Good Old Fried Chicken

How sweet, a wheel of chicken legs, all washed rinsed and ready to go. Why chicken legs, they are usually cheap, they cook quickly and who doesn't like food with a built in handle? Everyone loves fried chicken, I know, it is not the best food choices for those watching calories and fat grams, but fried chicken once in a while is not a bad thing, it;s only bad if you use the grease to make cream gravy and add a big blob of mashed potatoes on the side. But hey, you only live once, go for it, make some fried chicken tonight, you know you want the left overs in the fridge for a late night snack, right? Love to you all!!

The line up, all purpose flour, Lawry's Seasoning, if you want to, pepper, vegetable oil and of course chicken, make sure it is patted dry completely before flouring and frying or you will have a grease bomb explode in your kitchen.
In a medium to large skillet, better if it has a nice heavy bottom, add enough oil to bring level to almost midway. I use vegetable oil, sometimes canola if it is on sale. Just keep an eye on it, it can heat very quickly and catch on fire if left alone. also, please make sure no children or small animals or older folks are near-by to get burned. When cooking something in fat, you need to stay right with it, this is not the time for a bubble bath or to weed whack the lawn.
I lightly sprinkled the chicken with the Lawry's Seasonings before I hit it with the flour, this is a new toy and I am kind of liking the added flavor of the Lawry's. I did not add any more salt to the chicken, only pepper.
After dredging the chicken into plain old all-purpose flour, put into the hot oil, just be careful not to burn your fingers and please don't allow children near the stove due to the very hot oil and some times popping chicken, due to moisture pockets with in the skin.
After placing the floured chicken in the hot oil, I pepper mine with coarse ground pepper, I am not so stuffy that I think I need to turn a pepper grind to be a great cook, a big old bottle of coarse ground will do for me.
Make sure you get a good scald on the chicken, this means to brown at a high heat and turn, continue to brown for a couple of minutes, then when you have a good crust set, lower the heat to medium and put a snug fitting lid on the skillet and let it cook, you will need to turn ever so often, but always replace lid, this helps to steam the chicken to keep it moist. The chicken will need to cook all in total at least 30-45 minutes, depending on how big the pieces are.


Good Granny's drawers, this chicken is near perfect, lightly floured, golden brown, juicy and crispy at the same time. If you think you can't fry chicken, think again. Start with frying chicken legs or wings, they are smaller and easier to handle. Frying chicken is just like making biscuits, the more times you make it the better you get. Hope you love this good old fried chicken recipe, I have fixed it this way for almost 30 years and it works every time. Love to you all!

Super Simple Chicken Soup

Out of my mess of chicken, about $7.00 worth, I used one thigh to make my soup, this chicken has been washed and rinsed well and allowed to dry on a clean dish towel before using. I fried the 6 legs and roasted the other pieces left, I am making three recipes with all this chicken, really 4 as I am going to use some of the roasted chicken tomorrow to make a fruited cold chicken salad. I am hoping this inspires others to realize how easy it is to make simple meals with little cash and stretch it a long way. I have always been a thrifty shopper and cook and have always thought of recipes that my family would like and that could be made simply, no frew-frew here.
In a 5-6 quart pan, I added about 5 cups of water along with one chicken thigh, a small amount of Lowery's seasonings ans a small amount of McCormicks grill Masters seasoning. By a little amount I mean about 1 teaspoon. Bring this to a boil and allow to cook at a high simmer while getting onion and celery ready.

Add 3 or 4 chicken stock bouillon cubes to the boiling mixture, you can use low sodium if you have it, I didn't. Don't add extra salt without tasting the soup towards the end. You can use canned broth if you have it also.
Chop into small pieces, 1 small onion and 2 stalks of celery.
Dump the chopped onion and celery in to the boiling broth and allow to simmer with the chicken.
Add 2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables, you can used canned, but the frozen have less sodium.
Remove the stewed chicken from the pot and allow to slightly cool before removing the skin and bones.
Let the chicken slightly cool, then debone and remove skin, shred the chicken gently with your finger, add to boiling broth mixture and stir.
Add noodles to the boiling broth, I used a Mexican brand called La Moderna vermicelli, but if I did it again, I would buy heavier noodles, I think they don't get as mushy with reheats, I just thought mine were neat looking and very inexpensive, but maybe go with an egg noodle, they are a little thicker.

A chicken in every pot, well maybe just a piece, this pot of soup is pennies or maybe quarters to make, It makes about a gallon, it could feed a family very well with some nice crusty rolls or a grilled cheese sandwich on the side. I would not recommend freezing this, the noodles will mush up if you do.
How about that soup on a spoon? Looks pretty good, right!!!! This can be done while you are roasting your chicken, then you can have soup for supper and it is so hearty and filling, with the veggies and noodles and chicken. You can tell how rich the broth is. For anyone who always wanted a good soup recipe this is an easy one to make. Any Jewish mother would approve, along as your chicken was kosher. Love to you all!

Simply Roasted Chicken

I always wash my meats under cool water, I might even use a small bit of dish soap on them also, just making sure to rinse very well. I would wash hamburger if it didn't try to fall apart and look so gray. This picture turned out pretty graphic, probably keep the kids out of the room while doing this step or they might not eat the finished chicken.
After the chicken has been washed and rinsed thoroughly, I lay mine out on a clean dish towel and pat dry before putting on oiled pan, for this roasted chicken I only used the thighs and breasts and saved the legs for frying.
Add about 2-3 tablespoons of oil to a 9X13 inch baking pan, this helps for it not to stick to badly and you can roll the chicken around in it to help the seasoning stick.
A close up of the product, I get my at the local Wal-Mart, but I bet you could find it at one of the other big brother meg-lo-marts that is not so controversial.
I also love McCormick Grill Masters Roasted Garlic and Herb seasonings, they are nice large pieces of herbs and seasoning that really bring out the best in meats.
I just started using Lawry's seasoned salt and it is really good, adds an extra zing of flavor.

After seasoning, these guys, bake in a 375 degree oven for about 1 hour or until juices run clear from thickest piece of chicken.
The chicken is finished, all brown and crackling good, the little brown pieces on the pan are the best, yummy!
Simply roasted chicken, slightly crisp edges, extremely juicy insides, easy, easy, easy! Prep time is nothing and they bake one hour, these lovely pieces of chicken goodness are great as they are, finger licking good, or refrigerate for other meals, like pulled off the bone and chopped for sandwiches or salads, use in quesidillas or enchiladas, use in a casserole, the possibilities are endless. Even if you have a small family, you can buy a package and bake a tray on a Sunday afternoon, bone it out and put into freezer bags for meal prep later on in the week. An easy, economical and smart way to do chicken. Love to you all!

Strawberry Jell-O Poke Cake, 70's era recipe

This is a cake that was made popular in the 1970's, the other night at work, we started talking about food, which is not uncommon, but anyway, one of the girl's brought up the Jell-O poke cake and I remembered my mom making this. It was really easy and really good, mom topped hers with vanilla pudding, probably because she didn't have Cool Whip in our small rural community and it was to much trouble to whip real cream, either way it was a good cake, sorry that I forgot to photograph a couple of steps, but this is pretty easy and I have faith that you can do this yourself. The line up includes: 1 white or yellow cake mix, which needs oil, egg whites and water, 1 box of regular Strawberry Jell-O, or any other flavor you might like, 1 regular size tub of Cool Whip. I also used a regular 9X13 size cakepan, lightly greased and floured to prevent sticking. Pre-heat oven to cake mix directions. I hope you try this sweet and simple cake sometime and think spring! Love to you all.

Bake the cake according to the directions on the back of the box, you can use a white or yellow cake for this recipe, along with any flavor of Jell-O that you prefer.

Mix the Strawberry Jell-O according to package directions, when your cake has slightly cooled, punch holes all over the top with the end of a wooden spoon. Pour the liquid Jell-O into the holes and over the top, refrigerate several hours or overnight so that the Jell-O will firm up within the cake. Top with Cool Whip as an icing and serve.

Isn't this pretty, the color is so wonderfully artificial, thank goodness it is no longer 1974 and red food coloring is causing cancer, I'm sure they have taken care of that little problem. Anyway, I'm sorry I shortchanged you on pictures, I was trying to do 2 food blogs and watch the Superbowl at the same time. This is a wonderfully light and fruity desert to help lighten those heavy Superbowl foods we just consumed. Love to you all.

The Best Meatballs I Ever Made

This is the best meatball recipe I have ever made, I almost always make them in a tomato based sauce, but you could make these in a bbq sauce base or even a brown gravy base, I think one easy way would be to buy canned beef gravy or gravy mix packets and then add your meatballs to it to have a different style, these you could serve with mashed potatoes or noodles. But this recipe is for the tomato based version, I use a 5-6 quart size saucepan with a good fitting lid. Here is the line-up: 2 cans of diced canned tomatoes, 2 cans, large of Hunt's 4 cheese sauce, located on the spaghetti aisle, 3 eggs, 1 tube of saltine crackers, crushed, 1 package dry spaghetti sauce seasoning, 2 cups shredded fiesta or cheddar cheese, chopped or dry onion, if you like. If this seems like to much to handle for your little family, by all means cut it in half, it will work just fine.

Add 2 cans diced tomatoes, if you only have whole tomatoes, these will work also, just chop them up before you add them to the sauce, after the tomatoes, bring to simmer on low heat while you work on the meatball mixture.

Add 2 large cans of Hunt's four cheese sauce, you know this is the cheap sauce on the bottom shelf, it tastes really good, so don't muck up this recipe by using the expensive hoiety-toiety sauce on the upper shelves.

Use about 2 1/2 pounds of 80/20 ground beef. You can also use ground turkey or a leaner beef if you are watching fat and calories.

Add one package of dry spaghetti seasoning mix to ground beef.

Add 3 eggs to the meat mixture, looks kind of like dogfood right now, doesn't it?

Add 2 cups of shredded fiesta or cheddar cheese, either one is fine, the fiesta just adds a couple different flavors, with the different cheeses.

Add one tube of crushed saltine crackers, I gently crush mine in their own tube, it works well.

Mix all the ingredients together with the best tool you have, your clean hands! Mix until completely blended together.

Roll the prepared meat mixture into balls, I roll mine about walnut size, but you can size yours any size you want, size does not matter :)

Place each meatball in a single layer on top of the sauce, when you get the layer done, then gently submerge under the sauce to start a new layer.

After layering the meatballs, gently push each one down in the sauce, then you will have room for a second layer. Make sure all meatballs are covered before you put the lid on to simmer.

After making sure all the little meatballs are dunked under the warm sauce, put a lid on and turn to low heat, then DON'T TOUCH for one hour, don't open the lid, don't stir, nothing, Believe me when I tell you that this will work. It will cook these little guys completely and the sauce will become rich and hardy. I know, it is so tempting to stir, but please don't.

A homemade meatball sub sandwich that any Italian mama would approve, topped with shredded mozzarella.

It's a hot and not so spicya meatball and spaghetti, lotta of love'n on a plate!

A work of art, a beautiful glistening meatball, dripping with sauce. All finished this 5 quart cooker of meatballs and sauce will make several meals or can be frozen. The hardest part of this dish was rolling out all the little meatballs by hand. Use these little guys in a meatball sub, spaghetti and meatballs, meatball stew, layer with lasagna noodles and cheese, the possibilities are endless. Happy eating !! Love to you all.