Mini Lemon Meringue Pies

Tonight I made little bitty individual lemon meringue pies.  They were time consuming, but rewarding!  They only make 6, so it's really the perfect amount, and the pan fits perfectly into my mini oven! (it calls for a muffin pan with 6 cups).  I highly suggest this recipe.  I had a little issue with the pie crust, and they certainly didn't look pretty, but at the end there's a bunch of stuff heaped on and you can't even tell.  Also, the lemon filling took longer than the recipe estimated...instead of whisking constantly for 3-4 minutes, I think I probably whisked for 10 minutes or so.  Here's the link! Mini Lemon Meringue Pies

My final product!

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Made Fried Chicken for dinner on Thursday night.  I also made mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans...yummy!  I marinated the chicken for about 3 hours in a buttermilk mixture.  Here's the recipe for that:

2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Basically just milk that all together and put the chicken in! It's supposed to be in an airtight container, and you let the chicken marinate in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

After the chicken has marinated for the amount that you want it to, take it out and dredge in a cornmeal/flour mixture! Here's the recipe for that:

2.5 cups all purpose flour
.5 cups yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper

I used a whole chicken, cut up into parts.  2 thighs, 2 breasts (each cut into 2 pieces), 2 drumsticks, and 2 wings.

Heat about 6 cups of canola oil in a large pot (I used my dutch oven) to 350 degrees F.  After you've dredged the chicken in the flour/cornmeal mixture (make sure it's in all of the little spaces) drop it into the  oil skin side first, and fry it on that side for 7-8 minutes.  Flip, and cook on the other side for another 7-8 minutes.  Take it out of the oil. Let some of the excess oil drip off into the pot before taking it to a paper bag to drain.   You won't be able to fry all of the chicken at once, so you'll have to do it in 2 batches.  DELISH!

the orange sauce on the right plate is a honey-hot sauce for the chicken.  mix about half a cup of honey with as much hot sauce as you like...very good! kicks up the chicken.

I got the recipe from the Clinton St. Baking Company cookbook.  The chicken and honey sauce are their recipes

delicious blueberry muffins!

I made these amazing blueberry muffins this morning! Well, morning for me...early afternoon for everyone else! I found the recipe on foodnetwork.com, Ina Garten of course! They are so light, moist, and yummy! Here's the link to the recipe:

Ina's blueberry muffins

I sprinkled a tiny bit of sugar on top of the muffins before baking to create a nice little crunch on top of the muffins...it was a good choice.  Here's a pic of the finished product!

Beef Stew

We had a ton of extra beer left over from Jake's birthday this past weekend, and since neither of us drink beer I wanted to use it to make something!  I thought Jake would love a good beef stew, so I made Pioneer Woman's Beef Stew with Beer and Paprika tonight.  SO DELICIOUS! Here's the link to her recipe:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/beef-stew-with-beer-and-paprika/

it's the first time I've used these bowls and saucers! they're from France, I guess they were my Dad's Mom's? Either way, they're perfect for soup!