Cider Roasted Vegetables

Waldo County General Hospital Aid’s annual yard sale will be held on Saturday, May 28th, starting at 8 a.m., rain or shine, at the hospital’s education center, 118 Northport Avenue, Belfast.

Thanks to the efforts of many Aid members, the sale once again promises to be a major fundraiser for the Aid with a full room of bargains on books, puzzles, jewelry, toys, clothing, craft items, music, furniture, dishes and especially those must-have items falling under the category of ‘white elephant’.

Muffins, coffee and other breakfast items will also be for sale.

Donations of good quality items will be accepted the day before, on Friday, May 27th, at the education center from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Volunteers will check if items are usable for the sale. No computers, televisions or large appliances, please.

Call the hospital’s community relations department at 930-6739 or chairperson, Ellen Kenney, at 338-4232, for more information. All proceeds benefit Waldo County General Hospital.

This colorful side dish comes alive with orange flavor

Ingredients 1½ lb small beets, leaves trimmed, each peeled and cut into four chunks 1 tsp olive oil 1 orange, rinsed (for peel and juice) ½ tsp anise seeds (optional)		calories 59 Total fat 0 g Saturated fat 0 g Cholesterol 0 mg Sodium 88 mg Total fiber 4 g Protein 2 g Carbohydrates 12 g Potassium 387 mg
Directions 1 Preheat oven to 450 °F.  Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleanup. 2 In a medium bowl, toss the beets with the olive oil until well coated. 3 Spread beets on baking sheet in a single layer. 4 Bake 30–40 minutes.  When done, beets should be easily pierced with a sharp knife. 5 While beets bake, grate the zest from the orange.  Place in a small bowl.  Cut the orange in half.  Squeeze the juice (about ½ cup) into the bowl with the orange zest. (Use a large spoon to press the inside of the orange to extract more juice.)  Add anise seeds (optional).  Set aside. 6 When the beets are tender, return them to the tossing bowl.  Pour the juice mixture over the beets.  Mix well to coat, and serve.

Chicken is split, marinated in a blend of cilantro and lime, and oven roasted to create this flavorful dish.

Roasted chicken is a comfort meal that speaks to all regions of the U.S. It’s an important recipe that every cook should have in their repertoire. Not only is it an economical way to feed the fam, but it’s also a double do-er. There are countless ways to season & eat the meat AND you can save the bones to make stock. After years of dry, flavorless roast chicken attempts, I feel like I’ve (humbly) perfected the roast chicken.

Zesty Cilantro Lime Roasted Chicken

The Players

• 1 whole fryer chicken, somewhere around 8 lbs
• 1 lime, zested & juiced
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 3 green onions, roughly chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1/4 c olive oil
• coconut oil or lard for greasing
• salt

The How-To

Get your chicken out of the fridge pronto. It’s ultra, super important, for the most moist roasted chicken ever created, that you bring the chicken to room temperature. Think about it this way, if you stick the chicken in the oven straight out of the refrigerator, at least 1/2 of the time it’s cooking, you’re actually trying to bring the temperature of the chicken up…and by doing it this way, you’re getting different temperatures within different parts of the chicken, so some parts cook faster than others, resulting in dryyyyyy chicken.

Now we’re going to split the chicken in half — trying to get it to lay flat as it can. Splitting the chicken in half is just another trick that will help the chicken cook faster, thus keeping it moist. Using a pair of kitchen shears, or a cleaver, cut the chicken along its back (not the breast side), making sure you start cutting to the side of the backbone, don’t actually cut into the chicken’s backbone. Sit the chicken on the counter to give yourself a sturdy base and start at the neck opening, cutting down towards the end at the tailbone. The chicken will look like it’s doing a split — sort of. Lay the chicken, breast side up, in a roasting pan or large oven-safe baking dish.

In your food processor, puree the lime zest & juice, green onions, garlic, olive oil and salt. Also add the cilantro, but I want you to include the stems, along with the leaves. Think of it as nose-to-tail cilantro use. Smear the mixture all over the top of the chicken. Use the time it takes the chicken to come to room temperature as marinade time too.

Preheat your oven to 400F. Clean off the bottom of a cast iron pan and lightly grease it with oil. Stick the chicken in the oven and place the bottom of the cast iron pan on the top of the chicken. This allows the oven heat to cook the chicken from the bottom and the cast iron pan to crisp the chick from the top. Bake until the temperature in the thigh of the chicken is around 150-165F. It should take about 45 minutes. Carefully remove the cast iron pan from the top of the chicken, and if you’d like the skin crispier, just stick the oven on broil and peek at the chicken every minute until it’s done to your liking.

What do I do with a bowl of leftover roasted vegetables? I make a flourless quiche!