's pictured above).  Chop onions into quarters, peel garlic cloves.  Chop lemons into quarters (or not.  more on that in the next step...)

3.)  Stuff chicken cavity with lemons, onion, garlic cloves, and sage.  The original recipe calls for the lemons to be pricked with forks and then stuck in there whole.  I like a much more lemony chicken.  So I put them in there cut into quarters.  It ends up very flavorful this way - YUM. But it's all personal preference. Stuff any places where the skin is coming up with sage and/or garlic.

4.)  Squeeze lemon juice over the entire chicken - top to bottom.  Really douse it.  Then grind spices over every surface you can.

5.)  Place prepared bird in a roasting pan (or a ghetto roasting pan made with a cookie rack and a cookie sheet if you're awesome like me).

6.)  Stuff sage and garlic into any opening or crevice you can - under the wings, behind the legs, etc.

7.)  Roast chicken breast side down for 15 min.  Then flip the bird breast side up and roast for approximately 20 min per pound.  The cooking part always takes longer than I think it will so plan for extra time - 15 min or so.  Roast until the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced (or use a meat thermometer to tell you when it's done)

8.)  Let the chicken rest for 10 min or so before carving.  Wait for a proposal.  Or just be happy that you can still impress your significant other with your mad culinary skills well past the honeymoon phase.

YUM!

I served it with steamed CSA broccoli (simple) and Smashed Potatoes.  Those are potatoes that I quarter, cover in water, and boil until they are easily pierced with a fork.  Then I drain them and smash them up with milk, butter, salt, and fresh herbs.  This time I used chopped sage so they'd match the flavors in the chicken.  DELICIOUS.  They are also good with fresh dill, shredded cheese, whatever you have on hand.