The Best Chicken...Beer Butt Chicken!

I was at my cottage a few weekends ago with a whole chicken and a can of beer, and I thought...why not stick this beer up it's butt and barbecue it, that would be great.  And it was!  Maybe a meal with the word 'butt' in it doesn't sound very appetizing, but it was some of the most delicious chicken I have ever tasted.  It was so juicy and tender and flavourful, I'm drooling just thinking about it.  I had only cooked a whole chicken once before, and that was in the oven, so this was definitely an experiment...but it worked out great.  And it was so easy!  I was worried that the chicken wouldn't stand very well on it's beer can stool, but it was really sturdy, and even took the test of my dog jumping up on the barbecue. 
So to make this delicious chicken, here's what you need:

1 whole chicken
1 can of beer
1 lemon
3 tbsp butter
pepper
salt
any other seasonings you like with chicken

Rinse the chicken, inside and out.  Pull up the skin where it's tail would be and insert your finger in between the skin and meat to make a pocket on each breast.  (This is kind of hard to explain.)  Put the butter into the pockets and then squeeze lemon juice in.  Add any other seasonings you would like.  Squeeze more lemon juice on the outside of the chicken and then sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Pour half of the beer into a glass and save it for further use.
Cover a baking sheet in foil, and place the 1/2 full can of beer in the middle of it.  Take the chicken and push it over the can of beer until it's legs make a tripod with it that can hold the chicken upright.  Put the pan on a barbecue set to medium and cook it for about an hour, depending on the size of your chicken.  Throughout the cooking time use some of the leftover beer to baste the chicken with and to cover the pan with.  The beer steam will soak into the outside of the chicken:)
The tricky part is taking the bird off the can without spilling boiling beer all over the place!
Enjoy the chicken, it will be amazing!

Appetizing, isn't it?

Sneaky Macaroni and Cheese

I made a delicious macaroni and cheese last night that had zucchini and tomatoes in it.  I think it would be a great meal to serve to picky children who don't eat their vegetables because you could hardly tell there was zucchini in it.  My hubby is not a vegetable lover, and he did complain about the tomatoes, but he didn't seem to realize that there was another vegetable hiding in his mac and cheese!  I adapted the Italian Macaroni and Cheese recipe from Mable Hoffman's Pot Luck recipe book, just adding and changing a few things.  It was easy to make and looked really pretty with the tomato slices on top!

Three-Cheese Macaroni with a Twist!

4 cups cooked macaroni
1 small onion, finely diced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
2 cups shredded yellow zucchini
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
3 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2/3 cup Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a large pot, add onions and cook for about a minute.  Add flour, stir until bubbly.  Mix in milk, zucchini, cayenne, and salt.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low, add mozzarella cheese.  Stir until melted.
Mix the Ricotta cheese with the basil and parsley.
Put 2 cups of the macaroni in a greased 9" casserole dish.  Pour half of the zucchini and mozzarella sauce on top.  Place sliced tomatoes in rows to cover the macaroni.  Place a small blob of the Ricotta mix on each tomato.  Add the rest of the macaroni, followed by the rest of the sauce.  Make another layer of tomato slices, placing the Ricotta mixture on each one.  Sprinkle all over with Parmesan cheese.  Bake in a 400F oven for 30 minutes. 

Pickles and Pears and Beets, Oh My!

I did a lot of canning last week.  A lot.  Right now in my pantry I have 19 half quart jars of bread and butter pickles, 6 quart jars of dill pickles,  2 quart and 2 half quart jars of pickled beets, 7 half quart jars of pears, and 4 quarter quart jars of pear butter.  I could write a Christmas song about them.  It was definitely a lot of work, especially the bread and butter pickles, but looking at those jars gives me such a sense of achievement.  I have already shared the recipe I used for the pears so I thought next I would share how I made my bread and butter pickles.
I went to St. Jacob's Market to buy my pickling cukes and beets.  I bought 21 pounds of cucumbers for $16.  It didn't seem like such a large basket until I got home and tried to fit them in my fridge!  I used 16 pounds of them to make the bread and butter pickles.  Slicing 16 pounds of cucumbers takes a while, I tried to use the slicing adapter thing on my food processor, but it sliced them too thin.  I like my bread and butter pickles to be about 1/4 inch thick.  I also had to chop 4 pounds of onions, but for that I definitely used the food processor.  They still made me cry though!  I had to divide up the pickles, onions, and salt between two bins because I knew I could never fit them all into one pot.  That's one of the reasons it was so much work, because after getting my first batch jarred and starting to process I had to start all over with the next batch.  I'm going to give the recipe for the amount that I made, but it's easy to change it for the amount you want to make.

16 pounds of pickling cucumbers (42 cups sliced)
4 pounds onions (6 cups diced)
1 1/3 cups pickling salt
9 cups vinegar
6 cups sugar
6 tbsp mustard seed
6 tsp ground turmeric
3 tsp ground cloves
ice cubes

Mix the cucumber slices, onion, and salt in a large container.  Cover with ice cubes and place in fridge for 1 1/2 to 3 hours. 
Remove from fridge and rinse in cold water, drain well.
Bring remaining ingredients to a boil, add cucumbers and onions and return to a boil. 
Pack prepared* jars with pickle mixture, leaving 1/2" space at the top.  Wipe rims clean and then place the lids and rings on the jars, be careful not to over tighten the ring. 
Place the jars in a hot water bath, making sure the water covers each jar.  Boil the jars for 10 minutes.  Remove from water and place on a clean tea towel and do not move for 24 hours.  Make sure each lid has sealed, you will hear a popping noise when it seals and the lid will curve inwards.
Store in a cool place for 6 weeks before opening.
*Prepare the jars and rings by boiling them in water for 10 minutes.  The jars still need to be hot when you add pickles to them.  Add hot water to a bowl with the lids in it to soften the seals.

Half of the cucumbers are sliced!

All of the sliced cukes, ready for the salt and onions!

Cooking the cukes in the vinegar mix...first batch.

The finished product!  Yummmmmm!

The Bounty!  Can't wait to start eating it!

That Chicken is Supreme!

I haven't been doing much cooking lately because I've been canning so much, but more on that later.  I did finally make a good dinner last night though.  I had some garden fresh baby potatoes and yellow beans from the market, and had picked up some chicken breasts to go with it.  I wanted to try something new with the chicken though, so I decided to make chicken schnitzel supreme.  It turned out really well, and I even had some chicken left over which I'm going to add to my pasta for lunch.  I don't have a meat tenderizer, so I just used a regular hammer to flatten the meat.  I like to make do with what I have!  I had bought two boneless, skinless breasts, so to make them thin enough for schnitzel I first had to butterfly them.  I placed the chicken breast on the cutting board with the thick side towards me, and then cut through to the thin side to make two pieces.  Then I put a piece at a time on parchment paper folded over so it covered the top of the chicken as well.  Then it was hammer time!  I just hammered all over until it was all about half an inch thick, then moved on to the next piece.  This is great way to get more for your money, because out of 2 chicken breasts you end up with 4 large pieces which the hubby and I couldn't even finish. 
And now...the recipe:

I topped it off with some sliced mini red and orange peppers, the plate needed some colour!

Chicken Supreme

2 Chicken breasts, butterflied and tenderized
1 egg
1/2 cup of flour
1 cup breadcrumbs
Seasoning (I used dried parsley, rosemary, sage, garlic, and paprika)
Vegetable Oil
Alfredo pasta sauce

Mix the seasonings with the breadcrumbs in a bowl.  Set aside.  Beat the egg in a large bowl.  Make an 'assembly line': sprinkle the flour on a plate, next have the egg bowl, and then use another plate to put 1/4 of the seasoned breadcrumbs at a time.  Take a chicken piece and rinse it with cold water.  Next put it in the flour, making sure both sides are covered.  Dip it in the egg mixture and then put it in the breadcrumbs.  Punch the breadcrumbs into it so they stick well.  Continue with other chicken pieces.  Heat enough vegetable oil in a frying pan so that the bottom is covered.  Fry each piece of chicken for about 4 minutes a side.  Pour warm Alfredo sauce over each piece before serving.  (I used roasted red pepper Alfredo, but you can make/buy any type to use.)