I finally did it.

Our kids love chicken nuggets from the fast food places, like most kids. From time to time I try to make chicken with a coating that the kids will eat. Each time I think I have it, I fail, big time. They end up eating some of it, but then stopping halfway through a bite to tell me they don’t really like it.

So last night I tried something different. When the chicken breasts were still a bit frozen I sliced them in long think slices (where they resembled small fish filets).

I “marinated” them in a mixture for 30 minutes, soaked them in a batter and friend them.

“Marinade” Ingredients:

3 eggs
3-4 Tbsp milk
2 tsp minced garlic
2-3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all ingredients, and add chicken. Stir until chicken is covered and place the bowl in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Batter ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp Lowry’s seasoning salt

Remove chicken piece from “marinade”, coat with batter, and drop into 1-2 inches of hot oil in a cast iron pan. Fry for 3 minutes on each side. Oh yeah, about the oil. I didn’t have enough crisco so I added some light olive oil to the mixture.

Success! They loved it. They said it tasted a lot like Long John Silver’s fish. I had to chuckle. They loved it so much, they actually want to eat the leftovers tonight. Amazing I tell you. I have used the same ingredients before, I just didn’t use them in this combination.

It’s been one heck of a long day. We woke up at the crack of dawn to head on over to the local county farmer’s market. If it didn’t involve getting up at the crack of dawn every Saturday morning, I think we would go every week.

I finally fell asleep around 5 this morning, and we were up and out the door by 8. Okay, so it wasn’t qctually the crack of dawn, but when you’ve only had 3 hours sleep and you can hardly see out of your eyeballs, it sure feels like it.

This week we bought some fresh blueberries (so the wife can make blueberry jam for kid #3, it’s one of his favorites), some tomatoes (since ours are not doing too well this year), some wildflower and tupelo honey, and my personal favorite, fresh garlic.

Not just any garlic either. It’s some of the best tasting fresh garlic around these parts, and I only buy it from the folks at Red Hott Tomatoes Farm. As a garlic lover, I have tried all of the different garlic for sale at the market, but the bulbs that come from Red Hott Tomatoes is definitely the best in the area.

Within minutes of getting home, I had the oven pre-heating and had trimmed three large heads of garlic for roasting. If there is one thing I love more than garlic, it’s roasted garlic. In fact, after it was done roasting, I made some more of my delicious guacamole, but this time I added roasted garlic.

It.Was.To.Die.For. I ate the whole bowl. Here is that easy gucamole recipe (with the roasted garlic change):

Ingredients:

One Haas avocado
Two spring onions
One Roma tomato
1-2 cloves roasted garlic
salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

Dice onions and tomatoes. The smaller the better.
Use the flat of a knife to make a paste out of the roasted garlic.
Remove skin and seed from avocado, any way you want, just toss the avocado (in big chunks if you want) into the bowl.
Add roasted garlic paste, salt, and pepper.

Smash the avocado with the spoon as you mix it. If you want a chunkier guacamole, don’t mash so much, if you want it smooth and mushy, smash the heck out of the thing.
Serve with chips, taquitos, or whatever else you want to serve it with.

Now, I am off to relax for the evening. I think I will have a nice hot cup of tea with some tupelo honey.

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Gidget was quite busy yesterday. It seemed like she was in the kitchen forever.

She started by making a chicken/veggie/rice dish that actually smelled wonderful.

Then she went on to make these:

Too bad it was all for the dog. sigh. The first recipe was food for the next two weeks and the second recipe was dog biscuits. One thing for sure, the dog biscuits didn’t smell nearly as good as the food did while it cooked.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup hot water
1/3 cup margarine
1/2 cup powdered milk
1 tsp salt
1 egg beaten
3 cups whole wheat flour

Preparation:

In large bowl, pour hot water over the margarine. Stir in powdered milk, salt, and egg. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time.

Knead the dough for a few minutes until stiff. Roll to 1/2 in ch thickness and cut into shapes. Bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes.

Needless to say, the dog is set for the next two weeks or more. His food was made with leftovers we kept in the freezer, so there was little to no out ot pockte cost to make the food.

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Last night, the chef in training, aka our middle son, decided he was going to make a “creation” for dinner. We decided to let him have the run of the kitchen, and this is what he made.

“Shrimp And Noodle Thyme”

Ingredients:

1 lb fettuccini noodles
1/2 lb shrimp
2 sticks butter
2 tbsp minced garlic
1tsp crushed thyme
dash pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

Preparation:

In a small saucepan, add the butter, garlic, thyme, and pepper. Heat on low heat to melt the butter and infuse the garlic flavor into it. While the butter is melting, peel and devein shrimp (he made me do this). Also bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Place the fettuccini noodles into the pot of water, and begin heating a large skillet (we use cast iron) to a medium-high heat. When the skillet is hot add the olive oil, then add the shrimp. Cook the shrimp for a few minutes on each side.

When the noodles are done, drain them and return them to the pot. Strain the butter mixture and pour the butter over the noodles. Mix well. Serve them in a large pasta serving dish topped with the shrimp.

He served his dish with some mixed vegetables and everyone, including picky eater #3, ate their entire dinner. It was sort of like fettuccini alfredo, without the alfredo. In fact, he told me when he started cooking it that he wanted the butter to taste like “garlic bread”. Sure enough, it did.

Sorry, no pictures. We were 3/4 of the way through the meal before we remembered the camera.

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This is one of my favorite, and fastest, recipes.

Ingredients:

One Haas avocado
Two spring onions
One Roma tomato
dash garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

Dice onions and tomatoes. The smaller the better.
Remove skin and seed from avocado, any way you want, just toss the avocado (in big chunks if you want) into the bowl.
Add garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Smash the avocado with the spoon as you mix it. If you want a chunkier guacamole, don’t mash so much, if you want it smooth and mushy, smash the heck out of the thing. This time I made it somewhat in-between because I ate the whole bowl with some fresh warm tortilla chips for lunch.

Serve with chips, taquitos, or whatever else you want to serve it with.

I suppose you could add a jalapeno pepper or some other spicy object if you so desired. Me? I like a nice mild, creamy, guacamole. It helps cool down all the other spicy things I eat.

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Ingredients:

2 lb. Beef Chuck
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sliced onion
1 clove garlic
3/4 cup catsup (we use homemade)
2 tbsp Worchestershire Sauce
2 tsp Paprika
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
dash red pepper
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup water
egg noodles (really good if you use homemade)

Preparation:

Cook beef in shortening until it is brown and caramelized. Add onions and garlic and cook until the onions are transparent. Add remaining items (except the noodles) and mix thoroughly. If you are using store bought noodles you can add them at this time, otherwise don’t add the noodles until the last 2-3 minutes of cooking. Cook goulash until the sauce reduces and the meat is tender. Add extra water if the sauce gets too thick.

This is one of the most delicious recipes in my wife’s arsenal. Try it, you’ll like it. Just make sure you get beef that is tender or will be once it is cooked.

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Tonight I made a couple of my favorites. Fettucini Alfredo, and shrimp. No, not Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo, but Fettucini Alfredo and shrimp.

The Fettucini Alfredo was quite simple, just some butter, cream, pepper, pasta, a couple egg yolks, and of course, the pasta. You can find this recipe just about everywhere, although I follow Lydia instructions quite religiously.

The shrimp is something of my own creation.

I take the shrimp (as many as you want), and dredge them in flour, then I put them in an eggwash that consists of one egg, some water, a few drops of soy sauce (like 1 tsp maybe, I never measure) and garlic powder. Then I toss them in flour again. Once this is done, I fry them in one stick of butter. Yes, I said butter. Not oil. Not healthy oil. Nice, fatty, salty, butter. Trust me. The shrimp has a taste that makes your mouth water.

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Okay, so I went the easy route tonight. I wasn’t in the mood for pot roast, or the time it took to make it. So I made pork chops and orzo, which just happens to be our youngest sons favorite.

To make the orzo, I simply melt a stick of butter, yes a whole stick, and cut up one large onion to saute in the butter. Once the onion turns translucent, I pour in 1 pound of orzo and saute until some of the orzo starts to look “toasted”.

I then pour in two cans of chicken broth and let it cook for about 20-25 minutes, or until done. While that is cooking I pan fry the pork chops with some Cavender’s seasoning on them.

It can’t get any simpler than that, and the dinner table is nice and quite while the food disappears.

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Last week I saw the most delicious chicken recipe on the Cook’s Illustrated podcast, so I decided to make it tonight. I made a couple small changes to the recipe, but it came out very delicious. The recipe below can be found, unchanged, on the Cook’s Illustrated website. The photos are mine.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups orange juice
1/3 cup light corn syrup
3 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, minced

Procedure:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk 1 1/2 cups orange juice, corn syrup, honey, mustard, vinegar, pepper flakes, salt and pepper together in medium bowl. Place flour in pie plate, then season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Working with one chicken breast at a time, coat chicken with flour, patting off excess.

2. Heat oil in ovenproof 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add chicken breasts skin-side down; cook until well browned (8 to 14 minutes). Turn chicken and lightly brown other side, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to plate.

3. Pour off all but 1 teaspoon fat from pan. Add onion and cook until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Increase heat to high and add orange juice mixture. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until syrupy and reduced to 1 cup, 6 to 10 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and tilt to one side so glaze pools in corner of pan. Using tongs, roll each chicken breast in pooled glaze to coat evenly and place skin-side down in skillet.

4. Transfer skillet to oven and bake chicken until thickest part of breasts registers 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 15 to 20 minutes, turning chicken skin-side up halfway through cooking. Transfer chicken to platter and let rest 5 minutes. Return skillet to high heat (be careful-handle will be very hot) and cook glaze, stirring constantly, until thick and syrupy (heatproof spatula should leave wide trail when dragged through glaze), about 1 minute. Spoon 1 teaspoon glaze over each breast and serve, passing remaining glaze at table.

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Finally, I get to share a recipe with you. The wife has had me on pretty tight leash when it comes to sharing all our new recipes. She is working on this new 5 week meal plan, and she intends to put it all together and then, and only then, do I get to share the recipes here. Sheesh. I will however keep posting photos, because it just might inspire you to make something similar (wink).

Anyway, here is a recipe she did today in the bread machine that came out absolutely awesome.

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 4 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. margarine or butter, softened
1/4 cup honey

1 1/3 cups bread flour
1 cup minus 2 Tbsp. wheat flour
2 Tbsp. soy flour
3/4 cup 5-grain cereal
4 tsp. wheat germ
3 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt

2 1/14 tsp. regular active dry yeast or
2 tsp. bread machine yeast or quick acting active dry yeast

Procedure:

Add all of the wet items to the bread machine, then add all the dry items. Add yeast on top of the dry items. If you have made bread in a bread machine before you know this.

Set the bread machine on the basic dough setting so the machine would knead the bread and allow it to rise the first time.

Punch down the dough and shape it into a loaf, placing it into a loaf pan.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.