Michael Symon's Roasted Chicken with Salsa Verde

I saw this recipe on a commercial one day. Iron Chef Michael Symon was showing this recipe. When I make salsa verde, I always think about Skirt Stake and that is what I always did so seeing him poruing salsa verde over the roasted chicken was quite a revelation to me.

Michael Symon is one of the Iron Chef on the food network show in the U.S. I always liked him but I got to meet him in person and take a photo with him last year. He was really nice and friendly so I like him even more now.

Even though I liked him,  this was actually my first time trying his recipe. It was pretty straight forward and came out really good.

The whole chicken was on sale this week so I decided to try this recipe.

Here is the link for his recipe on The Cooking Channel website. Click Here. 

The chicken came out juicy and flavorful from the lemon and herb. His recipe didn't call for the other stuff around the chicken but I tossed some potato and onion in it.

My son and my husband loved it also. What makes this chicken special is the salsa verde. My son helped me to make it and he was tasting it while we made. It is quite strong taste but he liked it.

This salsa verde has anchovies in it. I didn't tell this to my husband since he is not a big fan of fish. But he loved this sauce so I was very happy. (He might change his opinion if I tell him that there is anchovies in it though..)

The air is getting cooler and time to use oven again. Roasted Chicken is a perfect family meal which makes everyone happy. (Plus, you can make chicken broth with the leftover bones!)


By the way, my 2 year old son is definitely being 2 years old lately. He has a strong will sometimes and if he doesn't like something, he really doesn't like it even when it is a small thing.

Also, he is such an artist so he draw something and even when I think it looks great, if he doesn't like it somehow, he gets upset and cross it out. I think he is very good at drawing and I am so curious how his drawing develop over time.

He is also very much a daddy's boy. He is so attached to him and if my husband is home, he want to do everything with his daddy. Sometimes when I come over to them, he tells me to go somewhere else. I am happy that he loves his daddy but at the same time it makes me so sad that he doesn't want me around. He is not like that when he is alone with me but when his daddy is home, I am a third wheel.

Normally, I am OK with it but when he cry and screams for his daddy when I am right in front of him, I feel useless and sad.

I was talking about this to my mother the other day and my mom told me that he is like me when I was little. I was not that extreme but I was definitely daddy's girl and I didn't like it when my mom was close to my dad. She told me don't worry and don't feel bad about it. She assured me that my son loves me. So I guess my son got this from me. This kind of made me laugh.

I am glad that I talked to my mom. She always makes me feel good and make me feel like everything is going to be fine :-) She knows exactly what I need to hear. I hope I can be like my mom to my son. I want to make him feel good and happy and safe :-)

Perfect Fall Soup! Butternut squash and Apple Soup

Sorry, No picture today but I just wanted to write this down before I forget. I made this amazing Butternut Squash soup yesterday and I didn't want to forget what I did.

Butternut Squash Apple Soup

Ingredients
1 Butternut Squash
2 Green Apples
1 Vidalia Onion
2 cloves garlic
about 2 inches ginger root
2 tea spoons consomme powder
2 tea spoons curry powder
2 tea spoons cumin powder
2 tea spoons cinnamon powder
4~5 cups of water
Olive oil and butter

1. First peel and cut butter nut squash and apples and onion into bite size pieces. (take the seeds out)

2. In a Large pot, add olive oil and butter (whatever amount you feel like) then add butternut squash and cook until soft. You can do this in a few batches if it is too much in one batch. Take the squash out.

3. In a same pot, add more olive oil and add onion to cook. When it is tender, add apple, garlic and ginger and cook for a little bit.

4. When everything seems tender, add squash back to the pot. Then add all the spices, consomme and stir.

5. Add water and simmer for about 40mins.

6. With the immersion blender, blend everything. Add salt if needed.

This was it and it came out really great. My son loves it though he insist on eating it cold.

The fall is here and it makes me feel like making soup and baking pies. In Japan, we say that appetite increase in fall and I think it is true! The temperature gets cooler and you have more motivation for cooking and you see all these fresh fall products in a supermarket.

I will try to post photos later. I am thinking about baking a pie soon :-)

Tyler Florence's Ultimate Potato Gratin

I learned this potato gratin long time ago from my friend in California. She told me that she saw this on Food Network once and made it for me. It was super rich and really good so I wrote down the recipe and made this a few times after that.

I always thought she told me that this is a recipe from Jamie Oliver so the other day I checked online for his potato gratin recipe but I couldn't find same recipe from Jamie Oliver.

Then, I found this recipe from Tyler Florence which was exactly same as the one I wrote down. So, it was actually Tyler Florence's recipe.

Whenever I try Tyler Florence's recipes, I love them. I think him and I have a similar taste in food :-)
So it was not surprising to find that this recipe I love was actually from him.

Anyways, this is so yummy but super rich and most likely very high in calories so you can not eat a lot at once. I think it will be good when you have some people over.

If you are interested in his recipe, here is the link to his recipe on Food Network site.

It is a bit time consuming but the flavor is well worth the time in my opinion.

First, saute bacon, cabbage, green onion, garlic, etc.

Cut potatoes and soak in heavy cream.

Layer potato and cabbage mixture oven dish.

After layering, add heavy cream and sprinkle cheese over it.

Bake in the oven.

Look at this! Isn't it tempting? It is really good. It a perfect dish for a cold winter night! I think this is also good as a side dish for some meat dish.