Herb and Lemon Roasted Chicken Breast

I've been meaning to post this for quite some time now but didn't get around to it. I found this recipe from another blog The English Kitchen. We love our white chicken meat here as long as the skin is off. That's how 2 of the family member prefers it. However with her original recipe she kept the skin on. Hers looks absolutely delicious!

I love finding different recipes for chicken and when I found this one I had to give it a go.

For our side we had it with mash and the The English Kitchen had hers with roasted potatoes I believe...

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts skin off
2 fluid ounces of extra virgin olive oil
the finely grated zest of two unwaxed lemons (cut the remainder of the lemons into thin slices and set aside)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
4 tbs finely chopped fresh chives
4 tbs finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
4 tbs finely chopped fresh tarragon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper



Method

Mix together the olive oil, lemon zest and minced garlic. Remove the leaves from the thyme and rosemary and mince. Stir them into the olive oil along with the chives, parsley and tarragon. Mix all very well together. Rub the herb all over the chicken and lay each breast in a flat plastic container, placing each one on top of two lemon slices. Lay another two lemon slices on top of each breast. Cover and chill for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 5. Place the chicken breasts into the baking dish, keeping the lemon slices on the bottom of each breast and the slices on top of each breast. Sprinkle with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Roast in the heated oven for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until the chicken breasts are cooked through, with the juices running clear and the skin is golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

Pulled Pork And Strawberry Shortcake

Summer's definitely here! It's been very hot here lately so I've been taking the kiddies out to the pool. Yesterday was family day so I've planned what we were going to do and that's to go out to the pool and swim. Do you ever find yourself quite hungry after swimming? We do.

This time I was prepared I decided to make Honey BBQ Flavour Pulled Pork. I went to the supermarket and purchased all of my ingredients and got everything in the oven before we went swimming. This roast was cooked in the oven for 6 hours and oh my gosh! The meat just fell apart after it was cooked and it melted in your mouth like butter.

This is an 8 lbs. roast that was cooked in a Dutch oven with Honey Barbeque Sauce. We took it out the dutch oven, placed it in a shallow bowl and pulled it apart with forks. It wasn't much work since it fell apart so easily.

After I've skimmed the fat off its juice and BBQ sauce we placed the roast back in its sauce to absorb more of the flavour.

For our sides we baked a Southwestern Potato Au Gratin from a carton and some Garlic and Herb mash. I couldn't be bothered to make it from scratch instead it was semi homemade and it was really good!

Supper!!! Yummmmmmmm..........

A meal is not complete without dessert. The kiddies and I assembled our own Strawberry Shortcake and the dark chocolate drizzle was a must!!

Today, were doing and eating the exact same thing again....: )

Ingredients for our version of Strawberry Shortcake..

Ingredients

8 lb. Roast Pork
2 onions
Honey BBQ sauce
2 cloves garlic (I forgot to add)

Method

Preheat oven to 300F.
Place quartered onions on the bottom of  Dutch oven.
Place the meat on top of the onions and drizzle with BBQ sauce all over.
Cover with lid and put it in the oven and cook for 6 hours.

Black Forest Cake

My my, I've been gone for a while. It's been pretty busy around here. My cake design classes have started and my daughter had just turned 12. For her birthday she asked me to make her a Black Forest Cake. It had to be designed like the one from a video game that her and her friends play called Portal. I was a bit intimidated at first since it's my first time baking one and designing one like it. I wanted it to be special and spectacular for her. I searched the web on what the cake is meant to look like and this is what mine turned out like. I wanted it to be very similar and to taste great as well.

Garnishing this cake was a very messy situation. I had chocolate bits melting all over my hands. I've had to wash, rinse and dry my hands every time the chocolate started to melt. I'm sure all you bakers out there know a better way of garnishing an entire cake with chocolate crumble without having to be messy. The instruction says to gently press the crumble on the cake. I tried that and they would fall off my hands creating a mess. Instead, slapped them on before they melted on my hands. I got the same result, a mess everywhere. There were chocolate crumbles all over the kitchen counter, floor, my clothes, face, hands, my son's face, around his lips and of course inside his mouth ha ha ha ha ha lol.... : ) He told me the bits wanted to go inside his tummy, lol ha ha ha ha ha!

Oh, and by the way this is the first time I've baked a cake with chocolate milk as one of the ingredient and it really made the cake quite moist.

The video game version looks like this...

My daughter and one of her best friend made the mini portal cupcakes and it turned out rather nice as well...

I browsed loads of recipes for this cake and the one that I chose is from Sandra Lee. It looked like the easiest one for me to make. Although her original design for her Black Forest Cake is different from what the portal cake looked like, I just had to design it differently.

This is her cake design courtesy of Semi-Homemade Magazine...

I just had to make some minor changes on the ingredients and design.

Ingredients

1 (18.25-ounce) box super moist chocolate fudge cake mix, Betty Crocker
1 2/3 cups chocolate milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (will need to divide 3tbs and 2tbs)
3/4 cup cherry pie filling
1 (12-ounce) container frozen nondairy whipped topping, thawed

Garnish: 2 bars of your favourite bittersweet dark chocolate (one of mine is Ghirardelli )
Maraschino cherries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spray 2 (9-inch) cake pans with nonstick baking spray with flour.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix, chocolate milk, oil, eggs, and 3 tablespoon of cocoa until smooth. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake for 20 to 24 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 15 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.
3. Spread cherry pie filling between layers.
4. Add 2 tablespoon of cocoa powder to whipped cream to add a bit of brown then spread topping over top and sides of cake.
5. Blitz 2 bars of bittersweet dark chocolate in the food processor.
6. Gently press chocolate crumble onto sides of cake and top of cake. (I slapped mine on...lol) Top cake with small whipped cream circle using cake decorator tip # and cherries. Store in refrigerator.
Makes 1 (9-inch) cake

*Cupcakes ingredients were exactly the same except the kids didn't bother with the cherry pie filling.