Roast Chicken with Garlic and Thymes

I tried a new chicken recipe for my Thanksgiving dinner. This recipe can be done last minute as it doesn't need to be marinated/seasoned before hand. This chicken was fragrant and tasted divine. You can eat the garlic together with the chicken or spread it on bread to enjoy. Remember to place the garlic close and underneath the chicken when baking or else it will be burned and turned rock hard. You can substitute the dried thyme with fresh thyme. Stuff a few inside and sprinkle some cut thyme on the skin.



Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
25 cloves of garlic (with skin) toast with some olive oil
1 lemon
Dried Thyme
Kosher salt
Black Pepper

Methods:

1. Clean the chicken, pat it dry with paper towel. Brush the skin with melted butter, any leftover butter, pour it into the chicken cavity or inside the skin.

2. Cut the lemon in half, squeeze half lemon on each side. Stuff half squeezed lemon inside the chicken. Generously sprinkle both sides of chicken with kosher salt, black pepper and some dried thyme. Sprinkle some inside the chicken cavity as well.

3. Preheat the oven to 375'F. Place chicken breasts side up on a aluminum lined baking pan and arrange garlic cloves close to the chicken. Bake for 1 hour 30-45 minutes or until cooked. Rest for 5 minutes before cutting.

Bird Feeders

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Birdfeeders.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Do you have hummingbirds in your area? It sure fun to look at the smallest bird in the world flipping that forever fast wings of theirs right in your backyard. We have hummingbirds here and I can certainly foresee myself watching hummingbird for hours feeding on bird feeder. I especially attracted to the Asian Collection that they have, you know the Asian in me. The lantern bird feeder sure adds as a decoration as well, not only it blends well with my lifestyle but provides me with peaceful hours of bird watching, killing two birds with one stone eh? As an extra bonus, it is free shipping on all orders above $49.99. Get yours in time for Christmas!

Last Minute Thanksgiving Dinner

Baked Chicken with Garlic and Dried Thymes


Baked Sweet Potato Fries


Chinese Style Green Beans


Mini Sausages with Special Sauce

Serve with soft and fluffy buns and sparkling ciders (picture not taken). Truly a last minute dinner as we were having Dim Sum with some friends in Denver up until 2pm and rushed back to cook this. Nothing traditional as I didn't buy turkey again this year (just didn't want to deal with the big bird for days even though it was super cheap) and I cooked something that we all liked to eat. The mini sausages were of course for the kids with my special Asian sauce instead of BBQ sauce. Asian style green bean instead of green bean casserole and baked sweet potato fries instead of mashed potato with gravy. Recipes of each item will be shared in individual post later.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Looking for a present to give to school children? Something educational such as a book would be nice. I would love to recommend Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin because I had one and it was fun to read. It is an adventure fantasy crossed with Chinese folktales and it is being called a Chinese "Wizard of Oz". It is for a 4th grade reading level but can be enjoyed by all ages. The book has garnered 3 starred reviews, the 2009 Parents Choice Gold Winner and is the Today Show's Kids Book Club Selection for December. Grace Lin will be interview by Al Roker on Dec. 4th. Tune in to see Grace Lin on TV. Sharing with you a movie trailer of this book below.



What I like about this book is it is a Chinese folktales and it is beautifully illustrated by Grace Lin herself. I guess I have a thing for Chinese folktales because it is hard to come by in English and I wanted my girls to read it. It is also a great book to buy if you have adopted Asian children at home, I bet they would enjoy reading a book that is closed to their heart. You can see an audio clip of Grace reading an excerpt at her website. Also, people can get autographed books for the holidays here. Encourage your children to read, lead them into the world of book adventure and imagination, make them think at an early age is a good thing. Evy loved to flip through the book to look at the pictures. I notice Edda started to pick up too as she would flip through a book and then bring it and ask me to read to her.

*This is a sponsored post with 100% own opinion*


Evy showing Edda a drawing from the book.


Sharing some pictures of my girls since I haven't posted their update for awhile.


5 and 3 years old.

Whole Wheat Oats Cranberries Cookies

I loved cookies! A cookies lover since young and coming from Asia, we were used to the hard and crunchy cookies. I only got introduced to soft or soft and chewy cookies when I came to America. It got some getting used to but frankly I am still not use to the soft cookies. My hubby brought back some cookies from his office and it was so soft that it disintegrated into pieces, not only that it was very sweet too. It was nothing like eating cookies at all, more like eating soft dough. Needless to say, I am still not a fan of soft cookies but I like the chewy and soft cookies (yet not too soft) like the one I made here.

I am also for healthier cookies so I experimented with whole wheat flour, rolled oats and dried cranberries for this cookies. I made this cookies before using all-purpose flour and the texture was different, with AP flour the cookies spread out and chewier. With whole wheat flour, it didn't spread out as much during baking. Regardless, it is still a tasty cookies to us. You can change the dried fruit to what you have a home. A healthier cookies to make to give to your friends during this Holidays season eh?



~Yield about 33 cookies. Feel free to double the recipe!

Ingredients:

(A)
1/2 cup (1 stick/113 g) butter, soften
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
(B)
1 egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
(C)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
(D)
1 cup roll oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Method:

1. In a big mixing bowl, add in (A), beat with electric beater until creamy. Add in (B) and beat again until combined. Then, add in (C) and beat again until well incorporated. Lastly add in (D) and stir with a spatula until well mixed.

2. Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper. Turn the oven to 350'F or convection oven to 325'F. Use the smallest cookie scoop and scoop cookie dough on parchment paper. Place the cookie dough 1-1.5 inch apart as it will spread out when baking.

3. Bake for 10 minutes. Cookies will be brown on edges and soft in the center. Remove and let the cookies rest in the baking sheets for 2 minutes before carefully transferring them to cool completely on wire racks. Store cookies in an airtight container.