Sunday Night the 68th Annual Golden Globes were on television. Joe and I, in our concentrated effort to see movies with Oscar buzz, inadvertently saw most of all the Golden Globe nominated movies as well. So, to wrap up our great week, date night and wind down in "style" {such a loose term around here}, we celebrated with a gold themed evening.
We had golden spider mums, a golden bottle of wine from the wine refrigerator (I promise this happened to be in there and not bought for the theme!), Golden Globe Cookies, Golden Roasted Chicken and Golden Baked Fontina Cheese as an appetizer with our wine. We had a great time cooking, talking, drinking our wine, and taking the pictures for the blog. This was a team effort and Joe is definitely a contributing writer and editor for this post! Here are the pictures and recipes which we both highly recommend. Yum!
Golden Roasted Chicken RecipeWe had golden spider mums, a golden bottle of wine from the wine refrigerator (I promise this happened to be in there and not bought for the theme!), Golden Globe Cookies, Golden Roasted Chicken and Golden Baked Fontina Cheese as an appetizer with our wine. We had a great time cooking, talking, drinking our wine, and taking the pictures for the blog. This was a team effort and Joe is definitely a contributing writer and editor for this post! Here are the pictures and recipes which we both highly recommend. Yum!
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| Ingredients: 1 5- to 6-pound chicken Kosher salt Ground pepper Fresh thyme Fresh rosemary Fresh sage 1 head garlic, cut in half 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) 1 sweet onion, thickly sliced 2 lemons |
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| Moral Support and Taste Tester: Bear |
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| Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Scatter the onion slices in a roasting pan and place the chicken on top. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with 4 tablespoons butter, thyme, rosemary sage, garlic and 1 lemon (cut in quarters). Rub 1 tablespoon of butter on the outside of the chicken and then sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and pour over onions. Cut the other lemon into thin slices and place on top of onions. Roast the chicken for 1 hour, 15 minutes, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken to a platter and slice immediately. Serve with the onions. |
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| Golden Roasted Chicken: DELICIOUS! |
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| Gold Spider Mums from the grocery store and a nicely packaged bottle of wine that I had on hand because I love it!! Makes for a great way to set the tone for the evening! |
from my favorite cook Ina Garten
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| How Easy Is That? Cookbook by Ina Garten |
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| Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds Fontina Cheese, rind removed and cut into 1 inch cubes 1/4 cup good olive oil 6 garlic cloves, thinkly sliced 1 tablespoon fresh thyme 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 crusty French baguette to dip into the golden mixture |
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| This took less than 5 minutes to assemble and throw into the cast iron pan |
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| Golden Heaven in 6 minutes! |
Throw the cubes of Fontina evenly around the cast-iron pan (Ina suggests a 12 inch pan, no idea what mine is but that looks about right to me). Drizzle the oil on the cheese, distribute the other ingredients evenly on top of the cheese and oil. Sprinkle your salt and pepper next, place under the broiler for 6 minutes, until the cheese is melted, yummy, browning or in my case...golden!
Joe and I ate it, as suggested by the Barefoot Contessa,gathered around the pan with our baguettes ready and wine in hand while watching bits of the Red Carpet show.
Golden Globe Cookies
original recipe by Rebecca Rather
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| The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather's Pretty-in-Pink Shortbread Pig Recipe |
I have made these cookies a million times in a million different shapes. I got the idea to just make plain ol' round cookies with gold icing simply because it fit the theme and I have never made the cookies yellow before. The original recipe is called Pretty-in-Pink Shortbread Pigs. I have made pink pram cookies for showers and welcome-baby hospital visits, blue prams, butterflies, dragonflies, and all sorts of shapes. I wanted to get a really simple and classic shortbread recipe under my belt that was versatile for my children. I hope in many, many years after many holidays, parties, and worn cookie cutters, my lambs and baby bear can look back at this recipe and fondly call them "my favorite cookie my momma makes" in retrospect of their childhood. They are delicious and adorable. Be as creative as you want or plain looks pretty darn good to me too.
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| Ingredients for the Shortbread: 4 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 2 tablespoons vanilla extract 4 cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder |
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| Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a mixture with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium-high speed until fluffy. And the vanilla and beat until just combined. |
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| In a separate bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. |
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| Add the flour mixture slowly to your butter mixture on a low speed (if you don't, well, then flour goes everywhere!). STOP beating as soon as your flour mixture is incorporated. If you over beat your dough, your cookies will be tough instead of light and flaky. |
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| Form the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling it out. |
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| Flour your surface (I use wax paper to cover the counters because I hate the mess), roll the chilled ball down until 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out with cookie cutter of your choice and use a spatula to transfer to your parchment paper lined cookie sheet. You can re-roll your dough to cut out more cookies. The recipe warns not to roll out more than twice total because it will make a tough cookie. I have never followed this advice and have never turned down these cookies but consider yourself warned! |
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| Round cookie cutter for the golden globe themed evening. The spatula is the only way I have gotten these little gems off the paper without breaking them or ruining the shape. {I flour my spatula and my cookie cutter too.} Bake for 10-12 minutes until light brown/golden around the edges. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for about 10 more minutes. Remove with another {clean} spatula and cool completely on racks. Ice as desired! |
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| Powdered Sugar Icing: 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted 1/4 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract (optional) food coloring *I have made this icing a million times. Tips to NOT SKIP if you want perfectly iced cookies. Use whole milk {you are not making diet cookies}. Use the almond extract, it makes the cookie a little more special than the vanilla extract. I also add 2 tablespoons of melted butter to thicken up the glaze. Whisk all ingredients together and then let the icing begin. You can either dip the cookie into the mixture (this sometimes works but sometimes gets crumbs in your bowl) or get a spoon and swirl until your little heart is content! |
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| I liked the plain golden globe cookie look. These are addictive, light {flaky light but probably not too low-cal!}, and delicious. Enjoy and let me know what shapes you make. |
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| Joe preferred the decorated version with GG for Golden Globes on it. Either way...still tastes great! |
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