Mustard Glazed Chicken Thighs and Sweet & Savory Potatoes

For the safety of myself, my husband, the cats, and all of Los Angeles, it's best if I keep cooking as simple as possible. Not only will I not accidentally blow us up, there's also a good chance I won't have an(other) emotional breakdown about being a culinary failure.

I have Perfectionist issues.

Fortunately, Practical Paleo takes into account that even though some of us want to be healthy, some of us should also spend as little time in the kitchen as possible.  And since I'm a Chicken Whisperer, these mustard glazed chicken thighs just. made. sense.

Since I apparently shop in The Twilight Zone, the grocer didn't have bone-in/skin-on thighs so I settled for meat only chicken thighs. If you also shop in another dimension, shorten the cooking time and keep an eye (maybe two) on the meat.

Living dangerously, I decided to cook sweet & savory potatoes as a side dish:

It's a good thing these are delicious since I ate them for the next 3 days.

The mustard glaze would also go great on white fish, pork, and a whole roasting chicken, plus you can experiment with various mustards to change the flavor while the sweet potatoes-- since they require cinnamon-- would be great with breakfast or dinner. Diversity is key, my friends.

Seriously, one of the best dishes I've made.

Mustard Glazed Chicken Thighs

12 bone in/skin on chicken thighs*

1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil

2 Tbsp gluten-free mustard (or reg if you don't have a preference)

Black pepper to taste

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp dried sage

Preheat ove to 425 degrees.

In a small mixing bowl, combine melted butter, mustard, black pepper, sage, and salt. Place thighs on a baking sheet or oven safe dish, and brush the mixture evenly over each one. 

Bake for 45 minutes or until a thermometer reads 165 degrees when inserted into the center of the chicken thighs.

*You can also use bone-in/skin-on chicken breasts

Sweet & Savory Potatoes

2 large sweet potatoes

1 tsp duck or bacon fat, melted, or coconut oil (I used coconut oil)

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Peel the sweet potatoes and chop them into 1 inch pieces. In a medium sized mixing bowl, toss the sweet potato pieces with your fat of choice, coating them evenly.

In a small mixing bowl, combine spices. Add spice blend to the sweet potatoes and toss again to spread spices evenly. Place potatoes evenly on baking sheet and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

Long Weekend

While I'm sure you've all been missing me to no end and your lives have completely stopped awaiting my next post, I assure you my absence wasn't intentional. I'd hoped to squeeze a few blogs into this past weekend, as well as clean, write, job hunt, exercise, grocery shop, and take down the Christmas decorations (in this household Christmas lasts until February).

None of that happened this weekend.

Instead, little Cooper got sick and had to spend Saturday and Sunday in the hospital.

Can you blame me for being a wreck until Sunday night?!

Let me explain what happened... 

Friday went along like every other day, but I started to notice Cooper licking his crotch every five minutes. The only reason it stood out is that Michael and I will make jokes when the cats plop down in front of us and start cleaning their balls.

Since I'm home A LOT (ah unemployment), Niko and Cooper's behaviors are more pronounced so I know when something is wrong. Not sure if it was just my imagination, I paid close attention to his litter box habits: he was going much more frequently than normal.

In male cats, that's a good indication of Urine Crystals.

Before you express your amazement at my vast knowledge of animal behaviors and veterinary diagnosis, you should know that.... Niko had them 2 years ago. Everything else is observation and guess work. Concerned, I checked Cooper's backside and a few drops of urine came out. In fact, every time he sat to clean himself, urine dribbled on whatever surface he chose to do that act at the time. So I was observing his urinary habits, cleaning up urine, and watching Cooper become more withdrawn and unable to eat & drink-- ALL NIGHT.

Urine crystals can occur in both males and females, but become a problem in male cats because of their anatomy: the urethra is so tiny that it blocks easily when a boy cat develops crystals and/or stones in their bladder. If a block goes unchecked, the bladder will fill with urine, the kidneys will shut down (so as not to produce anymore urine), and in worst case scenarios the bladder will burst.  Fortunately we caught this quickly enough before the last two issues could happen.

Telltale signs include:

• Blood in the urine-- usually quite a lot of blood (Niko had that)
• Cleaning the crotch area frequently
• Frequent trips to the bathroom
• Stops eating & drinking
• Little to no urine comes out
• Urinating outside the litter box (which is usually your cat's way of trying to signal something is wrong)

Other than the blood, everything else happened to Cooper. Our vet didn't open until 8am Saturday and I didn't feel Cooper needed to be rushed to the ER since Niko's experience hadn't been life threatening. However, as the early morning hours progressed, less and less urine was coming out meaning the block was getting stronger.

Note to pet owners: If your animal is getting little to no urine out, IT IS AN EMERGENCY.

Arriving at the vet without an appointment, I thought I'd step on some toes, maybe even need to leave and come back, but they immediately sent an assistant out to examine Cooper. The vet returned moments later to express his concern that Cooper's bladder was indeed large, hard, and he needed to have the urine removed. He was also concerned Cooper is an early and chronic blocker.

Causes of Urine Crystals include:

• High levels of magnesium in cat food, especially dry (as told to me by Niko's former vet)
• Chronic Inflammatory Disease in some male cats
• High pH levels in urine

And so I waited while they did tests: blood, urine culture (still waiting on those results), and an ultrasound. They gave Cooper a shot of pain meds that lasts for 3 days (why don't people have those?!) because UCs are not only uncomfortable but downright painful. The vet was hoping Cooper would relax enough and pee on his own-- unfortunately he didn't. Therefore, he was sedated and a catheter was inserted to flush everything out, and they added an IV for good measure.

Because our vet isn't open Sundays, we had to then drive Cooper to the overnight emergency animal hospital in Eagle Rock Saturday afternoon and leave him until the doctors were confident Cooper could urinate on his own. Don't misunderstand-- I'm glad Cooper had somewhere to go for 24 hour care-- but it was damned inconvenient since our animal hospital is across the street! :)

At this point I was BEYOND exhausted-- I hadn't slept since Friday morning-- overwhelmed with the expense, annoyed the doctors kept leaving me alone to let me decide if the care Cooper required is something I wanted to pay for (the alternative being we euthanize him-- she types with tears in her eyes and a knot in her stomach), and I was scared for Cooper.

You see, the extreme of the chronic inflammatory disease is medication for the rest of Cooper's life and a surgery to have the penis removed (YIKES!). This wasn't something I was sure we could afford: would we need to give him up? could we sign up for a payment plan? would I need to call all of my family and friends for donations? would we really need to put him down? Ugly thoughts, I know, but I want to be honest with you. Those questions raced through my tired brain for a brief moment.

Then I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and decided not to worry about issues out of my control. We would cross those metaphorical bridges when we got to them. At that point everything was in God's hands and the only thing I could do was trust Him, the professionals, and go to sleep.

Thirteen hours later I awoke Sunday morning but had to wait until after 4pm for news of Cooper. I distracted myself with video games, updating family on Cooper's status, and grabbing some food. At 8pm Sunday evening I raced (within speed limits of course) over to the hospital to my two year old fur baby. His crotch was shaved, he had a purple bandage and bloody fur where the IV was taken out, and his stomach smelled of urine, but none of that mattered: Cooper was HOME.

Currently, both Niko and Cooper are sleeping. Niko has stopped hissing at his brother: in a multi-cat household, if one returns from the vet, the other(s) will be a bit snippy as the sick cat will smell like an animal hospital. So far, it appears Cooper does NOT have a chronic urine crystal problem (Hallelujah!) but I'll know full test results tomorrow.

Things still need to change, though. According to my vet, Blue Buffalo dry cat food (what our cats were eating) has a reputation of causing crystals because it raises the pH levels of urine. He recommended an all wet food (or mostly wet food) diet for the cats either with the prescription Science Diet cans or a brand we know and trust. FYI: Purina is the WORST.

Fortunately Niko and Cooper love Tiki Cat and Weruva brands so we'll be starting them off on preservative free wet food manufactured at human food standards-- literally, I could eat this food. I still want to incorporate a dry food and had friends recommend the grain-free Taste of the Wild or Orijen. There is also the raw food option-- which I love-- but I'm not sure it's in the budget just yet. These other brands aren't cheap by any means, but still a bit easier to stretch than the raw food brands.

So that's my Tale of the Long Weekend. Having animal companions requires expense, commitment, and sacrifice, but when you're lying in bed with the warmth of two furry little bodies curled up on your legs and they greet you in the morning demanding food and attention, it's all worth it.




Have you experienced serious medical issues with your animals? Are you a holistic pet owner? Any healthy cat food recommendations?

Cumin Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Veggies

I never know what to do with coriander-- it's not a common spice in every day cooking (for me, anyway). When I tried an Indian recipe several months ago, I had to purchase a bottle of it, so ever since then I keep my eyes open for more ways to use it.

By chance, I opened my paleo cookbook simply to find a pork tenderloin baking time and stumbled upon this recipe. Weirdly, I had all the ingredients excluding the parsnips for which I substituted another root vegetable: carrots. Isn't it colorful?!

While this is technically a paleo recipe, it's just good no matter what health regime you follow (provided you eat meat). And even with chopping the veggies, it's pretty quick to throw together.

Cumin Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Veggies

2 onions, sliced

4 carrots, cut into sticks

1/4 cup pomegranate seeds

1 large orange, peeled & segmented

2 garlic cloves, smashed

2 pork tenderloins

2 Tbsp bacon fat (or other cooking fat-- I used butter)

1 Tbsp cumin

1 Tbsp coriander

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp sea salt
Black Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small mixing bowl combine cumin, coriander, garlic power, salt, and pepper. Using paper towels, pat down the tenderloins 'til dry and apply spice blend generously to create a crust. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and sear pork on all sides for about 2 minutes per side.

Place vegetables and fruit on the bottom of a large roasting dish, topped with the tenderloins. Roast for 30-40 minutes or until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 145 degrees. If you need to continue to roast the produce until they are soft, remove the pork and roast for another 10-15 minutes until soft.

Slice on the bias and serve over the veggies.

Buttery Lemon Rosemary Salmon

According to a lot of people with far more extensive knowledge about these things than myself, seafood is good for you. White fish is fine, but the really nutritious kinds are the big ones like swordfish, tuna, and salmon. The catch-22 in a nation of mass produced goods is that the frozen bulk bags and even some of what's found in the "fresh" seafood case at large grocery stores (excluding Whole Foods, of course) are fish from FARMS. 

That's bad.

Besides being raised and "living" in an unnatural environment from normal fish development, the colorful ones, salmon especially, are DYED pink because the improper growth has greyed their meat. And the FDA says that's okay. Gross. 

So when buying fish-- and I know it's not cheap-- go for wild caught.  

 

Our little local grocer had a nice shipment of salmon a couple weeks ago. They had already cut filets OR you could get salmon (and sturgeon) steaks cut to your preferred size.

That's right: there was a giant salmon body in the case ready for "steaking."  How awesome is that?!  They also have beef feet and sheeps heads-- it's trippy.  So for 10 bucks I got the 2 beautiful filets you see above (did I mention buying local is a heck of a lot cheaper?!).

The recipe comes from Practical Paleo-- a must have for anyone looking into this lifestyle-- and so far everything from that book has been phenomenal.

The original recipe calls for broiling on a low broil setting, but since I can't use my broiler (gotta love luxury apartment living!!!) I baked the salmon at 500 degrees for 10-12 minutes.... or cook it to your liking.... do whatever you want, okay! See if I care! 

I also used grass-fed butter (Kerry Gold brand) but you can use regular as well. No pressure. I paired my delightful meal with a loose leaf Yunnan Golden Pu-reh black tea from Teavana. Black tea is great for circulation, your blood, and heart. It was heavenly.

A side of fresh salad and strawberries completed the meal.  Needless to say, it was completely filling, Michael was a happy camper, and it was one of the easiest meals to put together.  Next time you decide to splurge on seafood, try the salmon.

Buttery Lemon Rosemary Salmon

Ingredients

1 lb wild salmon, either whole or in however many portions you need

2 Tbsp butter, ghee, or coconut oil

1 lemon, 1/2 is for juice and the other half is thinly sliced

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp rosemary

Preheat oven to 500 degrees OR low broil setting

In a small bowl, combine rosemary and sea salt. Set aside. Place thinly sliced pats of butter in a baking dish, or spread ghee or coconut oil over the bottom of the dish. Place salmon in the dish and squeeze fresh lemon juice over the filets. Sprinkle with rosemary-salt mixture. Add more pats of butter to the salmon and top with thin slices of lemon.

Bake or broil for 10-12 minutes until prepared to your liking.

Baked (or Roasted) Chicken

According to cooking experts-- also known as "chefs"-- the true "tell" of a great cook is how well they roast a chicken.  Seriously... I read that somewhere. It's not as simple a task as it sounds-- trust me. Are the white AND dark meats moist but not undercooked? Is the skin crispy with a light brown tint?! Did you use the correct seasonings in the correct amounts?!?!

Lucky for you, I'm a Chicken Whisperer.

Growing up, I ate baked chicken A LOT.  Both of my parents worked at our church-- my dad as the choir director and my mom as the accompanist-- so during the school year, Wednesdays consisted of school, homework, children's choir, home for dinner, back to church to do homework while my parents rehearsed Senior Choir, then home to bed. When I entered junior high, children's choir ended just in time for youth group and 2 years of Confirmation.... yay. Then I matured to high school and joined adult handbells, Senior Choir, and directed the Children's Chime Choir for three years (OMG guys, are you impressed?!?!).

Like I said, we ate baked chicken a lot, especially on Wednesdays.

While I love my mother deeply-- I think it's safe to say we're besties-- her chicken was D-R-Y.  Don't worry guys, I'd never tell you anything about her I couldn't say to her face (and in this case already have-- love you Mom!). My scarred childhood of dry chicken left my badass adult self with two major life choices: never bake chicken again or bake the best damn chicken this side of the Mississippi! 

So here we are today: you wondering why I droned on about a lame chicken story and me about to share my secrets to great chicken.

The photos I have for you are an example of Baked Chicken, but I also use a roasting pan when I'm feeling saucy.

For this guy, I used my Pampered Chef Stoneware Deep Covered Baker. It's a great kitchen piece, and you can even cook a whole chicken in ten minutes using your microwave, but for the best results, take your time. 

There was plenty of room as the chicken was only 2 pounds, so I threw in veggies to take care of a side dish. Doesn't he look cozy? 

You might be wondering what's sticking out of the cavity or what spices I've used-- an excellent question. I first begin the process by crushing a glove of garlic and rubbing it all over the skin (top AND bottom). Then I surround the chicken with veggies and squeeze fresh lemon juice over everything (don't forget to get some underneath). After the lemon, I rub the chicken in quality olive oil and sprinkle a bit more over the vegetables. Place a couple garlic cloves, an onion wedge, and a lemon piece inside the cavity for moisture. You can also use apple pieces.

The best thing about poultry is the meat's flavor adaptability-- try various kinds of spice combinations until you find one you love.  If you're ever stumped, refer back to Simon & Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair.

Just add a salad and voila: a beautiful paleo meal!  It's easy, low maintenance, and utterly satisfying. Be sure to save the bones to make broth.  I hope you give this recipe a try-- it's perfect for dinner parties!

If you're also a Chicken Whisperer and have your own signature chicken recipe, send it my way-- I love to try new recipes! 

Baked Chicken

Serves 2-4 people

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, 2-2.5 pounds

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 lemon, cut into 2 wedges

1-2 Tbsp olive oil (or melted coconut oil) plus a little extra

1/2 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dried rosemary

2 tsp parsley

Salt & Pepper to taste

2 carrots, cut into 2 inch sticks

1 yellow onion, cut into 6-8 wedges

Directions

Rub chicken with garlic, place in Deep Covered Baker (a Dutch oven or deep casserole dish will work), and surround with onions and carrots.  Squeeze juice from 1 lemon wedge over chicken and veggies, then rub the chicken all over with olive oil, sprinkling the veggies with some as well.  Sprinkle the chicken with spices.

As I said above: "Place a couple garlic cloves, an onion wedge, and a lemon piece inside the cavity for moisture. You can also use apple pieces."

After baking your chicken covered for an hour at 375 degrees (for a 2-2.5lb bird, you can find a chart of times & weights here), remove lid and put the baker back in the over for another ten minutes to crisp the skin. If your veggies are still underdone, remove the chicken and let them cook another 10 to 15 minutes until fork tender. (The temperature of the meat should be at 165 degrees)

Carve, serve, enjoy!

Hodge Podge Tips

• If you like using PSRT, feel free to alter the amounts to your taste. 
• You can use whatever sturdy roasting vegetables you want. I'd recommend any root vegetables cut up similarly to the carrots so they cook, or you can toss in brussels sprouts, potato wedges (if not doing Paleo), broccoli, cauliflower, etc.

Ordinary Magic: A Book Review

Like I've said in the past: I'm a sucker for a beautiful book cover. So when I came across this baby in Barnes & Noble--

I shouted "COLOR!" in my head and promptly plucked it from the shelf to read a couple chapters.

I was hooked.

Ordinary Magic, extraordinarily dreamed up and written by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, introduces readers to a world where magic is the norm-- everyone has it, uses it, lives with it. Except "Ords."  Ords  are, for those of us who are Harry Potter fans, Squibs: non-magical people born from magic folk.  However, unlike in the world of J.K. Rowling, ords become "its," less than human, looked at by people as expendable, the shame of one's family, nameless things to be bought and sold into servitude (even though King Steve made ord slavery illegal) or simply forgotten.

However, having no magic also means that ords are IMMUNE to magic, making them valuable to "adventurers"-- men and women in search of treasures or relics or monsters to kill. Ords can bypass magical traps, spells, whatever, but are unable to benefit from magical healing and being saved if they fall off a cliff. Bummer.

On page one we meet Abby Hale, the youngest of five children born to a magical baker (or bake-ess, if you will) and flying carpet maker (that's how they travel-- awesome!). Abby is on her way to the Judging, a ceremony for 12 year olds to have their magic level evaluated for school.... I think you see where this is going.

Abby, it turns out, is completely devoid of any magic and one hundred percent "ordinary." At this point, society expects Abby's family to cast her out, sell her to the local Guild, or auction her to traveling adventurers. Instead, the Hales are a loving, tight-knit family who will do everything in their power to protect their daughter. Fortunately, Abby's eldest sister, Alexa-- a bada** witch-- runs a private school for ords in the city of Rothermere, where she can be educated on self-defense, survival, history, math, literature, and how to wash dishes. She meets friends along the way, runs into a couple sketchy adventurers, and has to learn a new way of life.

Ordinary Magic has a well-paced story with dimensional characters and heart-warming relationships, creating a world to which I'm excited to return.  It's for anyone who loves fantasy, YA novels, a great story, and especially Harry Potter fans who are always on the hunt for another book to read after finishing that series. While the story centers around these ordinary children, the magical world is charming and open for even further development in future books.

I absolutely loved this book! Abby is a wonderful, witty girl with spunk, honesty, and a big heart; she's not perfect though: I found myself appropriately frustrated at her naivety and handling of certain situations.... but she's 12! Not only do I love and relate to Abby, but I also connected to the community surrounding our main character. The teachers, especially Becky, have mysterious backstories I'm still waiting to discover, and I'm interested to see how her friends Fran, Peter, and Fred develop.  Oh and I love King Steve. He's just awesome.

Rich themes and an engaging story and characters left me wanting more, more, MORE! I was sad to leave Abby's world, wanting so much to continue my ordinary journey.



Rating: 5 out of 5 Eye of Newts
A big "thank you" to Goodreads for the picture.

A Visit With Grandma

I realize New Years Day happened... you know... January 1st, but I was busy with a couple projects and therefore (big time) slacking at updating the HPG. So I'm going to reflect on entering 2013 and visiting with my grandma on the first and you can't stop me! (not that you would or anything, I just wanted to create drama)

Though we'd spoken a few months ago after her shoulder surgery, Grandma and I hadn't seen each other since September 2011-- we were overdue for a visit, no?  As luck would have it, the group with whom she regularly travels had planned an excursion to the Rose Bowl Parade with stops in Catalina Island and Los Angeles. 

Hey! That's where I live!

So I drove down to Commerce, CA where she was staying, got lost for 30 minutes after exiting the highway, but still managed to pick up Grandma and her roommate for an afternoon of chatting and showing off our 'hood.  Fortunately my grandma has been to and through LA a few times so she preferred to visit rather than have me play "tour guide" (thank God).  

On our walk through the complex-- where many a picture of trees were taken-- I found these pretty pink flowers had fallen from their tree/bush/home plant. I don't do nature, let alone garden, but Grandma, on the other hand, has a friggin' waterfall that trickles into a koi pond and is surrounded by green stuff-- to say that she likes plants would be an understatement.  Anyway, Grandma insisted I float them in a crystal bowl since that's what you apparently do with flowers dammit! 

(I would like to clarify that the "dammit" is a reflection of my crass mouth and never uttered by my dear sweet grandmother.)

......You've probably noticed that bowl is NOT crystal. In fact, it's a ceramic cereal bowl from Crate & Barrel (let's hear it for wedding gifts!). Not to worry, Grandma said it would do.

Like we do with all our visitors, we took Grandma and Linda (her travel roommate) to the Americana for a paid-for-by-Grandma-because-she-insisted-and-is-awesome dinner at Granville Cafe. 

I heart this pic. 

Being blessed with seeing family on the First of the Year was a wonderful way to begin 2013. I grew up with a close extended family and therefore a close bond with my grandma. She attended every birthday, holiday, band and choir concerts, graduations, spent many summers at her vacation house in Door County, Wisconsin, and even traveled to Canada on a chorus trip with the family. Not to mention her world traveling has inspired all of her grandkids to get out and experience culture.

You read that right: "WORLD traveling." Grandma has visited all seven continents-- Antarctica was just a few years ago-- most multiple times and her 79 year old awesome self has five more trips planned for this year before her second shoulder surgery, as well as a couple lined up already for 2014. Is she a role model or what?! She uses laughter, love, and family to go through life, not really a surprise considering she's the daughter of Great Grandma Young.

Seeing Grandma, hearing about her travels and future plans was the final push I needed to turn my life around. I want to have children, grandchildren, and, God willing, great grandchildren. I want to know them as adults, I want to have the energy to keep up with everyone, and I want to remain independent. How's that for a resolution?