I’m an aspiring house wife, and I have a few role models. One of them is Martha Stewart. Another role model is my friend Sarah. Sarah is an amazing chef and homemaker who’s life is full of everyday abundance. When I was struck by a Martha inspired idea, Sarah was the friend I thought of to execute the idea with me. The idea is to go through each months issue of Living magazine and choose recipes to make together. We would each contribute to the cost of the ingredients and spend the day making a yummy gourmet meal together! After we made the food, we decided to write about the experience we had making the meal on each of our respective blogs.

So here we are, our first ‘Martha Meal’. Sarah and I met a few weeks ago to plan our menu based on recipes in the April issue of Living. We detailed a full course meal starting with the roasted chicken with olives, tomatoes and feta. From there we developed a salad to compliment the chicken! We also chose a potato recipe as a side and a desert as well. We picked a day to cook together and waited excitedly for the day to come.

On Monday we met to begin the project. After some discussion, we decided to revise our plans and change our menu. Going into the project, we told ourselves we wanted to have fun and chose to eliminate expectations for the way the day should go. When we chose to take a few recipes off of the table, we felt a little reluctant, but reminding ourselves that this was a no pressure project gave us freedom to do what we felt we were capable of on that day. Honestly, this is a great way to approach… most everything.

We shopped for the day’s cooking at Sprouts market. The recipes we decided to move forward with was the chicken entree and the salad recipe we created. Today I am going to share with you Roasted Chicken Thighs with olives, tomatoes and feta. We made a few slight changes when we made this recipe. For one, we used boneless, skinless thighs. Also, we did not garnish with mint, but more thyme. Lastly, the recipe says to transfer the meat and continue roasting the vegetables. Sarah suggested the meat stay in the oven, uncovered, a little longer so the meat would turn golden brown and the vegetables would roast more as well! I served this meal to my family that night and they loved it! The dish is so flavorful and tender and if you love olives (like I do!) you will love this meal!

From Martha Stewart Living, April 2013

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 1/2 pounds)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1/2 cup pitted Spanish olives
6 medium shallots, halved lengthwise and peeled (about 6 ounces)
3 sprigs fresh thyme
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Fresh mint leaves, for garnish
Feta cheese, crumbled, for garnish
Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine chicken, oil, tomatoes, olives, shallots, and thyme in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and toss. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet and spread chicken mixture, skin side up, in a single layer. Roast until a thermometer inserted into thickest parts of the thighs (do not touch bones) reaches 165 degrees, 35 to 40 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a platter and loosely cover with foil. Return vegetables to oven and roast until golden brown in places, about 10 minutes more. Transfer vegetables and accumulated juices to platter with chicken, and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with mint and feta.

BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE! Haha!

If you want to see the amazing salad recipe we made incorporating artichokes and anise, please head over to Sarah’s beautiful blog This Abundant Life. Thanks for joining us for our first MARTHA MEAL!!!!!