My Madison Bistro

When I saw this recipe for a one pot meal, I knew immediately I had to make it. Roasted chicken, sweet potatoes, carrots…add orange wedges and some interesting spices, and I suspected I had a fabulous new take on roasted chicken.

It wasn’t quite what I expected, but not necessarily in a bad way; it was simply more subdued. And when you think about it, a spice mixture rubbed onto chicken skin isn’t going to flavor much beyond the skin. Next time (and I definitely will be making this again), I will rub some of the spices under the skin, to pass more flavor onto the meat.

However, the spice mixture did lend a soft flavor the vegetables, which were downright delicious. Sure, it helps that I happen to love sweet potatoes and roasted carrots, but that doesn’t take away how great they pair with these spices. In fact, I would happily roast a pan full of sweet potatoes and carrots, tossed with a little olive oil and this spice combination.

If you’re looking for an easy, hands-off meal with pretty easy cleanup, look no further.

Continue reading “Spice Roasted Chicken”

Tags: Carrots, chicken, comfort food, everyday food, one pot meal, orange, sweet potatoes

When my brother and I were kids, we went through a phase where every night, we retreated to the basement to work on our paintings. Were we blessed with artistic talent?

Well, no. We worked on paint-by-number pictures. Before you laugh, allow me to explain why I’m telling this story now. Friday night, during my 4 hour icing project (yes, that’s right – 4 hours of work from the time I started making the royal icing to finishing the last cookie), I realized as I carefully spread wet icing into nooks and crannies with a toothpick that the method used to ice a sugar cookie with royal icing is very much the same as the method I used with paint-by-number pictures.

Have you ever looked at a paint-by-number before someone started to paint? And then looked at the brush that came in the box? I never used the brush. Instead, we both used toothpicks to paint those darn pictures. What can I say? Toothpicks allowed us, as kids, to produce decent looking pictures that are still displayed in our parents’ house. I think.

These cookies are my grown-up paint-by-number pictures, only, instead of painting someone else’s canvas, I design it myself. They’re not difficult designs by any means – I don’t have the artistic talent for that (remember, there’s a reason I did paint-by-number pictures).

Continue reading “Easter Egg Cookies with Royal Icing

Tags: royal icing, sugar cookies

I never miss a chance to make croutons out of a stale baguette. In this case, the remaining wand of bread was so hard I could have used it as a baseball bat. Fought off an intruder. You get the idea.

But, I was still able to cut slices of bread, which was all I needed in order to make these fantastic croutons. They are perfect for soup, as they will absorb enough liquid to make them pliable without turning them to mush. They add enough fat and protein to even a meatless soup, like my Roasted Tomato Soup, that it becomes a meal all on its own.

Continue reading “Parmesan Croutons”

Tags: bread

I love a good tomato soup.

I’ve had excellent tomato soup in restaurants, and okay organic soup from a can…but to me, canned soup always tastes like…the can.

I’ve been meaning to make a roasted tomato soup for…too long. I’ve made it before, but I don’t exaggerate when I say it’s been years. Years! Pretty sad, huh?

So how did I finally get inspired to make tomato soup again?

Continue reading “Roasted Tomato Soup”

Tags: Barefoot Contessa, comfort food, tomatoes