Fried Chicken, Take 2

Thursday night I tried out another fried chicken recipe. And may I say, second time was the charm, becuase this chicken was GOOD! I made four breast pieces (using skinless boneless chicken breasts), and this recipe was just enough to cover all four, with a little leftover, but not enough where I felt like I was wasting a lot of batter.


These are the ingredients I started out with.

First, of course, you put the oil in and start heating it up while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. This is fresh oil, so it looks nice and pure. You should see it after you use it a few times, though - ick.

Now that you have the oil heating up, you mix together the dry ingredients. Here we're using 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 T garlic salt (I used garlic powder, because we didn't have garlic salt), 1 t black pepper, and 1/4 t poultry seasoning. (Of course, T means tablespoon, and t means teaspoon.) Throw it all in a bowl, mix it all together, and set it aside.

Next you mix up the crispy batter ingredients. Here we're using 2/3 cup flour, 1/2 t salt, 1 beaten egg yolk (I kind of felt guilty throwing away the white, but what can I do with one egg white?) and 3/4 cup flat beer or water (I used flat beer). Mix it all together, and set it aside once again.

Now for the fun stuff. You take a piece of chicken (in my case, boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but of course you can use the more traditional fryer pieces, too), and dip it first into the dry ingredients.

Then you dip it in the wet ingredients, getting it nicely covered, all sloppy like.

Then you dip it into the dry ingredients again.

Place the chicken in the fryer (the recipe didn't say how hot to make it - I set it to about 375) and let it cook for 15-18 minutes. I was doing fairly large breasts, and could only do them one at a time, unfortunately, so I was standing at the fryer for just over an hour. But smaller pieces could be done together, of course (or if you had a bigger fryer, that would let you do more pieces, too). I cooked these for 15 minutes each, and they came out perfectly done.

Here's the first piece, fresh out of the oil. Sorry if the pictures are kind of blurry - I love having a digital camera, but the way the screen is on this one, I couldn't tell that this picture and the next one were a little blurry until I had them on the computer, and by then it was too late to retake them. C'est la vie.

Here it is after I cut into it and ate the first bite. I don't have audio of me eating it, but here's what it sounded like: "oh man. Oh that's good. Mmm." Hmm. Sounds kind of dirty, huh. :) It was that good, though. I LOVE a good piece of crispy chicken.

So there we are. My search for a good fried chicken recipe is over in two tries. Here's the recipe, as I found it on cooks.com (with my notes in parentheses).

Crispy Fried Chicken

Seasoned Flour

1 (3 lb.) fryer, cut up (or 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
1 1/2 c. flour
1 T garlic salt
1 t black pepper
1 1/2 t paprika
1/4 t poultry seasoning

Crispy Batter:

2/3 c. flour
1/2 t salt
1 beaten egg yolk
3/4 c. flat beer or water

Combine ingredients for seasoned flour and set aside. Combine ingredients for crispy batter and set aside. Heat oil in frying pan or deep fat fryer (I would actually start this before you start combining ingredients). Dip chicken in seasoned flour. Dip chicken in crispy batter. Dip again in seasoned flour. Fry for 15-18 minutes or until well browned. Drain on paper towels.

Oh So Many Doggies

It's once again doggy day! I love doggy and kitty days, I really do. I hope you do, too. :)

Wanting the Chicken I Was Making for Dinner






Big Dog Heads





Excited Duff


J had just gotten home after two days away at work. Duff was so excited that when he got back in from going out to say hi in the garage, he grabbed a toy and went on the couch with it, watching the back door eagerly, waiting for J to come in. We all missed our J. :)

Sleeping




Last night we went into the bedroom to watch Earl and The Office. The dogs all fell asleep, and looked so cute I had to take more pictures.

Back To Bed Please?

In the morning, when McDuff gets done with his breakfast, he goes to the bedroom door, hoping to get let in to sleep on the bed. If J is in there sleeping, I let him in. If I'm in there sleeping, J lets him in. If J is at work and I'm getting ready for work, he doesn't get to go in - he still hopes, though. :)

Best Picture 101 Update

Last night I watched the oldest Best Picture winner that I had on my Netflix list:

Broadway Melody of 1929
1929
Starring Charles King, Anita Page and Bessie Love

This was an okay movie - the first musical to win Best Picture, and at a time when talkies were still pretty new. The movie opened with a song, which was nice, but I was sitting there wondering if I was going to get any story during this movie, or if the people of 1929 thought singing and dancing were enough. Well, I did finally get a story, I'm happy to say.

The movie turns out to be about two sisters who move to New York City to pursue a career as song and dance girls on Broadway. They moved into a hotel suite, which I'm sure any aspiring actor/singer/dancer moving to New York today would die to live in, but it was the movies, and who knows - maybe NYC was easier to live in back then.

Anyway, it turns out that the boyfriend of one of the girls (Eddie was the boyfriend, Hank was the girl - weird, but yes, she was named Hank) was already in the city, and had a job as a song writer, and was doing really well for himself. So he got the girls an audition for a show. The "pretty" sister (Queenie) got in, but the "manager" sister (Hank) didn't, but Queenie talked to the producer and managed to convince him to take both girls.

Okay, long story short. Eddie falls for Queenie, but Queenie doesn't want to hurt Hank, so she starts seeing some rich guy who wants to make her a kept woman - you know, give her an aparment in the city, keep her in furs and jewels, and get some nookie anytime he wants. Hank is devastated at what Queenie is doing, but has no idea she's doing it for her sake. Finally, after witnessing a scene between Eddie and Queenie, Hank realizes what's happening, and is hurt, but she turns self-sacrificing and tells Eddie that she never loved him anyway (lie), and tells him to go save Queenie from this rich guy. Which he does. Eddie and Queenie get married, and Hank goes back to the vaudeville circuit that the girls came from, playing a tour of 30 cities. And for some reason everyone is happy.

Personally, I think Hank got the shaft.

Also, as soon as Queenie and Eddie got married, Queenie quit trying to be a star to be a wife. Which is to be expected from a movie made in 1929, I guess. Women weren't supposed to be anything other than housewives and mothers back then anyway.

So, one more Best Picture winner done, and I gave it 3 stars out of 5 on Netflix. I'm glad I saw it, but I don't suppose I'll ever want to see it again. Once was enough.

Boring Entry Below

I just looked up a new fried chicken recipe. We have some chicken breasts in the freezer, and I say it's time to try again to find the perfect crispy fried chicken recipe. I just don't know if we have any paprika and poultry seasoning. I hope we do. I'll take pictures and write about the finished product, of course. I have to document my hunt for the perfect recipe!

So. J is working a ton this month, because his co-worker is off most of the month hunting (I just will never understand the fascination so many people have with hunting, but that's just me). He left yesterday morning for work, and will be staying over in his work city, not coming home until tomorrow afternoon. I miss him. And I want to welcome him home with some yummy fried chicken, so here's hoping we have the two seasonings. :D

Anyway. Today I had no idea what to talk about in here, so I think that's about all I have to say. Exciting, wasn't it? :D I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Playful Sable

I got the camera out to take pictures of the cats last night, and Sable decided it was time to play. So, since I got so many great pictures of her, today is now officially Sable Day! (With the other cats added in at the bottom, because I seem to be incapable of only focusing on one animal at a time.)

Playful Sable

Sable was sleeping on the back of the cat chair when I got up to take pictures. I decided to get a shot from the other side of the stair railing.

She decided that was an invitation to grab at me through the railing bars.

Then she got up and followed me upstairs (I was originally intending to get a photo of Lucy and Gracie).

Then, after I got my picture of Lucy and Gracie, she was on the landing, and decided to start playing with me.








Sable Spam Over

This is the picture I wanted of Gracie and Lucy. I hadn't seen Gracie since right after I got home, so I went searching for her, and found her curled up with Lucy in this open cupboard that is upstairs. I store blankets there, and the cats like to sleep there.

This is Kate, where she spends about 90% of her time - in one of the cat houses in the dining room. It looks like I need to steal the houses from her (one at a time) and wash them. I told J that when Kate dies, I'm going to have to throw these out - I associate them too much with her to keep them around when she's gone. She really is in them almost all the time - moving from one to the other.

Zelda was following me around when I was taking pictures last night, too. I got two of her on the stairs, and couldn't decide which of them to use, so you get both of them. :)

For some reason I really liked this one - the way her face looks from above. I like it.

Okay, kitty spam over. :)

Best Picture Update

J and I knocked two more movies off my Oscar winner list recently. First up:

The Sting
1974
Starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman

I enjoyed this a lot! I kind of feel like I need to watch it again, though, because I didn't quite understand everything they were doing as part of the sting. I've already sent the DVD back, but due to the wonders of Netflix, I believe I can watch it online (and if I'm remembering wrong, I can always get the DVD again). I was surprised watching this how much older Paul Newman was than Robert Redford - I thought they were pretty much the same age, but Redford looked way younger in this. Anyway, I would obviously be a very easy mark for a conman, since they lost me so easily, but I could see why this won Best Picture. It was very well done.

Next up was:

On the Waterfront
1954
Starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and introducing Eva Marie Saint.

I really liked this one a lot! What isn't to like - it's the story of a man who stands up to the injustices being handed down to longshoremen, beating them and getting justice for his fellow workers. Also a young, thin Marlon Brando, which I don't think I've ever seen in a movie before. To me he's always been the fat old man he was in The Godfather, so this was kind of weird. It was nice to see him that way, though. And of course I loved hearing the famous lines - "I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody." And one I didn't know came from that movie, about a "one way ticket to palookaville."

Two very enjoyable movies, and two more done on the list of ones I have to watch. Next up is a movie from 1929 - The Broadway Melody of 1929, which was the first musical to win the Best Picture Oscar. I'm going to go chronologically from here on out (probably), so I'll be working my way through the decades. This was a fun thing to put on my 101 list. :)

Happy List, November 2 - November 8

Sunday: Hanging out with J. I love our Sundays together. And we had a good one – he went out and took down Halloween decorations and worked in the garage, and I rearranged pictures in the living room and our bedroom (taking down the prints I had hanging in what was the spare room and is now his studio, and putting them up in our room and the living room). Spending a few minutes in the studio with him and his two dogs while he listened to the Dolphins win their game. Watching the first episode of Firefly again – I love that show so much, and wish it had gone more than one season.

Monday: Watching The Sting and then an episode of Buffy with J last night. I love watching TV with him, and I was especially happy to watch a Buffy – it had been a long time.

Tuesday: Voting!

Wednesday: Getting a “nothing to worry about” from the doctor about an issue I was slightly worried about, and kind of afraid to talk to her about. Getting a referral for something else that I want done. Also, election results! This was a very exciting election, no matter who you were voting for. I finished playing my BC!

Thursday: Getting to spend the evening with J! Watching my Thursday night shows.

Friday: Spending the evening with J, and really just appreciating having him.

Saturday: Getting most of an update written for one of my Sims 2 legacies. Spending the evening with J.

Cars Suck, Part Two

Yesterday after work I dropped my car off at the garage, to get the oil pan replaced, along with getting new shocks and springs. The work was done today, and I went over to pick it up, and it cost twice as much as I was prepared to pay. Oy! Stupid effing cars.

I had the money to cover it, because I had the money set aside for my property taxes in January, and my homeowner's insurance this month. But now I have to get more work done, because the check engine light is on, which will make it fail inspection, and it's due for inspection in December. And I have to save the money for my taxes again. Sigh.

Christmas? What's that? Something that comes in December, that usually requires money to be spent? Yeah, I'll be skipping that this year, most likely. Double sigh.

Cars suck.

Yay for Doggy Day!

Not This Again!

Don't listen to Rosebud. She's grumpy because I'm following her and the other dogs around with the camera. But she should be excited, because it's Doggy Picture Day, woo!

Tongues!



I love when I catch fun pictures, and what's more fun than dogs with their tongues out? I love it.

Yawning Dogs!

Okay, maybe yawning dogs may be even more fun. Bernie must have been tired when I was taking his picture last night.


I love this shot, especially. It was pure luck, too. I was taking his picture laying there on the step going into the dining room, and it was dark enough out that I couldn't see anything in the screen on my camera - I love that I have a camera, but it kind of sucks, really. He happened to yawn just as I was clicking the picture and by some miracle it was nicely centered and everything. I LOVE this shot.

Jumpy Duffy

In case you ever wondered what it looks like when a McDuff jumps on your legs. :)

Cute