Brine Sublime!

I am stuffed tonight! I made baked chicken and it was good! I don't brine, I have used brine for a turkey before. I don't know why I don't always do this because it makes all the difference in the world. All it takes is some time. I am sure you can find a lot of different recipes for brine in the Internet and better than the one I used. I used a simple brine of just 1 cup salt to 5 quarts water, that's it. You will need a very tall pot to put everything in. After you have placed the brine and the chicken in the pot, place it in the fridge for 6 to 8 hours.

When it is time to cook, rinse the chicken and place it in a baking dish. I don't think you need to add anymore salt. Just add some garlic, onion, rosemary, lemon or whatever you would like to add to your chicken for added flavor. Then just place it in the oven and when it is ready you will have a very tasty and juicy bird!

Chicken Foot Soup

Well I am cooking something I had never heard of, Chicken Foot Soup! I was visiting one of our church members who had surgery and was not feeling well. Before I left I asked her if there was something she would like for me to bring her to eat. Her response was Chicken Foot Soup, since she lived in Fayetteville she had tried it and liked it. I told her I would as long as I could find the chicken feet. Well I never knew how easy it is to find chicken feet. I called our neighborhood grocery and they said, "yes we have them." Well they keep them in the back, they do not put them in the meat section...wonder why? They diffenately do not look appetizing.

I will take this to her tonight, and I do hope she will enjoy the soup and she will be up and around soon.

Labor Day

Well we spent our Labor Day laboring in the yard and garage. I had garage duty, which I believe is worse than prison work! Just guessing. I am glad we are past that work detail.

Labor day is usually a day that is spent grilling, so we did manage to put some burgers on the grill, grass fed burgers. If you have never thought that you wanted to spend that much money on hamburger, well you have never had grass fed hamburger. I love it and it is especially worth the extra money for special occasions. It is the best meat you have ever put in your mouth. I have tried short ribs and steak but my favorite is the ground hamburger meat. Hamburgers this good deserves homemade buns to go with it. So I made homemade buns which gave me an excuse to get out of the garage for awhile.

Now to go and fold flyers for church. I made some cookies to serve to my helpers. When you have willing workers, it is nice to give them a homemade cookie.

Go Green!

Yes tonight we went green in the kitchen! I know it is Friday date night, football night, movie night and its a holiday weekend, but we are pooped! So we stayed home and I serve Green Rice.

It is a really good dish... really. It may be hard to convince you kids because it does have lots of vegetables. This dish was filled with brown rice, broccoli, celery, and jalapeno peppers. All the green vegetables makes the dish have a green color, so that is why it is called Green Rice. I used hamburger but you could use chicken as well. There plenty of cheese and to top it off I put fresh cilantro on top. All you need to add to is corn on the cob, coleslaw or a tossed salad.

I hope all of you have a great Labor Day weekend and stay safe. We get to celebrate Ian's 3rd birthday this weekend, he told me he would be 16! That will be here before we can turn around.

The Kitchen is Busy!

Well the cat is out of the bag. I'm writing a cook book. Hopefully that will put me at another level of commitment. It will be filled with family recipes, the mountain lore I was brought up on and a lot of southern stuff, I love the southern stuff. Just today when I had to pick up some yeast, the clerk handed me my change and said, "there you go sweetie." Now she is a real southern girl!

So here is what Bob and I were eatin' in the kitchen tonight. We had Oven Beef Stew with brown rice. This is a recipe I have used for several years. It has lots of flavor and it fits into this antique dish my mother in law gave me. This old pot goes into the oven and it is good enough to be placed on the table.

We also had Squash Biscuits. Not so sure if they will make the cook book, I will have to tweak the recipe.

Well now to clean the kitchen and to go back to typing more recipes.

I Created a Super Southwestern Dish

I'm back! It is that time of year when the kitchen starts to get busy. I've been putting up all sorts of vegetables, the freezers is full. Right now I trying to finish my tomatoes before they rot.

Today, I wanted to share what I served for dinner last night, it was so good. I just call it Southwestern Chicken, I know I wasn't too creative with the title but the dish was really good.

I made my recipe for taco seasoning and I made fresh salsa with plenty of fresh cilantro,I love fresh cilantro. I just believe you just can't have too much in a dish. So I began to start thinking how to create a dish for dinner. I began to cook brown rice and when it was almost done I sprinkled the taco seasoning over the rice. I grilled the chicken breast and uses the taco seasoning as a rub on the chicken. I made the fresh salsa as the chicken cooked with lots of cilantro.

Then came the presentation. I put a helping of rice on the plate, then placed a chicken breast on the rice bed. Then I heated up some queso, Tostitos Monterey Jack Queso, and put about three tablespoons over the chicken and topped it with a generous helping of the fresh salsa. Is was so good! All you needed to add, was a tossed salad on the side. It was a great dinner, if I do say so myself!

Well it is the time of year that I being to enjoy cooking. I don't know what it is, other than a yearly cycle. Could it be the fresh vegetables! I'm not sure, but I do know this is a yearly event that last till Christmas.

I have enjoyed putting up a few vegetables that friends have given to me. I have received cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, field peas, and okra. Love it!

Today I made a dish that I have made before. It is a good one because you can use some of your fresh garden vegetables make it. It is called Cajun Chicken with Andouille. It is really good as a winter dish.