Fried Chicken~My way!

I love fried chicken.  I ONLY love it the day it's made....not.cold.  I know I am weird.  We grew up eating fried chicken a lot.  It was crispy and crunchy...made in a cast iron frying pan and NOT finished in the oven. My Mom made it the way my Grandma made it.  I make it the same way~the right way!  My Dad would always fry up the heart and gizzards.  Delicious.  Some days I throw a batch of gizzards on to fry just for me. MMMMM.  Many days I fry up a bunch of legs....tonight is one of those days!  Good fried chicken takes time.  Don't rush it....it will be worth it!

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

1 cut-up fryer or chicken pieces of your choice, i.e. legs, thighs, etc.

2 c. buttermilk

1 T. salt

Pepper to taste

Coating

4 c. flour

salt and pepper to taste

Oil to fry

Place the chicken in a large bowl and add the salt and pepper. Mix it around so it coats the chicken pieces.  Pour the buttermilk over the chicken and let it sit for about an hour.  This tenderizes the chicken and gives it great flavor.

Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. You can get creative here; some people add cornmeal to their flour for crunch.  You can also add spices or even cayenne to give it some zip.  

After the chicken has marinated in the buttermilk, coat each piece in the flour mixture.   

Heat the oil in your skillet till it's hot. Add the chicken pieces and fry until golden brown or until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165 degrees.  Watch it so it doesn't burn....like I just did!

My Grandma served her fried chicken with mashed potatoes and milk gravy, fried okra, sliced tomatoes, bread and butter.

Finger-lickin' good!

Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies~A Christmas Tradition

When I was growing up Christmas was a much awaited holiday.  Santa always brought toys, and socks, and an orange in our stockings.  We were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve and it was always pajamas!  My Mom made Chocolate Butter Fudge; a recipe I have only made successfully one time!  It is the best and I am going to try it once again this year.  She also made these delicious oatmeal shortbread thumbprint cookies...with yummy mint frosting tinted pale pink and mint green.  It can't be Christmas without them.

Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 T. vanilla
Cream this together until fluffy.

Add:

2 cups flour

1/2 t. salt
1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats

Mix well and rolls into small balls, about the size of a walnut. Press your thumb into the center. Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Mint Frosting

3 T. butter, softened
2 C. powdered sugar
4 T.  heavy cream
1/8 t. mint extract
1/4 t. vanilla

Red or green food coloring

Mix all butter, powdered sugar, and cream together till well mixed. Add the mint extract....it should be very subtle and the vanilla. Tint the frosting very PALE pink or green.

Chewy Granola Bars~A Family Favorite !

I LIKE granola.  Crunchy and yummy!  I LOVE granola BARS....crunchy and yummy. BUT....I ADORE these Chewy Granola Bars. I totally thought I had posted this recipe....ages ago.

   I can't remember where I got the recipe for these. They are easy to make, no-bake, real food...ok except for the rice crispies,  full of oatmeal goodness.  They even have a little bit of chocolate on top.  You can also add-in any favorite you have like raisins, craisins, nuts, peanut butter, more chocolate, dried fruit.

Chewy Granola Bars

2/3 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. honey

1 stick of butter

pinch of salt

1 t. vanilla

If you like peanut butter, add 2 T.  and melt with the rest of the ingredients.

Place in a saucepan and melt together everything but the vanilla. When it comes to a boil, let it go for 2 minutes. Add the vanilla off the heat.  Stir into the following ingredients that have been mixed in a big bowl.

4 c. rolled oats.....

I take out 2 cups and pulse it in the food processor until it is a little finer.  5 pulses. Add back to the bowl.

2 c. Rice Krispies

Any add-ins you like.

Mix and mix and mix until it is all coated with the honey mixture.

Pour into a greased half-sheet pan and spread evenly.  Take another 1/2 sheet pan and put it on top of the granola mixture and press firmly to compress the bars.  Sprinkle 1/4 c. mini chocolate chips on top and smash again.

Cool for at least 2 hours at room temp. or 15 minutes in the freezer. Cut into bars.

I wrap them in plastic wrap or put each bar in a snack-size ziploc. 

Makes 24 bars.

Cultured Butter Amazingness!

Mmmmm....there is nothing that tastes like freshly made butter. Is there anything better, you ask?  Well, yes...there is. Freshly made CULTURED butter. What is cultured butter?  

Cultured butter is made from heavy cream that has "cultures" added to it. Those cultures can be from yogurt, creme fraiche, buttermilk, or kefir grains. You add them to the cream and let it sit on your counter for 12-48 hours. The cultures add a delicious tang and depth of flavor to your butter.  It tastes so.good.

I used my Kefir grains to culture my cream. Kefir is a drinkable-style yogurt that contains friendly probiotic bacteria that are super good for your digestive system. It is made with milk.  The grains look like little pieces of cauliflower in the milk. I strain them out of each batch and re-use them for the next one. They last quite a long time.

To make the butter I used I quart of cream (NOT the ulra-pasteurized kind....raw cream can be used as well.) and my kefir grains. I put the cream in a quart-sized Mason jar and added my kefir grains. Put on the lid and give it a good shake. Let it sit on the counter till thick. I left mine out for about 24 hours.  Taste it to see how tangy it is and if you like it.  Mine was to my liking @ 24 hours. If you like it a little more tangy, leave it out a few more hours. No more than 36 hrs.

I then strained out my kefir grains and added the cream to my Kitchen-Aid mixer and whipped it until the butter separated from the buttermilk. It took about 5 minutes and it is MESSY! Have a large dish towel ready to cover your mixer....it splashes everywhere! Once it became butter, I drained off the buttermilk ( Save the buttermilk for baking or feeding the chickens...they love it!)and added some COLD water, about 1/4 cup to the mixing bowl and whipped the butter to expel all the buttermilk.  If you don't get all of it out, your butter will spoil faster.  I did this 3 times until the water was clear after mixing. Drain and then add salt to taste, or leave it out.  I added a good pinch to my butter.  Store in an airtight container. Use just as you would regular butter!

I paid $9.99 the other day for about 1/2 cup of cultured butter from Vermont! I will never do that again!  Try this easy, delicious butter!

Magic Berry Cobbler

Summer is waning, but the blackberries are going gangbusters around my house. WE love them in jam, syrup, on ice cream, in a milkshake, or in MAGIC BERRY COBBLER!  What makes it magic you ask?  It's the interesting way you put it together. My Grandma Kelin made cobbler with sweetened berries that she cooked first and then she covered it in pie dough, but always stuck the trimmed dough inside the fruit before topping it off with the dough. Delicious!  I have also had the poofy-biscuit like cobbler with the fruit underneath it...always seemed to have more biscuit than fruit.  This recipe is a perfect combo of fruit and biscuit-y goodness. The technique is the cool part, the MAGIC!  

Magic Berry Cobbler

In a mixing bowl add:

2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 t. salt
2 t. baking powder

1 t. fresh  grated lemon peel

Mix it up to combine and cut in till crumbly:

3 T. shortening
Add: 1 c. milk and mix together.

This is the magic part! Spread the batter in a 9x13 baking dish.

Combine 4 c. of berries with 2 c. sugar, the juice of 1/2 of a lemon, and a teeny pinch of salt.

Berries can be blueberries (smash them up a bit with the sugar) blackberries, raspberries, boysenberries, marionberries or any combination of berries. I even tried it with peaches once....not too bad!
Pour the berries over the batter in the 9x13 pan. 

Last step:  Pour over all...2 c. boiling water.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40-45 minutes .

Voila! Simple and delicious!

Serve warm with ice cream, whipped cream, or I have even topped it with lightly sweetened mascarpone cheese. Divine!

I Can...What's your Superpower?

I saw this on Facebook today and it made me smile!
I learned to can by watching my Mom make jam, can peaches, green beans, and pears.  When I got married  back in the 80's, I canned my first batches of jam and peaches.  As my family grew, I canned more peaches, pears~I really don't like pears, but one kid did~and branched out to pickles and salsa. One summer I went to a Canning 101 class put on by our local Extension Service. I learned lots of things.
A lot of things I had been doing....WRONG!  Oh dear!
After completing the class, I was able to take a course to become a Master Food Preserver through Washington State University.  What a feeling to complete the 8 week course and pass my test. Whew!  I was now able to give back to my community by teaching others HOW to can and preserve food safely and correctly!
The following part of my post is from the Pomona Universal Pectin website.  It tells what a Master Food Preserver does. I loved it.
Master Food Preservers Have a Mission – Teaching About Canning Safety
With the current explosion of interest in home food preservation – be it pickling, jamming, fermenting, or freezing – where are home preservers supposed to go for answers to their questions? Who out there has the most up-to-date understanding of food safety issues and approved practices?

Yes, you guessed it – your local Master Food Preserver (or MFP), trained by your local County Extension Office, and now a willing volunteer to answer your questions over the phone; teach classes; staff tables at Farmers’ Markets, County Fairs, and other such venues; and even make presentations to church groups and other organizations.

Never heard of a Master Food Preserver? Well, either had I until I started working with my sister Connie to bring you Pomona’s Pectin. So I decided to interview a few MFPs to find out who they are, how they got to be MFPs, what they do, and how you, if you’re interested, can follow in their footsteps.

I heard from MFPs in Washington, California, Idaho, Indiana, and Maine. Below is a summary of what I learned. For more detail about a particular state, click on that state. For information about states not included, search the internet, give a call to your County Extension Office, or go to their website.

What is an MFP and how do you become one? MFPs complete extensive training: usually spending around 40 hours in the classroom, studying assigned reading materials, and participating in hands-on training. The focus is food safety and food preserving methods. To be certified, an MFP must pass a written exam and commit to a number of volunteer hours in the community.

An MFP’s mission is then to help educate the public in a variety of ways, under the supervision of their Country Extension Office. To become an MFP, you need to learn about your local County Extension program, sign up, and likely pay a small fee for materials.

What are the qualities of a good MFP? Good MFPs: (1) have more than a passing interest in food safety and food preservation; (2) have the desire and time to volunteer for community service; (3) are curious, analytical, and personable; (4) like to teach and can communicate well; (5) have a passion for food preservation, people and fun!

Becoming an MFP means joining a community of like-minded individuals, both men and women. If you’re interested, there’s no time like the present!

If you have any interest in becoming a Master Food Preserver, contact your local Extension Service for details. It is so rewarding!

Summer Squash Casserole

Summer is here and my zucchini are going crazy.  Last year I got one. Seriously, I had to BUY them from the fruit stand.  What do you do with all of them when you've exhausted yourself with the standard zucchini recipes....bread, fried, etc.  I googled a casserole recipe that came from Paula Deen.  It was quite a bit different from the casserole I have had before that has cream of chicken soup and stuffing mix.  That recipe is really good as well, but I was looking for a little bit lighter version and this is it!

Squash Casserole ala Paula Deen

6 cups sliced zucchini and yellow squash
1 diced onion
4 T. butter
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
1 c. Ritz cracker crumbs

Slice up your squash and put it in a frying pan with some oil. Cook until the squash is super soft, about 20 minutes over medium heat.  Pour into a colander and drain the liquid off. Cook onions in the butter until soft and a little brown. Combine the squash, cooked onions, sour cream and cheese together, salt and pepper to taste, and pour into a casserole dish. Cover the top with the Ritz cracker crumbs. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

So good!