Chicken Chicken Chicken Everywhere

So on tonight's menu is chicken three ways, a trio if you will.

Chicken Drumettes, Fingers, and Buffalo Chicken Fingers.

First tomato pie of the year

Today, we had the first tomato pie of the year. Our tomato plants are not making the huge abundance we get usually.

Minjenah's Bridgetown Grill

Bridgetown Grill was a restaurant in Atlanta that closed its doors a few years ago. I was inspired to make the food that I remember from there.



That is jerk chicken with black beans and garlic rice with a scallion lime cream sauce with a cucumber, tomato, red onion and dill salad. It was not exactly Bridgetown Grill but it was yummy.

The jerk chicken was from a packaged marinade. The garlic rice I made in my rice cooker with a spoonful of smashed garlic. I totally made up the scallion lime cream sauce. And I listed what I put in my salad.

Scallion Lime Cream Sauce
4 ounces yogurt
4 ounces sour cream
2 ounces half and half
Juice of one lime
One bunch of scallions, green part only.
Salt
Pepper

Blenderize this until light jade green. Drizzle on top of the black beans, it adds a bit of tart brightness to the black beans.

Semi Homemade Cornbread

So I hate Sandra Lee. Her food looks yucky and I really do not think that she knows how to cook. I have never looked at her cooking show and thought, wow I should make that. Not like the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. I made whiskey sours for yohboh because of her. Yohboh thanks her for that.

Also, what is up with a tablescape?

But I totally Semi Homemade this cornbread adorning my bowl of chili.


No I did not use one of the weird recipes from the large breasted blonde. I used a box of cornbread muffin mix. It was one in the blue box that makes six muffins.

Here is the recipe:
Semi Homemade Cornbread by Minjenah

1 box of corn muffin mix, blue box that makes six muffins
1 egg
1/4 cup half and half (you could use milk, but we had no milk but we had half and half)
1/2 can of Rotel (why half a can of Rotel? because I used the other half for Velveeta dip)

1/2 cup Monterey Jack Cheese shredded

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease an 8 x 8 baking pan.
Mix the first four ingredients together until just mixed.
Put the cheese on top.
Bake for 20 minutes.

Yohboh asked me to make him chili for when he went camping a few weeks ago. So I did. Then he forgets the chili.

Ice Cold Beer

I am not much of a drinker but this is how beer should be!

Having your cake and eating it too

Cutie Cupcakes

We are having a party for my Mother In Law and her friend Tonia this Saturday. I made my MIL a mocha cake and for Tonia:


That is a vanilla cupcake with a brownie in the center with frosting for condiments to look like a cheese burger and sugar cookie french fries.

I got the idea from this entry from the great Bakerella. Of course hers look superior but I gotta say these are pretty damn cute.

Computer Issues

My computer is dead. So while I am eating all sorts of yummy things, I cannot tell you about until later.

Seoul Food

Yohboh and I joke that if we were to open a restaurant, we would name it Seoul Food. We would serve our comfort foods: Southern and Korean. So with this in mind, I came up with this:



That is chicken marinated in kimchee juice. This is something that came to me because: 1) I had some chicken 2) I had finished some cucumber kimchee and it seemed wasteful to throw out the flavorful liquid.

To make it southern I did this:



Yep, I breaded it so it could be deep fried (what is more Southern than fried chicken?)


After we cooked it:



I decided it needed sauce:

That is ginger jam, cilantro, kochujang (Korean red pepper paste) and vinegar.


But then I was thinking about the Kogi truck in LA when I did this:

That is a burrito with the sauce, kimchee juice marinated chicken and a cucumber salad in a whole wheat flour tortilla.

It was tasty.

And my mother would be so upset I used her kimchee juice for such a dish.

The Durty Fajita party

We had dinner at Durty's house. We had fajitas. Fajitas are a favorite thing for parties because it is participatory. And people can put in what they want. We had chicken, pork and beef fajitas. There were margaritas (of course) and Durty made this yummy banana dessert.



WE SHOULD SO THIS MORE OFTEN!

Caprese Salad

Our tomatoes are not doing as well as they usually do so we have only had caprese salad twice this summer.

Grilled Snap Beans

Yohboh takes snap beans, tosses them with olive oil, salt and pepper and throws them on the grill. They are delish!

Burgers

Sometimes, all you want is a burger. I am not going to put a recipe up for a burger, but I have to say, the burgers that yohboh makes are some of the best. Also, Saveur magazine has The Burger Issue. You should check it out. If you know me IRL, I will lend you my copy.

Squash Casserole

So I have mentioned before that my late grandmother in law gave me her recipe books. They are fun to look through and find obscure ingredients like oleo or marriage advice (be sure to freshen that lipstick before your husband comes home!). But the best treasures in the recipe collection are the little 3 x 5 cards that contain her spidery handwriting for an old school recipe like Squash Casserole. I was really intrigued because the recipe lists crumbled Ritz crackers. Anything that contains a Ritz cracker is tasty. You can tell it was a favorite because it is stained and yellowed with use.

I have been thinking about Laverne lately since this is her birthday month so I share it with you.



Laverne's Squash Casserole

2 T butter
3-4 crookneck squash, thinly sliced (I actually used half of a large garden grown zucchini)
1 onion, thinly sliced
12 Ritz crackers, crushed
4 ounces cheddar cheese

Cook the onion and squash in a skillet with butter until soft. Season with lots of salt and pepper. Put in a small casserole dish. Sprinkle with the crushed crackers and cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 until bubbly aout 30 minutes.

Williams Sonoma

I love the Williams Sonoma catalog. It is so much fun to flip through it and chuckle. Why do I chuckle, do you ask? Because IT IS SO OVERPRICED!

For example:
This is a hotel pan and a restaurant supply warehouse. If is $10.45 alone and $19.63 with the lid.

But if you buy the THIRD PAN for the Williams Sonoma, it is $35.00 for the lid and pan.

What is the difference between the THIRD PAN and a hotel pan? About fifteen dollars.

I like restaurant supply warehouses. You can get all the things that professional cooks use. Or you can pay 15.37 more for the fancy catalog.

Yohboh cooks

Yohboh is a wonderful cook. Tonight he made dinner.
Shrimp


Roasted Beets


Acorn Squash