My blogging family: Engineer and an Oven

The holidays are all about family and having been a food blogger for almost three years now, I feel part of a lovely family here in the blogosphere. Sometimes I've met the people in real life, sometimes not, but meeting new people and the sense of community are some of the best things about blogging, in my opinion. One blogger who does quite a bit to make this happen is Kristen from Dine and Dish. Her program adopt-a-blogger (which is now running all the time -- so go check it out!) has introduced me to lots of wonderful people. After being adopted by Psychgrad and Giz at Equal Opportunity Kitchen, I went on to become a big adult blog and adopt in my turn Nic from Lemon and Cheese and Julie from A Little Bit of Everything, all wonderful experiences.

Caroline's Quick Mix Spritz Cookies

And now... I'd like to introduce the newest adopted member of my blogging family: Caroline from Engineer and an Oven. Caroline is a civil engineer who lives in Chicago where she cooks up a storm (just take a list at her Christmas cookie list. It's seriously impressive) and she tells good stories to boot. Do you have any camera advice? A kickass recipe for Osso Bucco? Some family stories you'd like to share? Feel free to comment with your insight and encouragements for Caroline!

Note: this interview was a lot longer, but I had to cut it down so I could fit in some pictures and you could read it in one sitting. I hope Caroline will forgive me! For more of her stories, read her blog!

Do any of your parents or grandparents cook or did someone particular inspire you?

It is difficult for me to talk about my relationship between food and me without divulging my entire life story. Just like a specific song can take you back to the first time you heard it, certain foods trigger very specific memories of my childhood and my family.

The Ultimate Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Growing up on the East Coast, one of the biggest treats of the summer was getting a bushel of Maryland Blue Crabs, some pre-made dinner rolls and boiling up some sweet corn. We would sit down at a newspaper-lined table for hours picking crabs, talking, and just enjoying the luxury of being able to relax and enjoy the company around the table.

I think family is what transforms ‘food’ into a ‘meal.’ I started cooking because as I got older and moved away from home, it was a way to make my own family feel closer, and make where I was living at the time feel more like home. Now that I’m married and have a home of my own, I am looking forward to starting new food traditions, as well as maintaining some of the ones I so fondly remember as a child.

What do you like about blogging?

I like being able to catalog my progress and share some of my creati ons (like my Hokie Cut-out cookies [see below]). I love when I get comments on my blog (or in person) that someone has tried a recipe I’ve posted and enjoyed it. The idea that someone stepped slightly out of their comfort zone or tried something new just because they saw it and thought it sounded appetizing is one of the greatest feelings. I’m still new to the game, but the community is so warm and welcoming; how can you not enjoy being a part of that?

Hokie Cut-Out Cookies (aka where Caroline uses her mad engineering skills for baking)

What do you find challenging about blogging?

As an engineer, my math skills are used much more than my English skills and it is sometimes difficult for me to articulate posts in an interesting, non-rambling way. I constantly push myself to try new things. It pains me to write about kitchen disasters or dishes that just don’t live up to the hype – but I want to be realistic. Not every dish can be a masterpiece. Being a true engineer/math nerd, I love the quote from Thomas Edison - “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” And believe me, with my chicken pot pie, I’m well on my way.

The other challenging part is the photography. I rarely can get a shot of anything I make in natural light, so I have to rely on the flash of my little P&S camera. I am looking into getting a DSLR camera in the not-too-distant future, so hopefully that will help, but any advice is greatly appreciated!

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

What is your favorite kind of food and/or favorite restaurant?

Well, I may be slightly biased, but I adore Thai food. I love how spicy, sweet, sour and salty flavors are artfully balanced in their curry sauces. As for a favorite restaurant,I’m really into a place called Roy’s - a hawaiian-asian fusion restaurant. It is a chain, but not in your typical Chili’s, Applebee’s or T.G.I. Friday’s kind of way. Many of the entrees there change depending on what the head cook has available to him/her at the time. I admire when people can make an amazing meal out of things that they have in front of them.

Roasted Butternut Squash Seeds

A favorite person/group to cook for?

Cooking for my husband is always a highlight, for sure, because he is always appreciative of the effort I put into a meal, whether it is something special for a date night, or something easier for our “pasta Tuesday” or just typical work night dinner. I also love cooking for a crowd, because I can try new recipes, and make lots of food. I have always found it easier for me to make a ton of food, especially if I’m going to end up with a dirty kitchen anyway. Might as well make the cleanup worth it, right?

Wild Mushroom Tartlettes

What’s the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?

Thanks to my mom, who was a huge advocate of the phrase “how do you know you don’t like it if you won’t try it!?,” I will try pretty much anything once. When we were in Thailand, that meant eating things like fish stomach, pig intestine, jellyfish, shark fin and durian fruit. If you don’t know what durian is, at its best, the smell and flavor is like sweet custard; at its worst, it’s like sucking on a dirty, sweaty gym sock.

What’s one dish that you’ve never cooked that you want to try?

I would love to try making Osso Bucco. I have seen many recipes for it, but I want to find the one that I could make that would taste like I had channeled someone’s Italian grandmother.

Quilt Cookies

Do you have any passions besides cooking?

Besides cooking, I love eating, of course, but I also really enjoy sewing and being crafty in general. On some of my earlier blog posts, I showcased a series of quilted sugar cookies that I made, and that was truly a combination of two passions. I do some embroidery, some knitting, sewing and quilting. I also really enjoy movies and music. I am that person that if I have good song or CD blasting on the stereo, I will be dancing and singing in the kitchen while baking or cooking. That’s a fun afternoon in my book!

Pot-au-feu or how I can't speak English anymore

(A warning to my vegetarian friends: very meaty photos to follow!)


The longer I live in France, the more trouble I'm going to have writing this blog in English. See, I moved to France right after college, which is when you really start to learn how to do things on your own. Cooking, of course, but also keeping the house clean (instead of just straitening up your room), choosing paint colors, furniture, fixing things that break (or calling the repairman), paying bills, filing pay slips, doing your taxes, etc. All that stuff I learned to do in French and some of it has specific vocabulary that I don't know in English. For example: where do you bring things that are too big for the trash? Is there a word for them? Here they're called les encombrants and you can call the city hall of your arrondissment in Paris, and schedule a pick-up in front of your building on a specific day.

What does that have to do with cooking? Well, yesterday I was complaining to the mom of one of the girls I babysit for that I had a fridge drawer full of root vegetables that was getting out of control: carrots, leeks, turnips, parsnips, potatoes, cabbage (okay, not a root vegetable, but you get the point). She said, "all you need is some meat and you have a pot-au-feu." I'm lucky because this is one of those recipes that everybody's French mother makes and thanks to babysitting, I now have two French mothers who teach me those kinds of things.


Anyway, she told me how much meat to buy and what kind and she suggested buying an os à la moelle to put in. I'd never bought any such thing (I'm a wuss at the butcher's), and so I can't tell you the name in English. All I can say is that it's bone with the marrow in it and the marrow gets all soft and flavorful when cooked in a pot-au-feu.


The French are extremely good at winter food and pot-au-feu is no exception. It's warming, hearty and uses more seasonal vegetables than you would know what to do with otherwise. Traditionally the broth is served as a first course, sometimes with noodles. Then the meat and vegetables are served in a large platter. If you don't want to separate them, you can also serve it in bowls as a sort of French beef stew (don't let any French people know I said to though). Or you can reserve the broth for another soup. Or all of the above. Pot-au-feu is also very tasty as leftovers since the more the flavors sit together the better it is. Go ahead and make more than you'll eat in one meal. If you get sick of it for leftovers, you can always make it into cottage pie.


1.5kg of beef (don't get me started on beef cuts. I don't have any of the vocab for that, but it can be a fattier or tougher cut because you're going to slow cook it for a very long time!)
2 onions
2 cloves

3 carrots
3 leeks
2 turnips
2 parsnips (If you want to get technical I actually used parsley root, but they taste like parsnips to me. You can pretty much use whatever winter vegetables you have)
3 cloves garlic
1 bouquet garni (parsley, thyme and bay leaf)

1 os à la moelle
1 head of Chinese cabbage

500g of potatoes

P.S. It is very hard to get a decent photo of a finished pot-au-feu since, if you've done it right, everything's all mushy and falling apart. Despite what it looks like, it's delicious!

Rinse the beef in cold water and put in a large pot with the onions (peeled and halved) and cloves. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer on low heat for 1-2 hours, regularly skimming off impurities that rise to the top.

In the meantime, peel the garlic cloves and peel (or wash) and roughly chop the carrots, leeks, turnips, parsnips. Add to the meat with the bouquet garni. If not covered with liquid, add more water, bring to boil and then simmer 2 hours. Add the os à la moelle, and the cabbage and simmer 1 hour more. Boil the potatoes separately and stir them in once you're done cooking the pot-au-feu. Strain the meat and vegetables from the broth (if desired) and serve hot.

Traditionally served with sea salt, mustard and cornichons.

Port Wine in Porto, Portugal

Last weekend, after stuffing ourselves with Thanksgiving leftovers, D. and I went on a mini holiday to Porto, Portugal to visit our friends who were moving there (or rather, had just moved there and now are moving somewhere else, maybe Australia, but that's a long story that has nothing to do with our weekend). We were amazingly lucky because while it's been freezing and snowy in Paris, it was clear and in the 50sºF in Porto. We ate breakfast both days outside in the sun looking over the ocean - an amazing luxury at this time of year. I even stuck my feet in the water and waved to Rockport!


Porto is a beautiful city, full of gorgeous old buildings...that nobody lives in. The Portuguese people prefer to live in the comfortable modern buildings that are constantly going up outside the city. We were very surprised, since the opposite is true in Paris: everyone wants to live in the old buildings in the center, and the poor people live in the suburbs with their modern apartment towers.


But of course what Porto is best know for is Port Wine. You can be sure we didn't miss out on that. On Saturday our friends took us out to the Port vineyards, which are actually about an hour north of Porto in the beautiful hilly region along the Durro River. The grapes are grown on terraces because of the landscape and, as a result, all the fruit is hand picked. They explained to us that Port is a sweet wine because the fermentation process (which turns the sugar from the grapes into alcohol) is stopped very quickly, and so to give it the strong alcohol content it's known for, they add brandy to it!


Once that's done, they send it to Porto (or rather the town right across the river from Porto, but who's counting), to be matured in oak barrels of different sizes and for different amounts of time depending on the kind of Port. In case you're interested...


Ruby Port: (made from red grapes) is matured for the least amount of time in very large barrels that are waxed on the inside so almost no air gets in. As a result, it's a very fruity wine.

Tawny Port: (also made from red grapes) is matured in small oak barrels for a longer time and has a much more woody taste. It also gets more oxygen, which makes it clearer (I think that's why...)

White Port: (made from white grapes) uses both if understood rightly and can be either "sweet" or "dry".

(Apparently, there's also Pink Port, which is something new and I don't quite understand how it's made but it taste like cotton candy.)


Also, almost all port is mixed wine. Unless there's a year on your bottle (and 90% of the time there isn't), the port is a mixture of wine from different years to get exactly the right taste. When you get "10-year-old" port or "20-year-old" port, that's actually an average, rather than an indication of what year is comes from. Isn't that crazy? (Ok, maybe that's just more than you ever wanted to know about Port :-))

Anyway, after a weekend of soaking up the sun and seeing beautiful vineyard landscapes and visiting the Port cellars and drinking lots of Port, I'm actually okay with the fact that it's snowing in Paris. In fact, I'm enjoying it.

November in Paris and Thanksgiving Cheer

Big happy plate of Thanksgiving leftovers.

I have long thought that France had more federal holidays than the US. It seems the French are always having days off, especially in the spring. In May it feels like every week there's a bank holiday. (Actually, this is not just an impression, there are French federal holidays on May 1, May 8, and this year May 13 and May 24.) However, contrary to what I thought, France only has one more holiday per year than the US. The major difference is that half the French holidays are Catholic ones (and you can bring that up next time one of your French friends mentions the proliferation of the phrase "God bless America" and how secular France is). In case you're curious (I know I was), the bank holidays in France are:

New Year's Day, Easter Monday, Labor Day (not the same day as the US, but the same idea), V Day (aka "the allies beat the Nazis day"), Ascension Thursday, Pentecost, Bastille Day, Assumption Day (yes, the day the Virgin Mary rose into heaven), All Saints Day, Armistice, and Christmas

For you non-Americans, US National holidays are:

New Year's, Martin Luther King Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day (aka July 4), Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans' Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The epitome of Paris in November.

Besides the religious quality of French national holidays, the other main difference is the time of year. France has the most holidays in the spring, which is nice because it's starting to warm up and everyone wants to play hooky anyway and lie around in the sun. The US has the most holidays in the fall and winter, which is even nicer, perhaps, because it's a time of year when it gets dark early and everything is black and white and gray, and everyone needs a little cheer.


That is what I love about Thanksgiving. Less pressure than Christmas because there are no presents to buy, Thanksgiving is just about sharing a good meal with family and/or friends. When the sky is low and drab as it has been for weeks here in Paris, that is exactly what I need! This year, we had Thanksgiving with Nick and Camille and a friend of theirs. It was a no stress, low key event (we all had to work thurs. and fri.) but like all meals with foodies, it was very yummy!

A ray of sun, quick, take a picture!

I made a version of this blue cheese potatoes au gratin that included the celeriac I got in my CSA and a chocolate pecan pie (basically my original recipe, but with less corn syrup and chopped chocolate added). We combined our CSA spinach into creamed spinach. Camille made her signature wild mushroom bread pudding, sweet potato/yam purée and delicious gravy, and Nick made turkey roast. We topped it all off with some good wine for a perfect November-blues-beating evening!

Homemade Chai for Autumn

Two weeks ago my youngest sister came to visit me during her fall break from college and we cooked up a storm. She's always been an amazing baker, but now she's gotten more and more into cooking and is even one of the head cooks at her co-op (proud sister moment).

It's funny when siblings grow up. Like one minute they're stealing your toys, monopolizing your mom and pulling your hair and the next they're awesome people who you'd actually be friends with even if you didn't have to see them every Christmas.


You know, the kind of people you could walk through the Jardins de Luxembourg with in late autumn chatting about life, living abroad, college, pigeons, whatever and then go warm up with a cup of chai. Most especially my sister in the kind of person you can spend hours in a bookstore with. And that's often what we did. Our bookstore highlights:


1) In Shakespeare & Co, hearing a woman ask the salesperson to recommend her "something like The Little Prince or Moby Dick." (I was terribly curious and asked the salesperson later what he gave her. Answer: Of Mice and Men.)

2) Chatting in a second hand English book store with the owner, older than Methuselah, who had never heard of the Twilight series (hey, good for her) and whose recommendation to a woman who wanted "a romance with adventure, you know, an escapist book" was Gone With the Wind.


So next time you sit down with a good book like The Little Prince or Moby Dick (although personally I would not call that a good book) or Gone With the Wind, or something to your taste, make up some homemade chai to go with it. It's much better than store bought and making it has quickly become a relaxing afternoon ritual at my house. Sometimes I even serve it in the wedding china, which my three crazy and wonderful sisters gave to me and D.


Chai Masala

3 cups water
5 pods of cardamom
1 stick cinnamon
4 cloves
1 small piece of star anis
5 black peppercorns
1 sliver of fresh ginger, peeled
4 tsp tea (I use Margaret'Hope darjeeling from Bonthés et Accessoires)
1 cup whole milk
sweetener to taste (about 2 Tbsp sugar, for example)

Put the spices in a pot and mash a little to bruise them (crack the cardamom pods, etc). Add 3 cups of cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and let simmer 15 minutes. Add the tea and the milk and stir another 5mn on medium heat. Add the sweetener and stir until dissolved.

Strain and serve.

It's Okay Not to be Perfect Grape Syrup

This morning, I did something I'd never done before: I left my apartment in my college sweatshirt (complete with holes I cut in the bottom of the sleeves for my thumbs to make half-mittens - winters are COLD where I went to school) and walked out onto the streets of Paris in it. Okay, so I went to the ATM machine and put my sister in a taxi for the airport, but still. This in a country where people put on their makeup to go to the boulangerie (the distance equivalent of going to the end of the driveway to get the paper in America). I thought "what was I so worried about before? That people would think I was American? I AM American." See, I've been so worried about fitting in for the past few years that I sometimes forget that it's okay to be me. Not perfect, not French, not a morning a person, and all that jazz.


So, in my new-found free to be me-ness, I'm going to admit that this grape syrup wasn't supposed to be grape syrup at all. It was supposed to be grape jelly. After getting grapes in my CSA, I was inspired by Camille's idea on Seasonal Market Menus 10/13. I looked up some jelly recipes and, frankly, it didn't look that hard. I've never made grape jelly before, but there's a first time for everything. (Maybe there still will be a first time for grape jelly, who knows.)


Here's what I did. I washed almost 3 lbs of grapes and boiled them in a pot until they were soft (about 15 minutes). I didn't have a jelly bag, or cheesecloth, so I let the grape pulp strain through a coffee filter for a few hours until the liquid had collected. I measure out the juice (I had 2 1/2 cups), put it in a pot and brought it to a boil. I slowly stirred in 2 1/2 cups white sugar and stirred constantly without letting it boil until the syrup had thickened (again about 15 minutes, maybe a bit less). Then I poured it into clean jars and set aside to cool.


If you try this recipe and get grape jelly from it, tell me how you did it! Also if you've successfully made grape jelly, I want to hear about it.

For now, I'm perfectly happy being me with my fresh grape syrup, which I've been eating on pancakes, over ice cream, in fruit salad... any way I can!

Harissa Carrot Salad with Feta

In my recent post about Mary Sharp's hot sauce, I was complaining that France does not have any decent hot sauce. French cuisine, while wonderful in many respects, is severely lacking in the spicy department. The French are so resistant to spice that they don't have names for most kinds of hot pepper. In fact, if you ask someone at the market what kind of hot pepper they are selling, they will most likely respond by telling you the color of the pepper (Camille will back me up on this).


A couple do have names: there's the piment d'Espelette, but it comes from the Basque country, which - if you ask the Basque - is hardly part of France, and the pili-pili pepper, a South American pepper, which the French only know about because it's often used in African cooking. That pepper is better known to us as the kind they use in Tabasco sauce. Pili-pili is actually the African name for it, which the French have taken, just as we've taken jalepeño, habanero and many others from our neighbors to the south.

This brings us to the one kind of hot sauce you can easily find in France: harissa. Harissa is a North African chili paste that's common in Algeria and Tunisia (places where lots of French immigrants come from). It's made with different hot peppers and spices depending on the region. When I saw this this Carrot Salad with Harissa Feta and Mint over at Smitten Kitchen I knew it was perfect for the bundles and bundles of carrots that are already starting to grace our CSA and probably won't let up all winter. Don't get me wrong, I like carrots, but even if you're not crazy about them and/or sick of them, this recipe will get you excited about them again!

If you can't find harissa where you are, try using your favorite hot sauce in this recipe.


Harissa Carrot Salad with Feta

5 large carrots (about 1 1/3 lbs or 600g)
5 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp harissa (or to taste)
1 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp fresh mint, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup of feta (about 100g)


Peel and grate the carrots and put in a large bowl.

In a small frying pan, heat 4 Tbsp olive oil and cook the garlic, cumin, harissa and sugar about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Pour over the carrots with the remaining Tbsp olive oil and mix well. Add the herbs and stir. Leave to infuse for at least an hour and stir in the feta before eating.

Enjoy!

Another Trip and Autumn

Well I've been traveling again. This really is no good for my blog! I don't manage to travel and blog at the same time. I can't imagine what people do who have blogs about traveling. They are far more talented than I. Two of my very good friends from college got married last Friday and I wouldn't have missed it for the world, but heading back to the US so soon did quite a number on me, so while I get back to Paris time and back into the rhythm here, I will just share a few fun photos from out trip.

Despite summer drought leading to muted colors, absolutely nothing beats autumn maple trees


Edward Cullen, this means you!

Took D. apple picking for the first time

Someone in Western, MA is tired of leaf peepers!

But nobody is tired of golden leaves in the afternoon light.

(Thanks to D. for some of the photos)

Blancs de poulet au roquefort et légumes rôtis

In English here.
Quand tu te maries, les gens veulent te donner des cadeaux. Parfois ils te donnent des trucs que tu voulais. Parfois ils te donnent des trucs que tu aurais voulu si tu y avais pensé. Parfois ils te donnent des trucs que tu ne voulais pas du tout. Et parfois ils te donnent... du Roquefort.


Eh oui, une des collègues de D. nous connaît très bien car, pour notre mariage, nous avons reçu un assortiment de Roquefort avec les assiettes à fromages qui vont avec (merci Martine) ! Alors ça, c'est une bonne idée de cadeaux. Nous avons tout de suite acheté du pain pour les goûter. Le Roquefort classique était délicieux comme d'habitude, sauf qu'il était encore mieux car il venait directement des caves. Notre préféré, avec du pain, était le Roquefort Caves Baragnaudes, plus fort que le classique, très goûteux et encore crémeux.


Le Roquefort Caves des Templiers avec ses grandes taches bleu était presque trop fort à manger tout seul. Donc, j'ai décidé d'en mettre dans des blancs de poulet et de les rôtir avec des légumes du panier bio - et là, c'était parfait !


Pour 2 personnes

2 blancs de poulet
2 c.s. de champignons mixtes
2 c.s. de Roquefort (Cave des Templiers ou autre)
2 c.c. de persil frais, émincé

2 courgettes
3 petites tomates
2 gousses d'ail
1/2 c.c. de thym
1/2 c.c. de romarin
1 c.c. de cumin moulu
sel, poivre




Préchauffer le four à 190ºC.

Inciser au couteau les blancs de poulet du milieu, décoller les 2 parties pour obtenir une large pièce. Au milieu, mettre 1 c.s. de champignon, 1 c.s. de Roquefort et 1 c.c. de persil par blanc de poulet. Fermer et tenir avec de la ficelle de cuisine ou des cure-dents pour que la farce reste bien à l'intérieur pendant la cuisson. Placer au centre d'un plat.

Peler et couper en 4 les gousses d'ail. Couper en dès les courgettes et tomates. Mélanger courgettes, tomates et ail avec le thym, romarin et cumin. Mettre dans le plat autour du poulet. Saler et poivrer.

Mettre au four et cuire environ 40 minutes, en remuant de temps en temps, jusqu'à ce que les légumes soient bien tendres et le poulet cuit.

Roquefort-Stuffed Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

En français ici.
The thing about weddings is that people want to give you presents. Sometimes they give you presents you've asked for. Sometimes they give you presents you would have asked for if you had thought of it. Sometimes they give you presents you never would have asked for in a million years. And sometimes...they give you Roquefort.


One of D's work colleagues gave us an assortment of Roquefort cheeses direct from the caves in the town of Roquefort and cheese plates to go with them (thank you Martine)! Now that's my kind of present. We immediately got some good bread and set out to taste them. The first one we tasted was the Roquefort from the Cave des Templiers. This turned out to be the wrong order because it was the most astringent of the three: very strong and more crumbly than creamy. The traditional Roquefort was predictably classic: creamy with just a nice amount of tang and delicious. But our very favorite for straight eating was the Caves Baragnaudes, stronger and more pungent than the classic, but still creamy. Mmmm.


Because the Roquefort Cave des Templiers (with its impressive mold spots) was a bit astringent for straight eating on bread, it stood to reason that it would be perfect for cooking. I gave it a try in chicken with mushrooms, accompanied by roasted vegetables from the CSA and it was just amazing.


For 2 people

2 chicken breasts
2 Tbsp mixed mushrooms
2 Tbsp Roquefort
2 tsp fresh parsley

2 zucchinis
3 small tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp cumin
salt, pepper


Preheat the oven to 375ºF/190ºC.

Pound the chicken breasts until they are a 1/2 inch thick. Place 1 tbsp mushrooms, 1 tbsp Roquefort and 1 tsp fresh parsley in each chicken breast and roll closed. Secure with kitchen string or toothpicks so the filling doesn't fall out. Place in the center of a baking pan.

Peel and quarter the garlic cloves. Chop the zucchinis and tomatoes into cubes. Toss zucchinis, tomatoes and garlic in a bowl with the olive oil, thyme, rosemary and cumin. Add to baking pan around the chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and put in the oven.

Cook about 40 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through, stirring from time to time and spooning the juices from the veggies onto the chicken. Serve hot and enjoy!