In Texas we have chicken fried steak and chicken fried chicken and now: chicken fried shrimp.  We were trying to come up with a nice crunchy breading for our shrimp and decided to batter it the same way we make fried chicken.  It was a success-thick, crunchy breaded shrimp!

Chicken Fried Shrimp

• 2 lbs shrimp, thawed, peeled, and de-veined
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 scant tsp baking soda (about 3/4 tsp)
• peanut or other oil for frying

1. In a medium bowl stir together 2 cups of flour, salt and garlic powder.
2. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, use a fork to stir together buttermilk, egg, baking powder and baking soda until foamy.
3. Holding a shrimp by the tail, coat first in flour then dip in buttermilk mixture, then coat again in flour.  Place shrimp on a plate. Repeat until all shrimp are coated.
4. Heat oil in a pot or deep fryer to about 350°F.
5. Carefully and quickly add shrimp one at a time to the hot oil.  You will need to do this in several batches to keep from over crowding your oil.
6. Fry shrimp until breading is golden brown and shrimp are cooked all the way through, about 2 min depending on how hot your oil stays.  You can always scoop out one shrimp and cut it in half to see if they are cooked all the way through yet.

Serve with cocktail sauce and french fries or hush puppies and biscuits.

We don’t eat as much chicken in the chaos house as we should.  It is an excellent, healthy and less expensive, protein source.  It’s just that chicken seems so boring.  I mean its just chicken.  You don’t need a recipe to cook chicken, you just cook it.  I forget sometimes that food doesn’t need to be complicated or extravagant to be delicious.  Take these chicken legs.  Some friends of ours make these chicken legs all the time and they are always great, but there isn’t a thing to it.  In fact, this was one of the best meals we’ve had in a long time as far as ease, flavor, and child cooperation-and it’s barely even a recipe.

Baked Chicken Legs

• 4 lbs chicken legs (this was about 20 legs or about 3-4 legs per person)
• salt and pepper or seasoned salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• hot sauce if desired (like Frank’s)

1. Heat oven to 475°.  Dry chicken legs by pressing them all over with a paper towel (do this even if they seem dry already, it will help the spices stick).
2. In a large bowl or plastic bag, toss chicken legs with salt and pepper or seasoned salt (I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika).
3. Add about 2 tbsp of oil to the bowl or bag and toss until legs are coated.
4. Spread legs onto one or two rimmed baking sheets or roasting pan and place in the oven.
5. Cook, using tongs to flip legs occasionally, approx 40 minutes or until meat easily separates from the bone.
6. Broil chicken legs briefly until skin browns and crisps slightly. Flip if desired.
7. If desired you can brush or toss some of the legs with hot sauce or serve plain or serve sprinkled lightly with Parmesan cheese.

In the picture above is also our homemade rice-a-roni.  Meals like these are nice because the oven does all the work, giving you time to make sides or clean up the kitchen.  Also, it is a great way to prepare a lot of meat at once, to eat for leftovers or in salads, or to take to work for lunch.

I’m not typically a meatball sub girl, but when the kids suggested spaghetti and meatballs while I was craving sandwiches, meatball subs is what you get.  It worked out perfectly, the kids got pasta and mrChaos and I got these crusty, chewy loaves filled with meatballs, sauce, and slathered with cheese. 

There really isn’t much of a recipe here, you can use any meatballs and sauce, just be sure to get a good, crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside sandwich roll to nestle your meatballs in.  Get plenty of sauce in there too and cover it with thick slices of mozzarella and fresh chopped parsley.  Broil until the cheese melts and serve with a little extra sauce if necessary.

One tip for getting your sandwiches to stand on their own (which makes for better broiling and eating), is to buy uncut rolls and slice them yourself.  Simply cut them down the middle like a baked potato, scoop out a little of the inside bread to make room for your meatballs then fill them up.

I will admit to being a brownie snob-and in the worst way.  Ask me if I want a brownie and of course I do, but let it slip that they’re homemade and, well, I just might hesitate.  It’s not that you didn’t buy the most expensive chocolate for them.  It’s not that you used two sticks of butter and six eggs.  I know they will be crazy rich and chocolaty.  It’s the texture I just can’t handle.  Yes, I am one of those: typical boxed mixed brownie texture snob.

I have been experimenting with brownie recipes for awhile, trying to find a homemade version with a suitably firm chew.  Most have been only okay, there was even a recipe we threw out (gasp!), I really liked these, but overall this recipe seemed to provide the best flavor and texture.  Somewhere between chewy and fudgy, they are rich and chocolaty as well.

One of the things I have noticed if you like chewy brownies is that the longer you let them sit, the better the texture.  Unfortunately I don’t even mean hours, but days.  Of course I can know that and still be digging freshly baked brownies out of the pan within minutes of pulling the pan from the oven.  Seriously, if you can wait til the next day or even a couple of days the texture gets better and better. Good luck with that.

Brownies

• 1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder or dark cocoa powder
• 1 tsp instant espresso (optional)
• 5 oz boiling water
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate (like Ghirardelli, two squares)
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted or chopped
• 5 oz vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups bread flour or all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (like Hershey’s special dark)

1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease a 13 x 9 pan.
2. Measure water into a glass measure cup and microwave for three minutes.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and espresso.
3. Once water boils, pour over cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.
4. Add unsweetened chocolate, butter, oil, eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and sugar, one at a time, whisking until each is smoothly incorporated.
5. Switch to a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and stir in flour and salt until combined.  Stir in bittersweet chocolate chips.
6. Bake 30-35 minutes or until tester in center comes out clean.  Take care if using glass or dark pans to adjust the cooking time.
7. Cool brownies in the pan as long as humanly possible.  At my house that’s about 10-15 minutes.