Orange Herb Roast Chicken with Potatoes

2-3 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes

2-4 Large carrots (or about 1/2 lb baby carrots)

1 4-7 lb chicken

1/3 cup olive oil

2-3 TBSP chopped herbs (I usually use the fresh “poultry mix” available at the grocery store, which is sage, rosemary and thyme) OR 1-2 TBSP dried poultry seasoning such as “Bell's Seasoning”

1 Orange

1-2 tsp kosher salt

½ tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. You want to start this chicken with a VERY hot oven.

Finely chop the herbs and put into a small mixing bowl.

Add the salt and pepper.

Use a microplane or grater to zest the outside of the orange into the herb mixture and set aside the orange.

Add Olive oil to the bowl and stir. Set aside. Or, puree herbs and olive oil with an immersion blender or small food processor and add orange zest afterward.

Line a roasting pan with foil (I recommend Reynolds no stick foil. It makes a HUGE difference at the end, if you don't clean up is difficult, or you're scraping tin foil bits off the potatoes).

Rough peel the potatoes to get rid of any yucky bits and chop them into 1 inch pieces.

Peel and chop the carrots into 1 inch chunks as well.

Mix the potatoes and carrots into the bottom of the foil lined roasting pan.

Drop in about a tablespoon of the herb mixture and mix it with your fingers to coat.

This is where your hands get (temporally) very messy. Arrange the chicken onto a roasting rack directly over the potatoes and carrots breast side up and separate the skin from the meat and insert the herb mixture between the skin and the meat and coat the outside as well.

Flip the chicken over and separate the thigh skin from the meat and coat the meat and skin liberally with the herb mixtuer until the it is gone. Insert the zested orange into the breast cavity. This will help flavor the meat and keep it juicy and tender at the same time. Put the chicken breast side down on the roasting rack into the 500 degree oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes drop the oven temperature down to 350 and continue to cook about 20 minutes per pound (including the 10 minutes at the higher temperature).

About a half hour before it's finished you can take it out and flip it over to crisp up the skin on the breast side. Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes before carving.

Decant the potatoes into a serving dish with a slotted spoon to leave the oil from the chicken in the pan.

Yucca Buns

These are great. These rolls from Brazil have always been made with Tapioca Starch, so it's not an adaptation of a gluten recipe. You can put fresh rosemary in them and make them as dinner rolls, or a make them a little larger and use them as hamburger/sandwich rolls.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 cup tapioca flour, plus extra for kneading
• 2 teaspoons double acting baking powder
• 2 cups mozzarella, finely grated
• 2 large eggs
  
• 2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream, if necessary

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil, and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine the tapioca flour and baking powder together in a large bowl. Stir in the cheese and eggs. Mix until the dough forms a ball. Knead the dough with your hands until the dough is smooth, even-textured, and not sticky. Add the cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it comes together and feels supple.

Divide the dough into 10 even pieces and with your hands, roll each into a ball. Shape the balls into ovals and place them 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the rolls are pale gold (not browned), about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes and serve while still warm. Serve with Pineapple Marmalade, if desired.

Lemon Poppyseed Coconut Muffins

A lot of kids don't like the taste or texture of shredded coconut, but they do like the flavor. I've been messing around with coconut flour for these last few days and I came up with these and they were a HIT.

Makes 12 muffins

2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups Pamelas baking mix
1/2 cup coconut flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup light coconut milk
1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1/3 cup poppy seeds
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp lemon extract
zest from 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 350

1 TBSP Brown or Muscovado sugar and 1 TBSP shredded coconut for topping.

Combine the brown sugar and shredded coconut in a small bowl.

Combine the Pamela's, coconut flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.

In an electric mixer, mix the eggs and sugar until they are light yellow and fairly thick.

While they are mixing, combine coconut milk and poppyseeds in a microwave safe container and heat for about a minute and a half to two minutes to soften the poppyseeds. Add the ricotta, extracts and lemon zest and whisk together with a fork.

Before combining have your muffin pan ready to go, either with liners or greased. You want to get this into the oven quickly because once the warm coconut milk combines with the baking powder it will activate it and they won't rise if you don't get them into the oven right away.

Drop the mixer down to low speed and dump in the flour and coconut/ricotta mixture and blend for about 30 seconds and finish by hand with a spatula.

Divide it into your muffin tin and sprinkle the tops with the sugar/coconut mix.

Bake about 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown and watch them disappear!

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

A friend of mine stumbled on a pizza recipe on this blog. But we don't keep all the flours in the recipe, so she used our usual "food philosopher" Annalise Roberts mix. But then one day we didn't have quite enough for the 3 cups she needed. Rather than mix up a whole new batch of flour, she threw in a cup of Pamela's Baking and Pancake mix and the results were fabulous. It is chewy and light and holds up well to lots of sauce and toppings.

Enjoy!

1¼ Cups Cornstarch
2 Cups GF Flour Mix (3 parts brown rice flour, 1 part potato starch, 1/2 part tapioca starch)
1 Cup Pamela's Baking and pancake mix
1½ Tablespoons Xanthan Gum
1½ Teaspoons Salt
¼ Teaspoon Dried Oregano
¼ Teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 Package Active Dry Yeast
1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Honey
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 Egg White
1¾ Cups Warm Water (110-115°)

Yield: dough for two 12 inch round pizzas.

Directions

Place Cornstarch, flours, Xanthan gum, salt, oregano, garlic powder and yeast in mixing bowl; mix. Add, vinegar, sugar, honey, oil, eggs, egg white and lastly the warm water; mix. Increase mixing speed to high, and beat for 4 minutes.

Coat your pizza pans with cooking spray. Dough will be a bit difficult to work with (sticky). Work the dough out as best as possible with a spatula. I then spray surface of pizza dough with cooking spray (very light coating). Finish spreading the pizza dough out with hands - if still to sticky, try using a small piece of parchment paper or wax paper sprayed with cooking spray to help spread the dough. Form the dough around the edge of the pizza thicker than the inner region in order to create a nice edge/crust.

Allow to sit in a warm, dry location (free of drafts) covered loosely with plastic wrap for 60-90minutes.

Preheat oven to 375° and pre-bake crusts for 20 minutes.

Remove pizza crusts from oven. Increase oven temperature to 400°.

Add pizza sauce, cheese and any other desired toppings to the pizza crusts and then place back in oven for an additional 20 minutes (note: if using sausage or other raw meat, it should be precooked before adding to pizza).

Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before cutting.

Lemon Coconut Muffins

This is another tweak from Annalise Roberts. But it's changed enough to be legal :-).

2 Cups Gluten Free Flour
1 Cup unsweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cups sugar
1TBSP Baking Powder
1tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp salt
3/4 tsp xantham gum
zest of 1 lemon

Wet ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 cup coconut milk (or buttermilk or regular milk and 1/2 tsp coconut extract)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with liners, or spray with canola cooking spray.

Mix together the dry ingredients
in a separate bowl mix together the wet ingredients

Make a well in the dry and pour in the wet and mix well with a spoon. The batter will be quite thick.

Drop into muffin cups. This should make 12 muffins.

Bake for 18-25 minutes and enjoy. You can sprinkle the tops with raw sugar and/or more shredded coconut. They're really good.

Margaret's Hot Fudge Sauce

1/2 cup half and half
1- 1 & 1/3 TBSP unsalted butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

Boil the cream and the butter together to a full boil. Watch it because it will boil over.
Remove from heat and add chocolate chips.
Let it sit for a minute or two and then whisk it together and add vanilla.

Pour over ice cream. The texture is a little different from a traditional hot fudge, as it thickens to a more fudgey consistency. But it's really, yummy.

Gluten Free Chocolate Ricotta Muffins

This is my version of an Annalise Roberts Recipe.

Dry Ingredients
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup gluten free flour
1/2 cup almond meal/almond flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Wet ingredients
1 egg
1/2 cup ricotta cheese (whole milk or skim are both fine)
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 TBSP canola oil

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a muffin tin, or line with muffin liners.

Mix up the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Whisk together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in and mix well.

divide the batter into the muffin tins. The recipe makes 10-11 muffins. Ba

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

They are very good.