I’m in Richmond, VA this weekend visiting my family, including my adorable grandbaby, TJ. Last night I made one of my son’s favorite dishes. I have a tendency to forget, being from the South, and from a family of cooks, that there are people who might need or want an actual *recipe* for fried chicken… so here’s mine. This can be used not only on chicken tenders, but on cut-up fryer pieces, as well… you’ll just need to adjust the cooking time (and they do far better in a cast iron skillet, with a lid. I’ll do those one day and post the exact method. Here’s the short version, since I don’t want to cut into my Mammie time too much. (more…)

These are so easy, you’ll have time to make a special dessert, or just spend a lot less time in the kitchen for a change!

• 12 won ton wrappers
• 3 cups shredded, cooked chicken
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup Sofrito (look in the International Foods section of your grocery)
• oil for frying

That’s really it!  Just mix everything together, wrap in won ton skins, and fry to desired crispness.  I like to take a whole chicken, rub it with salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic, chili powder, and cumin, then roast until the meat is falling off the bones for this recipe; you can, however, just grab a rotisserie chicken from the store and debone it for this recipe.

And they say I CAN’T make a meal in 30 minutes.  Ok, so it took longer, but only because I made homemade refried beans and what I’ve come to call (rather incorrectly, I might add) Mexi-Rice.  Speaking of, I should say a few words about sofrito.
  Now, homemade sofrito is preferable, but I promised “easy” and quick for this recipe, so the bottled stuff is fine.  I learned about this tasty addition from my friend Tigre, who’s Puerto Rican (and a great cook, to boot.)  It’s like a *very* thick salsa, and is used to flavor rice, beans, soups, and stews (just read the label!)  When I make it at home, I include peppers (roasted; red and green,) chiles, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and cilantro.  I really should make it in bulk batches and can it.  I think I’ll put that on my to-do list…

We seem to have a puffy theme going on this week. This one is for my friends… the ones who are always teasing me that I can’t make *anything* from a can, or from mundane ingredients. These delightful little critters — which are nifty enough to serve guests as finger foods — are easy and inexpensive to make, and yet are wonderfully light and flavorful, with just enough “poof” in them that it’s hard to come up with a better name.

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Here we are again, needing to go to the grocery store, so I was playing pickup poker with things in the freezer in order to make dinner tonight. I discovered a languishing box of puff pastry, and some fresh pork sausage from a local friend (home-raised, on good stuff, and no nasty nitrates and such!) and decided to make a stuffed puff pastry.

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You gotta remember these things… the stuff of potlucks and funeral wakes, even birthday parties and ladies’ luncheons in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s… jelled salads made with Jell-O, cream cheese, whipped cream (or whipped topping, more likely,) some sort of fruit (often pineapple,) and sometimes nuts. No matter what the flavor of fruit or Jell-O used, they always have one certain “taste” underneath, and I have been craving that for about a year, now.

A few weeks ago, for my grandson’s first birthday party dinner, my mother decided to make (in honor of his and my son’s love of pears, presumably) a recipe she’s been toting around in her binders for at least as long as she’s been home from Saudi (and that’s like 13 years) for something called “Nutty Pear Salad.” I fell upon it like a wolf, no doubt… my over-indulgence made somehow less embarassing by the fact that my daughter-in-law’s stepmother was doing the very same thing. And I vowed to make one (or one similar) at home, soon. Soon was last night, and by the time I was done with it, I had Nutty Pear Citrus Salad.
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Living in a temperate climate can skew one’s view of the changing seasons, but even early on, here in south-central Virginia, when the days are still mostly warm and the nights only occasionally more than slightly chill, there are indications that Autumn is indeed underway. Our first burst of colorful foliage caught my eye today in the early morning sunlight, and tickled my spirit a little more, getting ready for the turning wheel.

I realized last weekend, as I was making Eggs Benedict for a crowd, that I often miss out on eating when this happens — people are just Not Generous when it comes to sharing hollandaise sauce, for some reason. I also realized how dry and essentially tasteless (not to mention chewy-in-a-bad-way) store-bought English muffins can be. Yesterday, I decided to make this dish again — properly this time.

English muffins are not hard to make, although they are a bit time-consuming. My recipe is adapted from Alton Brown’s, which is, in turn, rather different than any other recipe I’ve ever encountered for making these tasty morsels. I thought the salt and sugar were a little off, taste-wise, so those are different. And I don’t know what size metal rings AB uses, but when I tried putting two #20 dishers of batter in one, I got a mutant muffin. I also finagled the rising process a little. So, as usual, normal Sunny-Tweaking has taken place, but AB’s recipe was my starting point. Here’s mine:

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Tishie’s toppings of choice (for today, at least) are:  light mayo, a spot of ketchup, and a nice blob of mustard (the yellow stuff,) several pieces of lettuce, melted American cheese (not cheese food product!) and… her unique twist… hot dog relish!

Some days, I’m really glad I have something amounting to routines going on, because otherwise, everything would fall apart. The past few days, it’s been Sinus Hell Week. We had a small group for Spirit Circle last night, which is a good thing, because my brain was fuzzy and dinner was something done on autopilot… which was going to be my excuse, should the dessert experiment go awry, as well!

Amid searing headaches and drainage tummy aches that made me curl up in a ball on the bed until early afternoon, I tried to decide on what to make for dessert. I had several ideas I wanted to try, but in the allergic haze, I couldn’t choose. When at last I dragged myself up and into the kitchen to make a start on something, at least, I was so tired and weak and pitiful (tummy aches will do that to me, even when the headache alone won’t!) that I just didn’t even really care… I’d put them all together, and make it a “Can’t-Decide” cake!

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