Earthlight

Earthlight:
Another Apod picture to be amazed by. Something else that amazes me is the smell of summer, mowed grass, rain, the scent of flowers, a virtual smorgasbord of smells... I got all that when I put my car in the garage this evening.

Today's recipe is another plonk and roast dish, I think one should call it Le poulet fumé avec les légumes rôtis or in plain english Smoked Chicken with Roasted Vegetables. (French thanks to Free Translations.Com.) Very easy to make and quite quick if one harnesses the Microwave to pre-cook the veggies.
Ingredients:
1 Smoked chicken, one could substitute this with one of those roasted chickens from your Spar/P&P/Woolies deli department.
Assorted packs of prepared veggies of your choice, I picked baby spuds/medeteranian veggie mix with sundried tomatoes/sweet potatoes/butternut/snap peas. You can mix and match as your tastebuds/hunger dictate.
1 Pack button mushrooms
1 Handfull asparagus
1 Large onion
1 Large red sweet pepper
2 Large tomatoes
2 cans tomato & onion mix, one per baking dish.
250 ml fresh cream
Herbs and spices to suit your taste, my choice was 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp Italian herb, 1 tsp majoram, 1 tsp celery salt, 1 tbl spn Veggie sprinkle, dried garlic (one clove fresh) and 2 tsp Coriander seeds. These were all ground together in a mortar and pestle (my new kitchen toy)
Preperation:
Cut the chicken into portions and place in a baking pan/dish and grill for a few minutes, this helps cook out any excess fat...
Put all the veggie packs into the microwave and nuke for 8 minutes or untill semi cooked...
My ingredients were enough for 2 baking dishes, it may vary according to your requirements or amount of ingredients you have.
Remove chicken from grill and set oven on max, drain any fat from the chicken and divide between the baking dishes if needed.
Arrange veggies amongst chicken, slice onion and tomatoes and plonk among the rest of the veggies, cut up the asparagus and mushrooms to spread about likewise.
Spread your spice/herb mix over ingredients followed by the tomato/onion mix and then divide the cream between the dishes.
Return to oven for about 10 minutes, stir and turn bigger vegetables and bake another 10 minutes.
Set oven on Grill and grill the dish for another 10 minutes or until veggies start showing brown... Do not Incinerate!
By this time you should have finished a tossed salad to complement your Le poulet fumé avec les légumes rôtis.
This is a thumb suck recipe as it can be chopped and changed depending on ingredients available. Will serve four comfortably.
The picture and theme remind me of Tree63 and A Million Lights:
Can we hang out tonight underneath your ceiling
I could stare up at a million lights and listen to you breathing
If I fall fast asleep it's just because I feel so safe in you
It won't take much to wake me up

Could i walk out to sea way beyond these breakers
We have no place amongst the movers and the shakers
Yours is the only throne I'll ever get down on my knees before
You have the whole of me

Lover come away
Come away my lover

I heard you say you've stolen my heart with one glance of your
eyes
When I fell down you raised me up
That's gravity

Yours is the only throne I'll ever get down on my knees before
You have the whole of me

Lover come away
When I fell down you were standing there waiting for me
You picked me up, welcomed me home
That's gravity

Won't you come away
Won't you come away with me
Lover of my soul

"Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that's been our unifying cry, "More light." Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlelight. Neon, incandescent lights that banish the darkness from our caves to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier's field. Little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep. Light is more than watts and foot candles. Light is metaphor. Light is knowledge, light is life, light is light." Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Northern Lights, 1993