MONDAY RECIPE POST - ROSEMARY, SAGE AND THYME SCENTED CHICKEN

Rosemary, Sage and Thyme Scented Chicken

An old recipe I made for the first time several years ago when hubs was getting back from a business trip to Kansas City one afternoon.  I wanted to have a wonderful aroma to greet him when he walked in the door and I decided on this recipe. Another I am not sure where it came from. I wasn’t very organized back then. I go surfing a lot on the Internet when I am looking for new ideas, and I came across this recipe in my collection again recently. The chicken overwhelmed the platter but it was the smallest chicken I could find on my last shopping trip, and I didn't have the time to look elsewhere. It took a little longer to cook but everything came out really well.  We had lots of leftovers which I love for extra, no-fuss meals. 

Rosemary, Sage and Thyme Scented Chicken

Preparation time 15 minutes 

Roasting Time 1-1/4 hours 

Makes 4 servings

Calories: 357 calories in 1 portion

2 oranges

3 to 4 lb (1.5 to 2 kg) whole roasting chicken

1 tsp (5 mL) butter

1 tsp (5 mL) each dried thyme leaves and sage leaves

1 tsp (5 mL) salt

3 medium-size potatoes, preferably Yukon Gold

2 red onions

1 lb (500 g) pkg peeled butternut squash pieces

1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil

1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) dried rosemary leaves

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). 

Slice oranges in half. Squeeze out about 1 cup (250 mL) juice. Don't discard orange peels. 

Rinse chicken. Pat dry with paper towels. Place in a roasting pan wide enough to hold chicken and vegetables around it. 

Stuff orange peels into cavity of chicken. 

Rub butter all over chicken, then sprinkle with thyme, sage and 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt. 

Roast, breast side up, in centre of preheated oven 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut unpeeled potatoes into quarters. 

Slice each onion into 6 wedges. 

Cut squash into bite-size chunks. 

Place potatoes, onions and squash in a large bowl. Add juice and oil. Sprinkle with rosemary and remaining 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt. Stir until evenly coated.

Once chicken has roasted 30 minutes, remove from oven. Baste with any pan juices. 

Tumble vegetables and marinade into pan around chicken and spread out. 

Return to oven. Roast, uncovered, until a meat thermometer inserted into thigh reads 170F (77C), 45 minutes to 1 hour. 

Stir vegetables halfway through cooking. 

If chicken skin browns too quickly, loosely cover chicken with foil. 

If pan juices start to burn, add a little water. 

After removing pan from oven, let stand 10 minutes before slicing chicken and serving with vegetables and pan juices.

Thank you for looking and have a great week. 

THIS MONTH'S QUIZ QUESTIONS - ANSWERS TOMORROW

I am starting off with a mini ramble today.  Yesterday we received our first Covid-19 vaccination.  We expected to have a long wait looking at all the people we followed into the building, with many more making their way behind us.  However, there were 35 tables and not one spot empty.  Our long line moved steadily, we were separated the six feet thanks to the small round circles on the floor, and everyone wore a mask.  I was not looking forward to being in a crowd again after all this time but was quite comfortable with how they had organized us.  The young nurse was very warm and friendly and after asking us a few questions, hubs and I got our jabs.  We were out of the building in half an hour, and that included the 15 minutes waiting time to see if we had any reaction.  We could hardly feel the injection, the needle was so small.  Hubs did not have any soreness in his arm afterwards, I have a little though it is already disappearing.  I was a bit nervous beforehand but won't be when we are called the second time.  She did say that we might have three days of discomfort with that one, slight fever, tiredness, etc. but I won't hesitate.  Just glad the process has started.  Several of our family and friends have had the full dose, others are still waiting.  We thought we would be too.  Now onto this month's trivia questions.

Which U.S. City is known as the City of Brotherly Love?  

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in 1770 in which city?

What is the most expensive home in the world?

Which mammal has no vocal cords?

What type of music has been known to help plants grow faster?

What is the rarest M & M color?

Thanks for stopping by.  There will be another quiz next month.  Answers to this one tomorrow.  

Have a great day!

(my llama photo was taken on one of our road trips years ago, a favorite photo of mine)

JUST FOR THIS WEEK A SUNDAY RECIPE POST - EASY SHRIMP FRIED RICE

There will also be one tomorrow.

In our house we enjoy shrimp and we enjoy fried rice.  We put these two things together in this recipe, which came from a food blog called Recipe Girl hosted by Lori Lange.  Her introduction reads in part, "...enjoy over 3,000 recipes, entertaining tips and travel adventures."  I will be going back to visit often, and you can visit the original recipe if you click here.   It will also show you a more complete nutritional value.

Easy Shrimp Fried Rice Recipe - 

Serves: 8 

Calories: 211 in a 1 cup serving

It always takes me a little longer than these recipes state, but are a good guide line as to how fast you can put a meal from prep to table, so....

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

 

2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil, divided

16 ounces medium peeled and de-veined shrimp (suggestions to use instead of the shrimp are pork, chicken, beef and I am adding tofu to this list, also scallops)

1 cup diced onion

1 cup finely diced carrot

2 medium garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon peeled and minced fresh ginger

3 cups cooked white rice

1 large egg

1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

chopped green onions, for garnish (if desired)

 

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large non-stick skillet or wok over high heat. 

Add the shrimp to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook the shrimp until pink and no longer translucent. Transfer the cooked shrimp to a plate and keep warm. Set aside.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and stir in the onions. Cook the onions until softened, approximately 3 minutes. 

Stir in the carrots and cook for an additional 3 minutes or until softened. 

Add the garlic and ginger, cooking until fragrant.

Stir in the white rice and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the rice is crisp.

Push the rice to the edges of your pan making a well in the middle. Crack the egg in the middle of the pan and stir to scramble. Cook the egg and then begin to stir into the rice mixture.

Add the peas, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil to the rice stirring to combine. Cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes. 

Stir in the shrimp and cook for an additional minute to warm through.

Serve immediately topped with chopped green onions (optional).

I would like to thank Lori for an excellent meal.  We enjoyed it very much.

We added three or four small, seedless sweet red peppers, and for a garnish I put a sprig of parsley on the top as I had no green onions.  

As we both like heat in an Asian recipe, we added a tablespoon of Chile paste.  A little goes a long way.

The condiments we used were Sweet Chili Paste and a dash or two of Ponzu Sauce.

Thanks for looking and have a great week.

BAR-HEADED GEESE

This is an old photo from April 2008 of a pair of Bar-headed geese.  I found them on a lake at a local, privately owned zoo.  They had a whole variety of different geese and ducks there but these two caught my eye on that trip.

I found very interesting information at a website called The Spruce, and if you are curious about these birds you can click here.

I gleaned a few interesting facts about them.

"They are one of the highest flying birds in the world and can fly above the Himalayan Mountains when it migrates, at heights that may reach 30,000 feet.

Their scientific name is Anser indicus (occasionally Eulabeia indica).

It's common name is Bar-headed Goose, Indian Goose and Gray Goose.  

They have a life span of 15 to 20 years.  

Size 28-30 inches and weight 4.4-6.6 pounds.  

Wingspan is 55-62 inches.  

These geese have a low honking call they use almost continuously in flight.  On land softer calls or small trills can occasionally be heard.

These geese prefer freshwater habitats such as bogs, open marshes, marshy lakes or river wetlands, as well as wet grassy fields or flooded agricultural areas.  

They are found in much of Asia and migrate seasonally.  

These birds are also part of exotic waterfowl collections throughout the world, including zoos and aviaries.  

Some feral populations have been established, most notably in Spain, Belgium and Finland, but regular escapee sightings are also recorded in Canada and the United Kingdom.  Rare escapees may be seen nearly anywhere.

During the breeding season, bar-headed geese can be found in appropriate habitats in Mongolia, western China, Kyrgyzstan, eastern Afghanistan and northeastern Pakistan.  In winter bar-headed geese migrate directly across the mountains to their wintering range in central Pakistan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and southern China, generally favoring lowland areas in winter."

I found it so very interesting to learn about this goose.  There is much more information about them at The Spruce.

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend.

BIRDS AND SNOW - AN OLD POST 10 YEARS AGO

 I got up early this morning. It is 4.45 a.m. and there is a fine blanket of snow everywhere. Thankfully it seems to have stopped. From what I have heard on the weather reports it isn't going to be more than an inch deep around here.

Yesterday I was more interested in how icy it was going to get as when I went to collect the mail at around 6.30 p.m., it was sleeting and everything was covered in ice, especially our driveway which is on a hill and can be very treacherous in bad weather. I thought it prudent to go down to the mailbox at a 45 degree angle on the grass, and even that had a fine sheet of ice on it but it was better than the alternative. I got back up without too much difficulty and only felt myself sliding a couple of times. 

An hour later it had started to snow and was still snowing when I went to bed at 11.00 p.m. This morning all is quiet. I will be filling up the bird feeders first thing and throwing out the peanuts. In the top photos we start off with an American Robin and a Carolina Wren. Below is a Dark-Eyed Junco.

The photos of all feathered friends were taken during the last dusting of snow a couple of weeks ago. Below is a male Cardinal. I love his bright red coloring against the white of the snow.

The Blue Jay was taken the following day when the snow had stopped and the sun was out. It is always a race between the Blue Jays and the Squirrels to get hold of the peanuts.

The Blue Jays always get their fair share.

Last photo is that of a female Cardinal. Her mate turned up a little while later.

Added note to this old post on February 20th, 2021. While we are not going out anywhere I will be sharing several old posts.  This one was dated January 12th, 2011 before hubby had retired and was traveling out of state on business.

ONE KIND WORD...

 

"One kind word can warm three winter months."

~Japanese Proverb~

You may remember this little guy as I have shared him before in my years of blogging, but not for a while.  

I have had him since I was a year old.  My parents gave him to me on my first birthday.  I named him simply, "Teddy".  He is worse for wear but I still love him dearly, a connection to my special loved ones.  He is carefully stored in a box now, dusted off and cleaned every so often.  

I took Teddy everywhere and as I got older when my parents thought that I was ready to let him go (I certainly didn't tell them that), they coaxed me into giving him to the child of a visiting friend.  I was about eight or nine and I was not happy.  

Before that visit was over I quietly went to said child (while adults were elsewhere no doubt) “Can I have my Teddy back?” and quietly bribed him with one of Mum's chocolate bars.  (I seem to remember my Dad giving me a talking to about that chocolate bar a few days later.  I gave mine up for two weeks to pay Mum back and no pocket money, tried to be extra good, did extra chores, and tried my best to keep my bedroom tidy.  But I looked at Teddy and was happy.)  

I was so thankful said child preferred the chocolate bar.  I would have given ten chocolate bars if one didn't work.  IOU if I had to, no problem.  I was determined and when Teddy reappeared a few days later from out of my special hide-away place, my parents never said a word.  My chat with Dad came later.  

Teddy was my constant companion and would go with me everywhere.  When I was sad or mad, off we would go to my hide-away place upstairs.  I climbed up to the second shelf, which was a big, wooden, slatted rack, where all the linens and towels were kept over the hot water tank.  It seemed high to me, but I was a climber and it was my Mount Everest.  I would hear Mum’s voice saying loudly.  “Hmmm....I wonder where Denise is?”   She had always been in the know about my special hide-away place.  

While I think about it I should tell you about the window cleaner's ladder. What an adventure that was, climbing up to the second floor at three years' old, with several more grey hairs for my Mum, and the window cleaner she told me.  "You were always a climber."  She and the window cleaner would probably have had a strong cup of tea afterwards.  I was a climber, did I mention that already?  My Mum told me that story for years and years.  "You were always a climber" as she shook her head slowly from side to side and smiled.  "You gave me many a grey hair when you were little.  The window cleaner and I had to have an extra strong cup of tea with lots of sugar after that escapade."  Sorry Mum! 

Anyhow, I digress, in my hide-away place I would tell Teddy all my joys and woes.

He has been with me for a lifetime.  At this age I don't really care if people think I am too old for Teddy, or his many companions I have collected over the years.  The circle of life is coming around, and I find other ways to be kind.

A very cute photo that seemed to fit the theme.  I found it at pixabay.com.  When I found this photo it reminded me of my own dear Teddy, and I went on a search for the old photo above.  Hence the trip down memory lane.  

Thanks for stopping by friends, and have a great weekend.

ANSWERS TO YESTERDAY'S QUIZ QUESTIONS

If you click on the links below you will be able to read a wealth of information.

What color is Absinthe?  

Green

Okay, I am a tad embarrassed here as in my research I found Absinthe was actually an alcoholic drink of Swiss origin.  There are days when I feel I have lived my life in a bubble, so I am not talking about the colors in M & M's apparently.  It is "historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic beverage, an anise-flavored spirit derived from botanicals including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium (grand wormwood), together with green anise and sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs.

Absinthe traditionally has a natural green color but may also be colorless.  It is commonly referred to in historical literature as la fée verte (the green fairy).  It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a liqueur, but is not traditionally bottled with added sugar and is, therefore, classified as a spirit.  

New Orleans has a cultural association with absinthe and is credited as the birthplace of the Sazerac, perhaps the earliest absinthe cocktail.  The Old Absinthe House bar on Bourbon Street began selling absinthe in the first half of the 19th century.  Its Catalan lease-holder, Cayetano Ferrer, named it the Absinthe Room in 1874, due to the popularity of the drink, which was served in the Parisian style.  It was frequented by Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Frank Sinatra.  You can find more names on this list.  And it has quite a history, banned in most of Europe and the United States by the early 1900s.  The bans persisted for over a hundred years.  Personally I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

Where is The Sea of Tranquility 

The Moon

"(also known as Mare Tranquillitatis), the Sea of Tranquility is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the moon (the lunar maria are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. They were dubbed maria, Latin for "seas", by early astronomers who mistook them for actual seas)."  

Which country has the world's most ancient forest?

The Daintree Rainforest in Australia.  

"Its age is 100 to 180 million years' old and is 460 square miles on the northeast coast of Queensland.  The Daintree is part of the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australian continent.  The Daintree Rainforest is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland Rainforest, that spans across the Cairns Region.  The Wet Tropics Rainforest (that the Daintree is a part of) is the oldest continually surviving tropical rainforest in the world.  Along the coastline north of the Daintree River, tropical forest grows right down to the edge of the Sea."  

What bulbs were once exchanged as a form of currency?

Tulips

"Tulip mani (in Duch tulpenmanie) was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip, reached extraordinarily high levels, and then dramatically collapsed in February 1637."

"Tulips were originally found in the central Asian mountainside of central Tien Shan, and the Pamir, and were successfully gardened during the Ottoman Empire. The tulip was introduced to the Netherlands in the early phase of the 1600s by the normal trade route, and what followed came to be known in history as the Tulpmanie, the Dutch synonym for Tulip Mania.  The early 17th century saw a rise of an affluent middle-class gentry in the Netherlands.  Tulips, being new to the European markets at that point in time, quickly caught the fancy of the Dutch middle class.  Dutch botanists engaged themselves in crossbreeding different varieties known as "cultivars".  These cultivars began to be exchanged within the network of scholars.  The network seemed to be ever-growing until the time came when it was not limited to known acquaintances.  It all happened during the winter months of 1636 to 1637, when tulip bulbs, which require 10 to 12 years to bloom, were dormant, and the flowers could not be traded in physical form.  The trading actually happened with contracts where the buyer bought the rights to acquire a bulb at a later date when it bloomed.  The contract was a transferable one, and quite obviously, changed multiple hands, sometimes multiple times a day.  The inevitable happened, and the contracts suddenly rose in demand, and following the laws of economics, prices shot up.  These contracts, rather these tulip contracts, became a negotiable instrument, till one day when the prices rose so high that the demand become non-existent.  There was a time when the contracts were not honored, and suddenly the Dutchmen found that they had paid a huge price for their favorite tulip.  According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, a single bulb of a special variety of tulip was valued at 5,500 guilders in 1633 (guilders were the currency of the Netherlands until the adoption of the Euro).  Merely 4 years later the value rose to 10,000 guilders.  It is said that the value was sufficient enough to purchase one of the posh villas in Amsterdam in lieu of cash.  The rich and the poor alike had joined in the trade of speculation.  According to unconfirmed reports, tulip contracts changed hands with 10 times the value being realized at the end of the day with respect to the start.  There are numerous records that property was sold or negotiated in exchange for the bulbs.”  

It is a fascinating history and you can read more of this here.

What is the hardest rock?

A diamond.

However, I was surprised to find that "there is something even harder than the Diamond, which was once thought to be the hardest and the most incompressible material on earth, either natural or man-made.  Although the diamond is still considered the hardest, the bulk modulus of the metal osmium has recently been found to be 476 GPa.  That is over 7% more incompressible than the diamond, but it is never found pure enough in nature to challenge the diamond."  

You can read this information here.

What is the painting "La Gioconda” more usually known as?

Mona Lisa

"The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci.  Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.  The painting is probably of the Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, and is an oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel.  It has been believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506.  However, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517.  It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic itself, on permanent display at the Louvre in Paris since 1797.  The Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world.  It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history at US $100 million in 1962 (equivalent to $660 million in 2019).”

I hope you have enjoyed this month's quiz.  I enjoyed sharing it with you and I learned a lot when finding out about each one.  

Have a great day!

(I saw this pretty scene at the side of a country lane while visiting Dartmoor National Park, England in 2015)