Ritzy Fried Chicken :-)

Fried chicken is one of my culinary nemesis. Either I can't get the breading right, or the chicken doesn't cook all the way through, or worse yet too oily. Now fixing the last two problems is easy: cook the chicken longer and have the oil at a higher temperature. Awesome fact: if the cooking oil is at the right temperature, the food absorbs less of it than if the temperature was too low :-) Anyways, after years of searching, I finally came across a recipe from Nigella Lawson called Ritz Chicken. The fact that I almost never have buttermilk or room in my fridge for overnight marinating lead to my adaptation.

Ritzy Chicken

1 roll of Ritz crackers (any kind is fine)
3/4 cup yogurt (vanilla, French vanilla, or plain)
1/4 cup milk
1 lb chicken breast boneless and skinless
Enough oil to fry chicken in

Crush the crackers to fine crumbs (I use a ziplock bag and have a kid squish them). Pour into a shallow bowl. Mix the yogurt and milk in another shallow bowl. Heat up 1-2 inches of oil in a fry pan or follow the directions to heat oil in a deep fryer. Cut the chicken into strips about 1/2 in wide. Cut strips in half to get nuggets. Put chicken in yogurt mixture a few pieces at a time and allow to sit for a couple of minutes. Then roll chicken pieces into crumbs to cover and put in hot oil. Fry until completely golden brown, turning if necessary. Remove to plate lined with paper towels and leave until cool. Enjoy :-)

Note: this chicken does not look or taste like KFC, but it does taste so much better!!

A Goat, a Wolf & a Cabbage

When I was in middle school one of my teachers loved, and I do mean LURVED, to tell riddles. Their favorite riddle was one about a farmer trying to cross a river. Perhaps you've heard it? Pretty much a farmer has to cross a river on a small ferry. He is bringing a goat, a wolf, and a cabbage to market. But the ferry will only hold him +1, and wolves eat goats whilst goats eat cabbages. So what the farmer does is he takes the goat over and leaves it on bank b. Then he goes back and gets the cabbage. He leaves that on bank b, taking the goat back with him to bank a. At bank a he switches the goat for the wolf. Now he has the wolf and cabbage on bank b and the goat on a. He makes one last trip across with the goat to bank b and finally FINALLY! the farmer is on his way. Whew! Sounds exhausting? Sometimes that's exactly how I feel being a mom. How 'bout you?