Zippy Chicken

OK - I know that's a lame title, but that's just what it was.  Tasty, zippy chicken.  If I did it again (and I will) it would be just a little bit zippier (a little more red pepper flakes).  But it was so good, and the leftovers are my lunch for tomorrow.  Yummy!!!!  And cheap eats.  I'm guessing dinner for two with leftovers for lunch -- under $5.  Good stuff!

Big Steve and I started low-carbing a week or two ago.  We've both lost several pounds already.  But we had reached a crisis stage.  You see, we had a wonderful houseguest for the summer who ate neither beef nor pork.  No problem, we adore chicken and meatless meals.  So we had chicken this and chicken that during the summer.  I enjoyed it, but Big Steve is a red meat kind of guy.  So he got a bit overdosed on chicken and a bit underdosed on red meat.  So for the past two weeks it has been red meat this and red meat that.  Honestly, I was just about to puke red meat two days ago.

So..............yesterday we had awesome shrimp and the last of the green beans  from the garden.  But for tonight, I took some so-so looking drumsticks from the freezer and wondered what to do with them.  I wanted something with a soy sauce base. 

Enter zippy chicken!  (And mashed faux-potatoes...low carb yumminess!!!)

White Bean Salad

As promised, here's the recipe for the  white bean salad we had yesterday.  A few weeks ago we had something almost exactly like this from a Greek food wagon outside the NYS Capitol.  It was heavenly.  So we tried it ourselves, and it really couldn't be easier.

Click on the picture for a closer look -- there's wonderful dill from the garden in there, although you could use dill from the store just as easily.

It's cheap, satisfying, really tasty, and healthy to boot! 

Chicken Sauce

You know what?  Chicken Butt!!!  Ok, I know that's seriously juvenile, but my own children taught me that several years ago, and it's a smart a$$ joke for me even today (ask the young woman who works with me) but I digress....

Loads of years ago (since we are so old), my brother came home from dinner with the family of a friend (who just happened to be attending chef school somewhere in NYS) and declared he had enjoyed the BEST grilled chicken ever, hands down.  We copied the recipe, and YES!!!!  Hands down, this was the best grilled chicken recipe ever.  It's so simple, I hate to even share the secret recipe.  It's vintage (meaning in my big brother's own handwriting some 50 years ago), it's simple, and it's seriously tasty!  Please copy, and enjoy. 

It's just so easy, just mix it all up....

and then use a really cheap paint brush (or really expensive food brush, but of course, you already know where we stand here at the Haney Place......grill slowly, and end up with this:

Oh yes, good eats, and on the cheap, like we love to do here!!!  That recipe for white bean/dill salad tomorrow.

 

Cheap and Easy Eats Haney Style - Cream Cheese & Chive Omelettes

Tonight it was just me and Big Steve.  So...what says a night off more than breakfast in the evening?  Anyway, I pay homage tonight to the two wonderful ladies who taught me to make an omelette at Scotia Glenville Central School's Home Economics Class -- Ms. Sonia Klinkow and Ms. Keenan - I'm so sorry if I mis-remembered your names, but you made a definite impact on my life, Haney Style!!!!

So anyway, I had some uncooked bacon, and first of all, when I arrived home, big Steve had that bacon frying in the pan.  What in the world smells better than bacon frying in the pan when you walk through the front door?

At any rate, we had a wonderful training in cooking and sewing at Scotia Glenville schools back in the day.  It's pretty funny.  I remember a particular gym teacher being tall, dark and handsome, and all the girls had a crush on him.  One of the girls who works for me (where I work), same age as my daugters, had the same gym teacher and she remembers him as old and creepy.....  I don't really think he was creepy, but it just goes to show you how a few years' difference can mean a lot...

At any rate...take some really awesome free-range eggs from healthy, running, bug eating chickens, and stir em up really well in a bowl with some raw milk and some sea salt and freshely ground pepper.  Heat up your skillet/pan really well with some raw/real butter (or whatever butter you got) and then pour in the egg mixture.  Yummmmmmm......

Anyway, heat up your skillet with a good amount of fat, (butter, bacon, whatever) and then stir up however many eggs (at least 2 per person).  Flop them into the pan.  As they start to set, use your spatula to let the liquid middles cook on the outside that you flopped up with your spatula....

When it's all half set, add your filling.  We used cubed cream cheese and some chives.  After they have set in a bit, use your spatula to flop the whole thing in half. 

At any rate, let me know if you have any questions.  If you can get your hands on some really good quality eggs, ths is a really wonderful vegetarian version of the sit down dinner.  Takes two minutes, and it's cheap eats.  Thank you so much, Mrs. Keenan and Mrs. Klinkow!!!

End of the Winter Peach Cobbler (and dinner of course)

Well, there aren't any more Haney peaches here from last year, as you can well imagine.  So for a last minute "company" dessert, what could we do?  Canned peaches to the rescue!  This was a truly simple recipe, and that warm peach cobbler seemed to be a blessing to all here tonight.

So here we go:

2 cups white sugar
1 cup butter

Whip it all up good, and then add:

2 cups milk alternately with
2 cups self rising flour

Mix it all up, throw it all into a well greased 9 x 13 pan and then then dump a 29 oz. can of canned peaches on top and bake at 350 for 1/2 hour or so...

Here you go in photos both before:

And after (note how those pretty peaches sank to the bottom and moistened everything real nice..)

Tonight's dinner was grilled marinated flank steak, store bought dinner rolls with butter, and a lovely rice/spinach/egg/cheese thing I threw together without thinking about it.  If you want to make it, let me know, and I'll figure it out.  We marinated the flank steak (from that pastured cow we got a few weeks back) and it looked something like this (I'm still rubbing my tummy...)

And the rice/spinach/egg/cheese thing looked something like this...

And when they were digging in, it looked something like this...

No leftovers tonight, so I consider it a success.  When Steve and I remove ourselves from this place, I declare I will need farmhands to feed, at the very least....

At any rate, here at the Haney Place we pray tonight that God would bless you as richly as He has blessed us.

Asian Inspired Drumsticks and Fried Rice

Wow...a seriously substantial meal.  It was a cooperative effort.  I did the meat, Big Steve did the rice on the side.

So....Good CHEAP eats Haney style...as usual, it's more method than recipe, so here we go!  Take a mess of drumsticks.  If you're frugal, they're way cheap at the market.  If you're whole foods, you don't need drumsticks, just a mess of chicken parts (one cut up chicken will more than do).  Leave the skin on.  Just my opionion.  Then mix up some chili sauce and soy sauce, equal parts.  Add a mess of minced garlic.  Stir it up.  Put your drumsticks (or other parts) into a pan big enough to hold them in a single layer.  Then spread the soy/chili sauce/garlic on top.  Now sprinkle on some sesame seeds - however much makes you happy.  Now, put it in the fridge for 1/2 hour-ish.

Next, throw the whole mess into the oven (uncovered) for about 35-40 mins at 350.

Meantime....chop up some onion and celery and garlic and toss it about in a wok with some extra virgin coconut oil (oh, mamma -- but you could use any oil you have) and toss and toss and toss (with soy sauce and a bit of horseradish) until it's as splendid as you can make it. 

This is GOOD, friends.  I'm just about to go up for seconds.  No kidding, my plate is in my lap and my dogs are wondering why they haven't had a bite yet!

I Made Ketchup!!!

It's ketchup.  Now mind you, it's not the best it could be.  It's not Army (Be, all that you could be...).  It's just middlin' Haney Place ketchup.  But at least it doesn't have any HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP or any other bs ingredients.  It's just a condiment I would be proud to put on my (pastured, free range) scrambled eggs.  Nutritional nirvana.  We're working on lacto-fermented ketchup, and that will follow in a week or so.  But for now, it's ketchup that parents could encourage their children to dip into.  And that's saying something!!!  Next fall, we will make this recipe using our own home grown, dried tomato powder.  See me for that.  That's multiple blog posts.

At any rate, it's not organic, it's not the best it could be.  But it's a damn sight better than that crap you buy in the supermarket bearing the same name.  And it's a good food to put in your mouth.  And anyway, for ketchup lovers, ketchup is in itself a food group!!!

Meanwhile.....Big Steve has been outside all day today (being the first real Spring-like day) raking up a winter's worth of dog poopies, pruning the mini-orchard and making the Haney Place agreeable, in generable.  I heard he had a hankering for pancakes, so I just called him in for lunch.  He had no problem in obeying my request for his presence!!!



Then, I made ketchup.  I LOVE ketchup as an adornment to some lovely free range eggs, scrambled in some coconut oil, and then topped with some spicy sweet ketchup.  I do NOT, however, appreciate high fructose corn syrup, or the other additives (poisons) in commercial ketchup.  So I made my own.  Took me five minutes, tops.  And it's freaking awesome.



And now, the sheets are flapping on the line in this truly spring day.  We haven't had anything resembling Spring here in Upstate NY since last year.  But I have already put a few loads out to flap in today's blessed sunshine.  No dryer needed, thank you Lord!

Mary Walker Made a Peck of Pickled Peppers....

If Mary Walker made a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Mary Walker made?

Well...let's get a few things straight.  My name is Mary Beth!  :-)  And I did make a batch of pickled peppers tonight.  I'm putting some grey matter toward the little that is left in my produce drawer, so as not to waste any of the garden goodness.  So tonight I took the last of Big Steve's jalapeno's and pickled them.  Refrigerator pickled them, as there is only one big-ass jar of them, and we will use them before they could ever go bad.

So we did this:  We had fewer than 5 lbs. jalapenos.  We left them whole, packed them (loosely) into a clean 1/2 gallon jar we got from the Deli Madhouse...it has previously held 5-bean salad.  It was awesome, but I am so glad it was gone.  Beans are healthy, but the sugar in this salad was not.  And it was so enticing!!!  But I digress...

We packed the whole peppers into the jar, after we poked each one several times with a sharp knife.

Then we poured the hot liquid over the whole mess.  In a week or two, they will be ready for use to eat alone (if you have a bloody death wish) or in recipes.

God bless you all tonight, and we're thankful that we used, and didn't lose, the last of our jalapenos!  (Thank you so much, dearest of Stiva's, for growing these peppers with such loving care).

It's a Very Busy Time of Year!

Seriously, it really is.  From now till, well probably, mid-October, it will be a frenzy of activity around here.  Bringing it in.  Bringing it all in.  I have a table full of green tomatoes tonight, a field full of jalapenos, green beans needing to be spoken for, and the tomatoes and bell peppers haven't even started.  Then there is that tree full of peaches...  I'll stop now because there isn't time.  Suffice it to say we had a wondrous meal last night...steak on the grill, monstrous baked potatoes, and best of all, fresh tomato salad.  Fresh red tomatoes from the garden. Yummy!!!!

Tonight, it was a cooked meal with the fresh stuff....bracciole cooked in a fresh tomato marinara in the slow cooker, and a wonderful tray of eggplant parmagania with the eggplant and tomatoes (and herbs) from the garden.

I haven't put down the recipes because I don't have time unless I know someone wants them.  You know how to get me for the recipes.  If all else fails, leave a comment!!!

Sunny Sunday

It wasn't supposed to be sunny today.  In fact, the weatherman promised us thunderstorms for most of the night and lots of rain today.  Yesterday, the heat index was around 100.  The humidity is stifling.  It only cooled down to 76-77 last night, and the humidity just kept hanging around almost 80%.  Thankfully, the weatherman was wrong.  I say thankfully because our dryer went kaput yesterday.  Big Steve has it in several pieces in the laundry room, and the parts store won't be open until tomorrow. 

So....I'm truly thankful for our big generous clothesline to help us get our laundry all clean and ready for the workweek ahead. 

In the meantime, we had sausage, eggs and grits for breakfast this morning.  Yummy!!!  And I believe I'll make up a batch of sausage/egg/cheese breakfast sammiches for the freezer.  I had a thought about a loaf of grits/meat/eggs that could be sliced up and frozen for individual servings.  I might just have to try that.  Wouldn't it be good heated up on a skillet with a little bacon grease?  Oh boy....

At any rate, it's sill morning, and already Big Steve has deposited some monster blueberries and lovely purple
eggplants in the kitchen for me to figure out what to do with.  Oh boy -- it's really going to be a great day!!!

Now, to figure out what to do with the eggplant now that it's coming in  hot an heavy...

Hoppin' John

I started with the Goya recipe on the bag of black eyed peas, but mightily modified it as follows:

Take a pound of black eyed peas.  Put them in a big pot with about 4 cups of water, and bring to a boil.  Shut it off, and put it on the back of the stove.  Meanwhile...

Fry up some sausage.  Tonight we used about 1/2 lb. of chorizo and 1/2 lb of smoked sausage.  Use whatever you have.  Fry it up, take it out of the pan, leave the fat in the pan, and then...

Chop up the following:

• at least one large onion
• at least two stalks of celery
• about one pepper, green, red, whatever you have.

Throw the vegetables into the pot with the fat (and some olive oil, if needed) till somewhat tender.

Throw everything into the pot with the beans and water.  Also, grind in some sea salt or kosher salt, and some freshly ground pepper.  A splash of green picante sause gives it just a little kick.

Cook it all up till the beans are almost tender.  Then throw in a cup of uncooked white rice, and simmer slowly for 15 more minutes

It's healthy, tasty, warm, filling, CHEAP, oh, excuse me, frugal, gluten-free, and best of all, AWESOME!!!

It's Called Hoppin' John

Dinner wasn't till 8 tonight (not horribly bad when you work till 5:30 and don't appreciate fast food).  It was something called Hoppin' John, and we will DEFINITELY be having it again.  I can't even imagine anything better than black eyed peas.  They are God's gift to a hungry, broke, world.  It's two kinds of sausage (in my recipe) black eyed peas, rice, three kinds of vegetables.  It's scrumptious.

The recipe is here: