Benjamin Peter Goulding

I am watching my baby boy grow up. Best thing I've ever seen. 

So thankful for each day with this little guy. 

I love that I get to be his mommy. 

Have a great weekend! 

Preview for next time...! 
Next baking experiment!

The Chicken...

A while ago I bought a pack of whole chicken's at Costco...great deal by the way. I put both in the freezer and saved them for a day when I had the courage to cook a whole chicken. These chickens only had some of the insides removed...this little detail made me wait a very long time.

The first chicken I cooked did not turn out so great. I didn't like the flavor and the recipe felt complicated for a beginner.

Finally a few days ago I began the process of defrosting the remaining chicken. Every night I would think about it being in the fridge, waiting for me. Raw whole chickens are not pleasant to look at.

I found an amazing recipe from Giada De Laurentiis. I usually find her recipes intimidating.  However, this Garlic-Roasted Chicken with Root Veggies was so easy and so yummy! The Food Network websites makes printing recipes so easy. I would recommend printing it out before you start cooking. If you're anything like me I looked over it a million times before I got the nerve to begin.

I attacked this chicken by first making the butter recipe, then the veggies, and then did the chicken part last.

Preheat over to 400, with the rack just below the center of the oven. 

Here is the recipe for the butter:

• 6 Tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature. Being at room temp. is really important.
• 2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary.
• 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme.
• 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice.
• 1/2 tsp salt.
• 1/2 tsp black pepper.
• 3 lg. garlic cloves, minced.

Directions:
Mix all of that really well together.

Next prep the veggies:

• 3 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil.
• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary.
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme.
• 1 tsp salt.
• 1/2 tsp pepper.
• 6 baby red potatoes, halved.
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise.
• 2 large parsnips, peeled and quartered lengthwise. I did not have any of these. 
• 2 large shallots, peeled and halved. I didn't have this either and used an onion instead. 
• 1 clove of garlic.
• 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth.

Directions:

Toss all the veggies with the herbs and olive oil. Place on the bottom of the roasting pan. The chicken is going to sit on top. 

Now comes the part I was seriously afraid of...THE CHICKEN:

• One 6 pound chicken, rinsed and patted dry. If you have the chicken I had you will need to remove all the insides. Wash out the cavity as well.  The first time I did this I actually screamed...I know, very pathetic. This time I did a good job and got all of the insides out without fainting. Woo hoo. 
• Salt and Pepper.
• 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary.
• 5 sprigs of fresh thyme.
• 1 lemon, quartered.

Hmmmm doesn't that look pretty? No. 

Directions:

Tuck wings under chicken. Toss some salt and pepper over the chicken, and in the cavity (this is a gross word).  Spoon about 2 Tbs of the butter mixture into the cavity. Then stuff the lemon and the sprigs of herbs up there too. :) Tie the legs together with kitchen twine. 

This next part was fun...not. You have you loosen the skin over the chicken breast. Then shove some of the butter mixture inside the skin. Be gentle, you don't want it to rip. This helps keep the chicken moist. 

Massage the rest of the butter all over the chicken...bet you've always wanted to massage a chicken. :) 

The chicken will cook for 1 1/2 hours. You'll need an instant read thermometer to read 160-165 degrees.  My thermometer read around 168...oh well.

Let the chicken rest for about 20 minutes before serving.

Okay, so my chicken turned out so yummy...the veggies not so much. Not sure what happened to them...some were okay, but most were burnt to a crisp. Maybe I needed more chicken broth. 

Despite the not so great veggies, this turned out great. It wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. So I hope that you attempt this recipe. Let me know how it turns out for you! 

I plan on using this chicken for a lot of different recipes this week. Including chicken enchiladas! 

Make sure you clean everywhere the raw chicken touched! I attacked my fridge and kitchen with this stuff:

Thank you Jesus for Clorox Wipes!

Have a beautiful night!

Lark Rise to Candleford

Hi.

Recently I discovered another BBC Television charm called Lark Rise to Candleford. It is a great show.

Set in the 19th century, it focuses on the lives of people from two different towns. Lark Rise is portrayed as the poorer community and Candleford the wealthier community. The stories are told through the eyes of a teenage girl, Laura Timmins, who leaves her small county life in Lark Rise to begin working at the post office in Candleford.

My sister and I were talking about this show and she pointed out that she likes that writers focused on the poor and the rich. I love that it shows what daily life looked like for the people of Oxfordshire in the 19th century.

If you're like me and love the BBC series, you will love this one too. I love how each character has a story and it makes you want to keep watching.

The other great thing about this show is that you can watch all of the episodes on YouTube!

What are some BBC series you like? My absolute favorite so far is Call The Midwife...please watch it. :) The first season is on Netflix!

Lark Rise to Candleford is four seasons long, and I am only on season one. So I'll let you know if it's still good in a bit. I hear it is, so I look forward to watching.
Good night. :)

Grilled Chicken Burgers with Garlic Herb Mayo

Tonight for dinner I experimented with making my own garlic and herb mayo. Wow...it turned out so yummy. The recipe was adapted from Giada De Lurentiis' Chicken Burgers with Garlic Rosemary Mayo.

I did not have any rosemary or hamburger buns. So dinner turned more into a chicken burger with delicious garlic and herb mayo, served on toasted whole wheat bread.

So first thing I did was chopped up a bunch of different herbs from my herb garden!

I didn't measure just grabbed a bit from each. Start with a little and then add to your liking. I used thyme, chives, basil, and oregano. After you chop that up and put into a small mixing bowl, chop up one clove of garlic. Mix all of that together with 1 cup of good mayo.

Next start prepping the chicken. I had a pound of ground chicken. One problem I had was that I forgot to take it out of the freezer. So I tried to defrost it in the microwave. This led to a harder and not as moist burger. So when you make this make sure the meat is completely defrosted and easy to mold.

Add a little salt and pepper to the chicken. Then add half of the garlic herb mayo the chicken. This is the key to the moist burger. I learned this from Giada De Lurentiis. Makes it soooo yummy.  This picture does not show the yumminess...ha.

Have a grill nice and really hot. This part is a bit annoying because you have to form the patties literally right before you put them on the grill. So have everything ready before you put the meat on grill, or you'll have raw chicken all over your hands. We have have a tiny George Foreman grill and no where to put anything...hence the chair. :)

Put patties on the grill. Cook on each side for 7 minutes.

While the patties are cooking, take you buns or bread and lightly spread a bit of the mayo on it. If you have room on the grill, toast your bread till brown. Spreading the mayo on the bread before toasting it adds to the delish factor. :)

Once patties and bread are done begin building the burger.
I used what I had and that was organic baby spinach.

Then you have a yummy burger, or in our case, a yummy sandwich.

Hope you try this!!!
Have a good weekend!

Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Tonight I thought I'd experiment with a sugar free oatmeal raisin cookie. :)
I got the recipe from www.sugarfreemom.com  I changed a few things. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Soak 1/2 cup of raisin in water. There wasn't a measurement given for water, so I just made sure they were all covered. 

Then in a large bowl I added the dry ingredients. Whisk them all together, removing any lumps. I did not have any powdered stevia, so I used 1/2 cup of honey like she suggested. But I added the honey later to the wet ingredients. 

Then in a small bowl I beat one egg, added melted butter and melted coconut oil, the vanilla and honey.  The last wet ingredient you are suppose to add is 2 TBS raisin water...This part I found weird.  I'm not sure why that is needed. My batter was complete soup..as you will see in a second. 
*Discard the remaining water from the raisin. 

Then add the wet to the dry ingredients and combine. Add the raisins. I chose not to use chocolate chips because even my semi sweet ones have sugar.  However, I imagine that they would be really good with the chocolate. 

Here is my batter...

At this point I decided I would add more whole wheat flour until it started to look more like cookie dough. So I started adding in tablespoons of the flour. I think I got up to between 5-7 heaping tablespoons. Sorry for not counting. It finally looked like dough, but it was still pretty wet. I may add more next time...and not add the raisin water. 

By this time I was pretty sure these were going to be the grossest cookies I had ever made but they actually turned out pretty yummy. 

Bake for 15 minutes. 

First bite I wasn't sure, but my the second and third I was pleased. I would enjoy another one with a good cup of coffee. This is a good recipe to try if you're needing to cut down on sugar.. 

Hope that you are able to try this recipe. Let me know how they turn out! The link for the actual recipe is at the beginning of the post. Enjoy! 

The World Is Bigger Now

I read this book a few weeks ago. It was beautiful. It is the autobiography of Euna Lee. I remember hearing about this event on the news randomly in 2009, but life was so busy that year I didn't pay much attention to the story. I picked this book up at our library and was not able to put it down. I don't want to give too many details because you should read it. However, she and another reporter, Laura Ling, were held in a North Korean prison for five long months. She was branded a traitor and tortured through verbal abuse. Back home in the US her husband and daughter waited each day for any kind of news.

Now that I have a child I could not imagine what she was going through knowing her little baby was back home confused as to why she hadn't returned from her work trip.  This story reminded me that we must get on our knees and seek God in all situations. Euna Lee's experience is something I hope to never experience, but through her book I learned how faithful God is, all the time.

I hope you are able to read it. 

These images I found on Google. The above one is the book cover. The second is when she and Laura Ling stepped off the plane to see their families for the first time in five months. Beautiful. 

Under The Greenwood Tree

Today I had the beautiful pleasure of relaxing with my sister Erin, and watching a BBC film. I love BBC films and TV shows. We watched, 'Under The Greenwood Tree' A film loosely based on a novel by Thomas Hardy.

In my opinion it is not an Oscar winning film but I enjoyed watching it. It takes place in Dorset, England, focuses on a teacher searching for a husband to make her father happy. The town is full of "simple people." Those characters are the funniest. This movie is full of romance, beautiful scenery and awkward situations. I would recommend it. Good for a rainy day. It was pleasant to watch a clean movie all about finding true love.

Good night, sleep tight.

Cupcakes and The Bachelorette

Tonight some awesome ladies ventured to town to watch The Bachelorette (yes I'm that girl that watches The Bachelorette) and eat some cupcakes with me.

Every time I go to the library I bring home a collection of cook books. This week I am experimenting with 'barefoot contessa at home' by Ina Garten. I usually find her recipes too fancy and scary to even attempt but the recipe for chocolate cupcakes and peanut butter icing seemed like a good one to try. The recipe was fairly easy but lots of ingredients. I have learned that Ina Garten loves to use coffee when baking with chocolate. She says that it brings out the chocolate flavor more, and I totally agree.

*Disclaimer: I am not a photographer. I also think that the icing on this cupcake looks like doo-doo.

I liked the cupcakes, but found that they were a bit dry. Maybe I baked too long? They shouldn't be dry...had sour cream and buttermilk in them. They were pretty good despite not being super moist. The icing was good, but I would have preferred peanut butter icing with cream cheese...everything is better with cream cheese.

Her cookbook is awesome and I want to use it more.

To Start...

Hi.

My name is Amber. I never thought I would start a blog but lately my husband has been encouraging me to step out and try it. I am a wife of almost four years and a mommy to a beautiful baby boy who is 15 months old. We have just gone through some major life transition and are in the process of figuring out our new life.

I have discovered a love for cooking and baking. I have always loved reading and watching movies. I am that girl who totally get involves with the characters of stories. So this is why this blog will be called Food Film Fiction.

If anyone does happen to read this, will you please give me recipes to experiment with, books to fall in love with, and movies that inspire. Also would love feedback if you try the recipes, read the books or watch the movies.