Ludi's Chicken from Tessa Kiros

I made this chicken before (click here for 2011 June post) and I think this is one of the best roasted chicken I made. When I made this last time, I said I am making this again for sure but for some reason I didn't make roasted chicken for more than a year. Mainly because I can but pretty good roasted chicken for $4.99 from Costco and also we had pretty good Peruvian restaurant which sells delicious roasted chicken with reasonable price.

Anyways, enough of my excuses. The other day, I went to a Korean supermarket called "H Mart". Close to the are we moved in, there is this one area where there are so many Korean and Chinese stores/restaurants. So I decided to go to this Korean supermarket and found lots of ingredients which I use for Japanese cooking. Also, vegetables are much cheaper than normal supermarket. And I found this whole chicken for $4.99. I decided to make this roasted chicken again.

I found this recipe in a book called "Falling Cloudberries" by Tessa Kiros. I have one of her other book which my mother in-law gave me but I borrowed this "Falling Cloudberries" from a library in 2011. Since I don't have the book anymore, I searched in on the internet and I found the recipe.

This roast chicken use lots of lemon, grainy mustard and some white wine. I love the combination of those flavors.

I baked for two hours.

 I love making roast chicken because it is cheap, looks great and you can make chicken stock after we eat chicken. (Click here for how I make my chicken stock at home)

The chicken was great and the sauce is lemony and perfect. I started to think again that maybe I should buy this book.

I remember I also made this fabulous Finnish meatball from this book in 2011. (Click here for the post about Danish meatball dish)

I remember that I made these meatballs while I was pregnant and I was feeling morning sickness. After I made these meatballs for the party, I couldn't even think about meatballs anymore. Just hearing a word "meatball" made me feel sick. But now I have a wonderful healthy boy (thank god) and I don't feel sick anymore when I think about meatballs so maybe it is time to make these delicious Finnish meatballs again!!! Those meatballs are perfect for pot luck party.

Anyways, my son is almost 2. It is amazing how he grow and how much he learns everyday. I am very thankful that I have him and he came to me. When I think about those meatballs I get nostalgic since that was when I had my baby in my belly and I was so anxious to meet him. Well, maybe it is time for him to ear those meatballs. I will tell him this story when he eat this meatballs :-)

No Knead bread in Le Creuset

Happy New Year! Finally, we moved to a new place and we are settling down.

We moved little bit before Christmas and my husband's parents were here from Germany to help us move and spend Christmas with us. Since we were trying to finish everything before Christmas, it was quite busy and stressful but we were able to get most of the stuff done by Christmas and was able to spend nice relaxing Christmas.

About a week before the move, my son got sick and he was throwing up all day for one day. Thank god it lasted only one day. Then, right when we were about to move, my husband started feeling sick and he was not feeling well for about a week. Now, he feels fine and we were able to start a new year with healthy bodies.

Since we didn't have any furniture, we had to buy everything. We bought all the furniture from IKEA. IKEA is great. I think it would have cost a lot more if we didn't have IKEA. Even with IKEA stuff, buying all the furniture you need cost a lot of money. But I was able to get furnitures I like and the house is coming together.

I really love my house and the town I used to like before the Hurricane so I am still sad about it but the new house started to feel like home and I think it will grow on us with time. Plus, the town I used to live is about 30mins away so I will be going there at least once a week to see my friends and neighbors.

I don't know anything about this area so I just have to figure out what is around here.

Yesterday, I went to the library in the area. This library is very small and old but it seems like they have a program for my son once a week so I am going to sign him up for it. Hopefully I can make some new friends there.

Anyhow, enough about my life and let's talk about cooking.

In previous post, I told you that I finally bought Le creuset dutch oven.

There was this one thing I really really wanted to try making it when I get Le Creuset. It is no knead bread! This is how it came out.

Doesn't it look great? It really like bread you buy from bakery and it is super super super easy to make!

I think this bread started out as one person from NY bakery (Jim Lahey from Sullivan Street Bakery) invented this method so everyone can make real bread easily at home. Then, Mark Bittman wrote an article about it in New York Times and it got very very popular.

I don't remember how I found this out but I always wanted to try.

Here is the recipe in New York Times. 

But I used this website to make it myself since it is much easier to see and it explain the steps very well.
Click here for the recipe I used from "Simply So Good".

My husband loves bread so he was very happy when he saw this bread. He is excited that now he can eat this anytime at home. (Well it need to be rested for at least 18hours so I have to plan it though)

My husband's father (my father-in-law) also loves bread so he was also very happy to have this bread. I am happy that everyone loves it and it is really easy to make.

I don't need to knead the bread. I just mix the ingredients and let it sit for 18 hours and bake.

When you buy bread at supermarket, often time there are many chemicals to prevent it from spoiling but this one is all natural and it is a lot more economical and it taste better!

So if you have Le creuset, please try to bread. If you love bread, you will love this homemade bread!

Now I have all the cooking tools and I am excited about making new dishes and sharing it with you.

Its been a while...

Yes, It has been a while since I posted last time. A lot of things happened since then.
Because of the Hurricane Sandy which hit East Coast, our house was flooded and we lost lots of stuff...

I knew the Hurricane is supposed to be a big one but I never thought it will change our life like this.

Well, good thing is we are alive and healthy.

We can not go back to our house and who knows how long it will take to everything go back to normal.

It was heartbreaking to see our house and our city destroyed like that. I cried. I miss my city, my house and my neighbors and friends.

But life has to go on and we have to move forward. We found a new apartment and we are moving in very soon. It will be a bit away from where we used to live but it is not too far away so I can visit our friends sometimes.

It was a very difficult time for us but at the same time, we received so many support from our friends and family. Everybody is trying to help each other and it is heartwarming to see this.

So, that was why I hadn't updated my blog for a while.

Don't worry, after I moved to a new place and settled in a little bit, I will start cooking a lot and posting more pictures.

One thing I am so excited about is that I finally bought Le Creuset Dutch Oven!! It is Oval and 6.75qt.
(I know, I shouldn't be buying these things when I don't even have a place to live but it was such a great deal and I couldn't pass it. Plus, I wanted to have this for a long long time anyways so I guess it is a early Christmas gift for me!)

Anyways, I am looking forward to cooking more stuff with this Dutch Oven. I hope I can update my blog sometime soon with new dish I made :-)