Cooking, Arts and Crafts

Web	www.gardengirltv.com

COOKING

The first thing I can tell you about home raised baked chicken is that it tastes way better than store bought chicken.

For my recipe I use bell seasoning and butter and coat the chicken inside and out. I use regular stuffing for chicken, but I add fresh herbs, vegetables, walnuts and sometimes apples or raisins. I put the seasoned chicken into the roasting pan with quartered potatoes and other veggies.

They cook at 350 degrees uncovered about 15min per pound. For the last 15min I turn the heat up to 425 degrees and allow the chicken to finish browning. I take out the chicken and check the temperature if it is at least 165 degrees it’s done and I let it rest for 10-15min.

I usually take the chicken to the table whole to present, but sometimes we all just line up by the stove and pile it on our plates before sitting at the table.

Click below to watch the video!

I love rice and one day I wanted to make my rice more flavorful and I started experimenting. When my family ate every last corneal of my garden rice, I realized I had found the right ingredients. You can also experiment at home yourself with things that your family likes.

My garden rice recipe calls for:

2 cups of White Rice
4 cups of chicken broth and
1 cup of corn and fresh basil from my garden. (Try broccoli, peas or carrots as a substitute)

Combine the ingredients into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and bring heat to low. Cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Serve and enjoy!

(Learn more by by clicking on my Garden Rice video below!)

Start with fresh home grown heirloom tomatoes and cut up into bite size pieces. Add basil and olive oil some salt and pepper to taste mix and serve. Make sure you make enough for seconds! This great as a side dish or as a summer snack.

Heirloom tomatoes come in many different colors. Use a number of different colors for flavor, texture and color. If you don't have home grown tomatoes go to your local farmers market and try this recipe with local heirloom tomatoes.

This is a great recipe for rabbit, but you can substitute chicken if you like. I grew up on my mom’s chicken and wine sauce.

My favorite part is the raisin and prunes. After they’ve been cooking in the great juices of the rabbit and wine sauce for an hour they become so tasty.

The key to making this dish with rabbit is to use olive oil liberally. Rabbit is not a fatty meat at all. Simmering the meat in the sauces enhances the rabbit meat flavor beautifully.

Click on the video to learn the recipe, and watch how it's done!

My friend and neighbor Gourmet Chef Nadine Nelson started buying fistfuls of basil from me last summer so I had to find out the recipe. The pesto made in this video is a variation on that recipe using various types of basil available fresh from my garden. The trick is to use shallots so you won’t have to use as much salt. Shallots are from the onion family and have a wonderful onion/garlic/hot thru your nose taste that works really well to enhance the flavor of different types of basil.

The great thing about pesto is that you can freeze any extras for an infusion of freshness to a pasta dish at a later date. If there is anyone in your family that is reluctant to eat pesto, get them involved in planting, growing, and picking out the types of basil to include. You can of course take the time and go to your local farmer’s market and pick some basil up from them.

ARTS & CRAFTS

One of my “side hobbies” is furniture refinishing. Salvaging old furniture is a creative way to recycle and reuse things. I am by no means restoring the furniture, but I am giving old stuff new life. Not only is fun for me, but I know that by recycling things, I’m doing a little something to help protect the environment.

The key to refinishing furniture for me is using Shellac. It is by and far, one of my favorite products. It is all natural and is made from the secretions of insects, mixed with ethanol and a renewable resource. Its’ use has been known for millennia. Examples have been found in Pharo’s Tombs in ancient Egypt. Shellac comes in a clear or amber tint in a gloss or a high gloss. Shellac is also non toxic and the eco-friendly product to use if you are trying to eliminate the use of toxic household and construction materials.

In the video and photos, you can see the process for bringing back some pieces of furniture for use in my indoor garden. The table is probably thirty to forty years old and had a laminate stuck to it for decades. I am using the table as the base for my shelves in the indoor garden. By raising the levels of the shelves, more of the actual shelf space is exposed to natural sun light. I also have a couple of solid wood school house kids chairs, which have a dual purpose as seating and step stools for easy access to the top shelves.

I peeled away the laminate and sanded it down. Sanding first with a coarse sand paper and then, medium, and lastly with fine sand paper. It is important to always sand with the grain of the wood. After sanding it down, I wipe the surface with a wet paper towel and let it dry. Then it’s on to the shellac. With a paint brush, I coat the surfaces as thickly and evenly as possible allow it to dry and then lightly sand it with fine grit sand paper. Shellac dries incredibly quickly, becoming hard and water tight in under an hour. Remember to use shellac in a well ventilated area as the ethanol evaporates, and breathe some new life into furniture for your self.

Hand spinning has become a passion of mine. It’s so much fun and rewarding making my one of a kind, knitted garments. I love sharing them with others too. As the months go by I’ll be adding more instructional videos that will help you become a hand spinner too. It’s not easy to learn how to spin fiber into yarn, but once you learn it’s like riding a bike.

The best fiber to use when you are learning is a medium to coarse wool. The more exotic fibers like angora or cashmere are slippery and can be expensive, but great to use once you’ve got the hang of hand spinning. A great way to get started before buying a wheel is taking a class. There are also spinning groups you can go to and connect with women who have been doing it for a long time.

Some how or another, one per month I get to groom my rabbits. It's a pretty fun experience especially with the rabbits that are really used to me. One of them is the rabbit Hubert in my 6part video series Rabbit to Hat Spectacular. On this particular day it was Hurbert's turn (named after Uncle Hubert Murry, his sister is named after his wife Aunt Nancy). He behaved wonderfully. I used the classic angora rabbit shearing technique of putting a towel on my lap[to protect me from any rabbit scratches] and placing the rabbit on top of that. Check out the video and see how the rabbit did. Next I carded the fiber I harvested and carded it and spun it into a beautiful 100% angora wool. My neighbor Paolo had just turned 6 months old and it was the perfect time to get him ready for winter, by knitting him his own Rabbit Hat. It all happened in one afternoon. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

With the commercialization of Christmas it’s so hard to get back to a sane perspective of what Christmas really means. Having your children ask for gifts that they want, really sends the wrong message. Christmas is about giving not receiving.

Across the country there is a movement to encourage everyone to purchase a handmade product when giving a gift. Every Christmas I try and give gifts that I have hand made whether it is yarn or a knitted item. I love making something knowing who I am giving it to.

Christmas for me would be the same without a Christmas tree, but every year 35 million trees are cut down in America. I thought there had to be a better way. This year I used a live Christmas tree in a pot and took it a step further and purchased LED lights and made all of the ornaments with my family. I didn’t stop there. My handmade gifts were wrapped in newspaper and fabric. I also decorated them with last year’s Christmas cards all reducing the amount of Xmas waste. It was really fun, so check out my video and see if it is something you can do with your family this Christmas.