Smoky Oven-Baked Chicken

Everyone is always looking for a better chicken recipe, right? Well, I think I might have found it. A recipe even better than my last chicken recipe - which was pretty fantastic.

This one is all in the spice blend. It's a modification of the smoky spice blend recipe in Practical Paleo. I didn't have half of the ingredients so I made some substitutions, and, oh my, are they good!

Here is what you need to make 5 tablespoons of spice blend:

1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon sea salt
1/2 tablespoon black pepper

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Take your chicken pieces (I used drumsticks) and toss them in melted coconut oil, bacon fat,or whatever oil you choose. I put the chicken in a bowl, poured some oil on them, and then used tongs to flip them around and make sure they were evenly coated.

Mix your spices in a bag - I use old grocery bags, but a ziploc or a paper bag would work just as well. Put your chicken in the bag, hold the top closed, and shake it up baby.

Once the chicken is evenly coated, lay the pieces out on a cookie sheet or glass dish and bake them for 30-45 minutes, turning once halfway through. You'll have to be the judge on when they're finished.

Serve!

This is my plate. We had the chicken with a potato/onion/sweet pepper semi-mash, and some raw sugar snap peas.

I also used this recipe for chicken wings and it's just as good. Nice smoky flavour with a salt & pepper taste. And check out the colour! Toasty brown and crispy!

This is a recipe you HAVE to try. I'm serious. Don't even hesitate. Do it.

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I'm linking up here this week!

Young House Love - In The House!

How exciting was your Monday night? Watched some TV? Did some laundry? My night was pretty flam-blam fabulous - I met John & Sherry Petersik at their Toronto book signing. If you don't know, the creators of Young House Love recently released their first book - Young House Love: 243 Ways to Paint, Craft, Update & Show Your Home Some Love, and they were at the West Elm store in Toronto to sign copies and meet their fans.

It's a great book --- I mean really, 243 tips? That'll keep you busy for a good long while. I hope you'll pick it up, even if you don't get a chance to meet them.

My favourites so far are the twine headboard,

And the tree branch candleholder

Here is an awesome shot from the night. John is mugging for my sister while Sherry is telling me to get my butt up there to the table already.

And the prerequisite fan shot - though I think I look more like a crazy stalker/photo bomber:

This is at around 9:30 pm and you can see in Sherry's eyes that it has been a long, long night. Unfortunately I only took my point & shoot with me so the pictures aren't the highest quality. But it was amazing to meet two of my favourite bloggers and I'm so glad they were able to make it to Toronto.

And thank you to my sister for standing in line with me for 3+ hours. You rock!

"Birch Bark" Painted Vase

I'm starting to wrap up my fall crafting and lean more towards Christmas. But I thought I'd sneak in one more  fall-type craft that I've been wanting to do for a long time, this "birch-bark" vase. It might not look like birch bark to everyone, but it sure does to me.

Luckily, depending on how you fill the vase, it can be used year round. In fact, it gives off a bit more of a winter vibe to me than a fall one. What say you?

I've seen this idea all over the place - check out a couple of versions here and here - and knew I had the perfect vase for it. I bought this 12" vase at one of my company yard sales, for $1 or $2 I think. Don't you love the height and the thick, heavy glass it's made of?

I liked Emily's (Merrypad) way of spray painting with shades of brown first to give a more natural bark look rather than having it be clear in the unpainted spots. I used two colours, Rustoleum's espresso and nutmeg, both in a satin finish. You know, I kind of like how the browns blend and wouldn't mind having a vase just like this.

Once it was dry I added rubber bands in a random non-pattern and then started spraying on very light coats of white. True confession time - I was so excited to get to the painting that I accidentally started spraying on the white before I put the elastics on. Thank goodness it was just a little mist in one spot when I realized what I was doing and stopped. Tom says he wished he had the camera ready because the look of horror on my face was priceless.

Several coats later I let it dry completely and then snipped off the rubber bands. The edges where the elastics met the glass were a little rough in places so I sanded them with a high-grit sandpaper. There are imperfections where the elastics were, but I think that makes it more natural. Have you ever seen a perfect tree?

There isn't a lot of foliage around to decorate with this time of year, so I snipped off some branches from our tree out front. The tree has these crazy wiggly branches and the leaves always look like they're dying for a drink. If you know what kind of tree it is, please let me know. I also added in some orange and red berries from the dollar store.

This is one of my favourite projects. I think it's the clean lines that get me. And birch trees are my absolute favourite tree in the world. In fact, we're considering pulling out the crazy, drama-queen-looking-for-a-drink-of-water tree out front and replacing it with a white birch next year.

And even though there are brown undertones, the light does still pass through the glass and give it a glow in the afternoon.

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I'm linking up here this week!