Baked Farm Chicken

I got this chicken from a small scale, honest goodness, hobby farm.  Farmer Tom is an easy going, laid back hobby farmer, who loves to show you around his farm and tell you about how everything works.  His farm is where I get my eggs at $2.50/dozen.  He doesn't advertise, and I wish I lived closer to his farm.

This chicken was delicious.  I think the last time I had good chicken, other than two weeks ago at The Prune in Stratford (which uses local ingredients), was when I was a kid back in Poland, and we grew our own chickens among other edibles.  BTW, I never order chicken in restaurants, the reason I had it at The Prune was because it was part of the fixed menu.

I made it simply.  Cut up a carrot, used one leek (from the farm), a few bay leafs, and sprinkled a mixture of French inspired herbs: savory, thyme, basil, fennel, lavender (very small amount), some s&p.

I started cutting before remembering to take a photo, as it happens often.

This is the chicken neck.  It's hard to look proper when eating bony parts, but who cares, the neck is one of the best parts.  Any meat closest to bones is tastiest.  I mention that all the time.

This chicken (about $15) was enough for six proper meals, and I got about 50 ml of chicken fat.  I wouldn't advise rendering chicken fat from store bought poultry.  Fat contains a lot of toxins, and chances are store bought poultry has no shortage of toxins.

I can't wait to use this.  I wish I had more.  I'll have to decide what I will use it for, maybe a crust for a savoury tart, or to fry up chicken livers.  Mmmm, I'm salivating.

Meatloaf

This is my third week of no carbs for two consecutive days.  I should say it would have been my third week, if I didn't eat 2 slices of my cherry pie today.  That's all that was left over, and it sitting on the counter didn't bother me one bit yesterday, but today was one of those days.  I'm not surprised that I couldn't stick with this "diet", and this just proves that diets are stupid, even if only for two days per week.  Besides I wasn't really following the rules of leaner fats and watery vegetables, so instead of losing nine pounds, I lost one or two, but then on any given day I'm one or two pounds lighter or heavier.

Anyway, yesterday I made a meatloaf with corn.  Sometimes I use peas, carrots, mushrooms, fresh herbs, or a mix of vegetables.  I do this to make the meatloaf more interesting and colourful, but also for the extra serving of vegetables.

Making a meatloaf is easy.  I didn't get home until 16:30, and I had dinner made within the hour, including prep.  I used ground pork, with marjoram, because to me it's the ultimate meat herb, thyme, oregano, sea salt and ground black pepper, 10% cream, a real egg, and a bit of my home made jalapeño ciabatta bread crumbs.  I know those are carbs, but the diet actually allows up to 50g of carbs per day, besides it's over.

Mix it all together with your hand, place in a baking dish, or make mini loaves, or one log shaped loaf, have the oven set for 375 F and depending on how thick your meatloaf is, check after about 40 minutes.  I don't cover it with foil, because then it comes out looking anemic.

Yesterday I served it with broccoli and parmesan cheese.

 

As well as an Asian mix of vegetables, which I sautéed in sesame oil, with some pepper, very basic, but tasty.  I only used sesame oil, because I like the flavour it gives these veg.  The meat loaf has a Cajun spice sprinkled over top, so I kept the veg mild, with just a hint of sesame.  Sometimes I use spices to sprinkle on top in place of bacon strips.

Today I reheated the meatloaf in a frying pan with a bit of water and covered it with a lid.  The water creates a steam and prevents the loaf from burning.  It's very quick.  I don't own a microwave, one came with this house and we gave it away.  Reheating things on the stove or in the oven, or a toaster oven doesn't take as much time as people think it might.  Food always tastes better not microwaved.  I'm totally disgusted when I see people microwaving their coffee, especially when it's in a waxy take away cup.

The other day when I made stock, I had cooked celery, leeks, and parsley, which I remove before making the soup, I keep the carrots in, and make whatever soup.  I put the cooked celery, leeks, and parsley in the food processor, and pureed them all.  I hate wasting food, so I try to think of ways to use as much as I can, and waste as little as possible.

I made these green jalapeño breadcrumb covered balls, and fried them in coconut oil.  

The remaining green puree I just sautéed in coconut oil, with a bit of spices, to add a little kick, and to heat it up.

En Guete!  (Swiss German)