Roasted Chicken with Herb Butter & Root Vegetables

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any food images so… this Hen was tender and juicy.  It’s a super easy meal to make, and since it’s a one pan meal clean up is quick.

Serve it with a salad, and some good bread.

Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables and Herb Butter

Ingredients:

1 4-5 lb Hen-

1 bag baby carrots, or 2-3 whole carrots cut up

2-3 potatoes- cut up I used russet

3-4 cloves of garlic- I left mine whole w/skin on

1 onion cut into wedges

1 lemon cut into wedges

Rosemary, Sage, and Basil mince enough to make a mixture of 4-6 tablespoons.

3TBS Butter – room temperature

salt and pepper

Olive Oil- enough to lightly coat the vegetables

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Rinse and pat dry the Hen.  Salt and Pepper both the cavity and outer skin.

Next mince the rosemary, sage, and basil. In a small bowl add the minced herbs and butter. Mix with fork until well combined.

Cut lemon, and onion into wedges set aside.  Smear half the butter mixture into the cavity of the Hen.  With the remaining butter mixture rub some under the breast skin being careful not to tear the skin, and rub some on the outer skin of the Hen.

Add a wedge or two of lemon and onion into the cavity then truss the bird, or tie the legs and set aside.  My trussing is all wrong! And, I don’t know how to tuck the wings correctly either.  But, whatever works right. 🙂 

Clean and peel the carrots, potatoes, and garlic. Cut the carrots and potatoes into bite size pieces. Mince, chop, or leave the garlic cloves whole.  Put all the vegetables into a roasting pan.  Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables, salt and pepper lightly then mix until all the vegetables are lightly coated with the olive oil.

Place the Hen in the roasting pan then put it into the oven.

Roast uncovered for 20 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 400 degrees and cook for additional 40 minutes stirring the vegetables now and then.

A hen this size will take anywhere from 1 hour to 1h15m to cook. The internal temperature should be 165 degrees.

Rest for a few minutes then serve.  Option:  make gravy with the pan juices while the bird rests.

Are you hungry yet? 🙂

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| High ISO (1600) cause I hand-held it without additional lighting and I thought I could manage it sans a tripod| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

 

Wordless Wednesday 15/52 “Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –” Gerard Manley Hopkins

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring —

Nikon Df| Nikkor 105mm micro lens| Delkin Digital Film| PSCC 2017 & On1

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Yellow-rumped Warbler

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Peeking out to wish you all a happy day!

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Birders notes: This little bird is a “year round” bird in my area ; Santa Clara County, but I tend to see it more in the Spring and Fall.  I think they fly further north for their breeding season. They are quite busy and rarely stay still.  They require a lot of patience to get a photograph of one in my experience but, they’re so cute, and beautiful the wait is worth it. 🙂

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm|Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

 

 

Yellow: The color of sunshine and smiles

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

On the way down to Pismo Beach for our Anniversary week-end we took a side trip to Carrizo Plain National Monument where I had heard there was Spring Super Bloom happening. To give you a little sense of where the Carrizo Plain is located in California I’ve copied Wikipedia’s description for you. “The Carrizo Plain is a large enclosed grassland plain, approximately 50 miles long, and up to 15 miles across, in southeastern San Luis Obispo County California, about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles.” ~wikipedia.org

You could see from miles away great swatches of yellow and orange on the hill sides, and I was so excited to see fields of flowers.

Super Bloom Carrizo Plain Nat Monument

There were Coreopsis, Two-toned Tidy Tips, Goldfields which were mostly spent, Phacelia, and Baby Blue Eyes just to name some that I saw in abundance.

The field above was mostly Leafystem Coreopsis growing I think.  Here’s two more closer looks.

Coreopsis Wildflowers-Super Bloom 2017

Coreopsis- Super Bloom 2017

We hung around the Soda Lake area for a few hours, but I could have easily spent the whole day, but we also wanted to get to our final destination and be by the beach for sunset.

I hope you all have a wonderful week-end filled with smiles and laughter!

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm, Nikkor 20mm f/1.8g| Canon 500D close up Lens| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

 

 

Wordless Weds. 14/52 Super Bloom on the Carrizo Plain

©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Super Bloom Carrizo Plain

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC2017

More to come…

Sunset from the Balcony

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Copyright © 2017 Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

At the end of March He-Man and I had our 36th Wedding Anniversary, but we kept it pretty QT since it fell on a week-day. We were anticipating our get-away to Pismo Beach this past week-end (April 1st & 2nd) to celebrate us.

He-Man booked a room for us right on the cliffs with a balcony with a partial view of the ocean and pool area.   The image above is the sunset Saturday evening from our balcony on the 3rd floor.  I loved this view.

The hotel we stayed in is the Shore Cliff Hotel in room 315. When we opened the door and walked down the small hallway to the main sleeping area we were surprised and delighted to find the bed covered in rose pedals (faux) and a tray loaded with two wine glasses, a pair of Swans made from Towels (towel art), a bottle of Sparkling Cider, and a card wishing us a Happy Anniversary!  Isn’t that lovely!

Shore Cliff Hotel Rm 315 Anniversary Week-end

The swans towel art and rose pedal theme was even in the bathroom.  It had double sinks- I loved that! I wish my own bathroom had room for double sinks, but really don’t want one more sink to clean. 🙂

Shore Cliff Hotel Bathroom Rm 315

I’ll show you the little kitchen area, and entertainment areas of the room too.

Rm315 Shore Cliff Hotel Pismo Beach

Entertainment Center Rm 315 Shore Cliff Hotel

The view from our balcony; late afternoon

View from Balcony of Rm 315

and a welcome party of one came to our room shortly after our arrival.  He flew up to the balcony and stayed for awhile then he flew down for a swim and bath in the pool after leaving our balcony. (I’m saying he but don’t know for sure.)   🙂

Seagull balcony Rm 315 Shore Cliff Hotel

I think that might be the Mrs. watching to make sure he gets behind his wings.  🙂

Seagull in Pool Shore Cliff Hotel_IMG_6672

We went to dinner next door where I found a great door which I’m saving for a future Thursday Doors post.

We had a lovely week-end, and enjoyed our stay at Shore Cliff Hotel and love this part of California’s coastline.

Top image: Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| Delkin Digital Film|

Hotel Images: iPhone 7 Plus

All developed in PS CC 2017

I’m behind on emails and blogs again. I hope to catch up this week!

More to come…

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