The Chicken Man

Ever since we attended a birthday party on St. Patrick's day at the Shamrock Hotel I can't even stand the thought of buying chicken from the grocery store anymore.  For those of you that don't know, the Shamrock Hotel is a pub that is located basically in the parking lot of the Lillydale processing plant.  Couple that with watching the documentary Food, Inc and I am through! (If you haven't seen it yet, watch Food, Inc. it may not spark you to have a coop in your backyard, and a garden on your roof, but it will inspire you to think more about the food that you purchase at your local grocery stores.

Steve's Mom Julie shared with us that she orders her chicken from someone she calls 'The Chicken Man'. I figured this sounded like a pretty legit place to get some great chicken!  What a fantastic recommendation!  Steve picked up our first chicken from them this evening, we purchased 5 bags (each with two breasts) and it was about $110.  It may sound pricey at first but this guy is the real deal and we couldn't help ourselves but have it for dinner.

The chicken breasts come with the bone in so we used some knife work to get around that, and they were ready to go!

A mixture of spices (garlic salt, pepper, Silk Road Spice Merchant All Purpose Blend), and a little bit of melted unsalted butter and these were ready to hit the oven.

I baked them at 375F for about 50 minutes along with some baby potatoes and then broiled them for a few minutes to crisp the skin nicely.

They turned out fantastic!  Just one chicken breast fed both Steve and I and we were both very full! 

If you want to check out who we all call, 'The Chicken Man' who is actually Jerry and Nancy Kamphuis of Country Lane Farms, click here. They have much more than chicken and they offer a convenient order online program.

Green Thumb (I hope!)

I love to cook with fresh herbs, like many do.  So many recipes call for it, and when creating a new recipe  on my own I always find that if you add some fresh herbs to the mix, it will taste that much better.  Keeping fresh herbs can be kind of tricky as they do have a tendency to go soggy and limp or completely dry out.  Solution: grow my own fresh herbs in the kitchen!

If you haven't been to an Indigo/Chapters recently, you must go!  I found this cute herb garden kit there in which you can grow your very own herbs.  They have three different kinds, along with a microgreens kit and a root veg kit, I opted for the pesto garden kit.

These products made by Seracon are endorsed by David Suzuki which made me feel pretty happy about my purchase.  For only $20 you get seeds, aluminum container, dirt, clay beads, and all the instructions that even the novice gardener (such as myself) needs to be successful.
So far it looks like I will have something I can use, which I would chalk up to a win considering the word 'germination' does not make me think of delicious green herbs!

Things In The Kitchen Became A Little More Accurate

I can't even imagine how I used to measure in the kitchen before I received this gift.  I literally would grab handfuls of ingredients and say to myself, "Yep, that's about a cup or so" or, "If I combine my 1/3 cup and my 1/3 cup that makes 2/3 cup which is close to 3/4 cup right?"  No longer!

These measuring cups will last a lifetime and I have no doubt that I will be passing them on to my kids, and their kids after.  All Clad makes a fantastic product and you can feel the quality in their weight and construction.  You can pick up your very own here!