Homemade (but not really fast) Fast Food

I was born in Atlanta and the current address on my drivers license* happens to be the childhood home of Robert Woodruff in Columbus, GA.  So naturally, I don't think you can get much better than a Coke or a Chick-fil-a sandwich.  Since neither Reid or I drink many soft drinks or eat much fast food either one of these is a pretty occassional thing.  And since it seems you crave Chick-fil-a way more on Sundays than any other day, I decided to do a little "mock" fast food for dinner. 

*This is due to my parents temporarily living in my uncle's house when they first moved to Columbus while he was in Namibia.  He had restored the birthplace of the longtime President of Coca-Cola along with the Woodruff House.  It just happened to coincide with the renewal of my drivers license in college and was the "permanent" address.  Tomorrow, however, this will no longer be the case as a kindly Washington, GA police officer recently informed me that you actually only have 60 days to change your license, even if you did spring for the 10 year plan, you at least changed your name on your social security card and you dislike paperwork.

Luckily at Ingles, they had a great sale on organic chicken breasts.  I also picked up a box of bread mix.  I knew I could whip up some sandwich buns pretty quickly but I was kind of secretly curious about those mixes.  And, since it was a "fast food" night I thought it was fitting as well as being way better than a bag of store bought buns or sandwich bread. 

At home, I pulled out the Cuisinart breadmaker that Reid's cousins gave us for our wedding.  I had used this religiously when we first got married and didn't have a working oven.  (Along with a panini press we had eaten the best sandwiches in our limited kitchen.  Plus it was kind of awesome to have Reid come home to the smell of freshly baking bread...definitely felt like a housewife extraordinaire).  So I was psyched to use my long lost kitchen helper. 

After it took me about 20 seconds to "make" bread by adding a cup of water, the mix and the yeast packet, I started on the chicken.  I googled a few "mock" chicken sandwich recipes and the basic tip was adding powdered sugar to the flour/salt/pepper breading.  It might have worked but I didn't have any powdered sugar on hand and it kind of sounded gross anyway.  Just wrong to do that to organic chicken.  I did add a tiny bit of raw sugar but decided I would be just as happy with paprika/sea salt/pepper batter than trying to match the fast food favorite perfectly. 

I first cut the chicken breasts in half and then tried to pound them a little flatter which probably would have worked better with a wooden meat pounder than the back of a big spoon which was what I used.  Then I let the chicken soak a few minutes in a cup of organic milk with an egg that we got at the market from Sandy Saturday.  (She said technically they are Charlie's chickens).  Then I battered them (did the process twice for that full on FF effect) and put them all at once in a cast iron chicken fryer.  Covered it for 5 minutes; turned them and covered them again for five minutes.  They came out pretty perfect.

Well...that didn't take very long and we still had about 2 hours left for the bread to finish.  Since we rarely fry anything I always feel like I have to "make the most" out of it because you've got all this batter and hot oil assembly line going. I don't reuse oil (oxidation=not good for ya), so I did what any short order fry cook would do and sliced up an onion.  About twenty minutes later Reid and I were feasting on homemade onion rings with plenty of ketchup.  (My favorite is the Heinz organic ketchup...taste is really phenoemenal, but I'm still pretty happy with the "Simply Heinz" which is at least void of high fructose corn syrup). 

This made a pretty great appetizer because it was still a little over an hour before we could eat our "real" dinner, i.e. my homemade, "It's Sunday and we live an hour away from the nearest Chick-fil-a anyway"  chicken sandwiches.  When the bread machine buzzer finally went off, I ran over to see what this magical quick mix had done.  Unfortunately, it didn't do a whole lot and gave us a loaf about 3 inches high as opposed to the picture on the package which looked more like a good 5-6" loaf.  Oh well-the denser loaf turned out to be a little sturdier for our sandwiches.  I was about to butter the bun then realized there really was no point since the bread had literally just finished baking and didn't need it.  Plus, Reid wanted a little Duke's on his anyway.  After then piling them high with pickles (two really isn't enough in my opinion), they were all ready to go. 

Well, almost.  I realized my little homemade fast food sandwich was missing one thing-an icy cold can of Coke.  (And not that diet stuff either). 

Now, I am a firm believer in not buying 2 liters of soda or cases of soft drinks to have on hand at your house.  Diet or not, there is absolutely nothing of nutritional value in them.  They are empty calories that do little to nothing to ease your hunger.  Many people treat soft drinks as simply another beverage like milk or water, but believe me- it ain't water.  Soft drinks really should be treated more as a very occassional dessert.  And even though the "diet" drinks don't have calories, they do have artificial sweeteners (*GRAS) and plenty of phosphoric acid-which isn't good for your bone health and certainly doesn't compare to the benefits of water or green tea.  (If you really need that fizz, try sparkling water, like Perrier, with a splash of lime, OJ and pomegranate juice...kind of amazing and more like a daytime "cocktail." Scandalous huh?)

So that being said, Reid and I didn't just have a Coke in the fridge to pull out to go with our sandwiches.  We thought about it for a second and then deemed it totally worth it to jump in the car and drive to the nearest Coke machine.  This just happened to be the one in front of Bobby Steven's store a few miles from our house.  We grabbed some quarters and then set off on our little late night "Coca-Cola run."  (Just one of our many romantic adventures).  The best part is that we were completely right on it being "worth it" and I savored every sip.

And here is a pic (finally, right?) Reid took of our semi-homemade fast food meal (that took closer to 3 hours to make)...

Hope ya'll enjoyed your dinner as much as we did!

-Reid & Kathryn

Almond Butter Cookies

I think pretty much everyone knows the super easy Peanut Butter cookie recipe which is this:

1 Cup peanut butter
1 Cup sugar
1 egg

Mix together and bake at 350 for about 8 minutes.

My mom makes these and when I typed in "easy peanut butter cookies" the first handful of links were all pretty much this same recipe.  Some versions call for a little vanilla and others add some baking soda.  But you can get nice PB cookies with just the 3 ingredients although I bake mine a little longer because I like somewhat of a crisp cookie.

This morning before I made up a batch of these cookies I realized that a) I needed more than a dozen cookies which is what the recipe makes and b) I hate measuring out peanut butter, especially the all natural kind where the oil separates and you can never get it mixed completely right.  I was also going to use evaporated cane juice instead of straight "white" sugar. 

Evaporated Cane Juice is pretty much the same as sugar except less processed so you still get some trace vitamins and minerals.  It is still 15 calories/tsp like fully processed white sugar but since it a) tastes better and b) is slightly better for you, I think it is the clear winner to bake with in most things.  It is also slightly sweeter than sugar so you can get away with using a little less.  It costs more but using gratuitous amounts of cheap sweeteners may be a good habit for all of us to break anyway...

But back to the cookies.  Here was the recipe I used for tonight's dessert:

1 16 oz. jar of organic all natural peanut butter
1 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice
2 organic cage free eggs

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Nutrition Info:  36 cookies; 117 calories, 6.5 gm fat, 12 gm carbohydrates, 3 gm protein, 0.8 gm fiber and 39mg sodium.

I used the whole jar of peanut butter so I didn't have to measure anything out (it is the equivalent of 1 3/4 cups so I just did 1 3/4 cup of ECJ since it was a 1:1 ratio in the original recipe) and also so I didn't have to stand there and stir in the oil.  When you just use a spatula and put everything in a bigger bowl it's way easier and the oil, ECJ and eggs mix up super easily.  Some people are probably much cleaner about it that I am but whenever I'm first mixing the peanut butter I always have oil spill over the jar. Then it's all greasy and hard to open the next time.  (Even when I store it upside down first before opening.). 

An obvious solution may be to buy a jar of JIF but unfortunately most peanut butters that are already "mixed" have a lot of extra sugar, salt, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup and/or partially hydrogenated oil (trans fat) added to them.  And mixing up peanut butter is really not the hardest thing in the world. 

Anyway, once I made the cookies it kind of hit me that they were inherently gluten free (like the flourless chocolate molten cakes I made last week) and lactose free, two more common food allergies/intolerances.  Since peanuts are another big allergen I thought how easy it would be to substitute almond butter and make them even more allergy friendly.  Also I thought the peanut flavor didn't shine through as much and the cookies could still be great with much less sugar or ECJ. 

So when I ran to the store for those last few items I grabbed a jar of organic all natural almond butter.  A note on almond butter-make sure you read the ingredients because there are several brands that have flax seed, wheat germ, etc. added to them.  While this may taste great and add some more nutrients, it kind of defeats the whole gluten free thing.  (Get it, WHEAT germ?)  It's also close to $10/jar which is about twice as much as a jar of organic peanut butter. 

But for a super easy, versatile cookie that could please anyone with or without a food allergy it's not that bad.  (Ever seen the cost of a box of gluten free cookies?  Non-wheat flours are expensive...)  The brand I bought was straight almonds so no extra sodium either.  Also, almonds are technically a seed so allergies to them are much less common. 

Since these are so easy to make I thought I'd whip up an "experiment" batch right before Reid came home so he could have some warm cookies.  (If they didn't turn out, he could still just have dinner with the peanut butter ones.  And in the end he just had both.  Research, right?)  I might add a tiny bit of sea salt and vanilla to these but they are pretty good as is.  So here is the almond butter/less sweetener version:

1 16 oz. jar organic almond butter
1 cup evaporated cane juice
2 organic cage free eggs

Bake at 350 for 14 minutes.  (For a super soft cookie you can bake them for only 8 or so minutes).
Nutrition: Makes 36 cookies (slightly smaller); 99 calories, 6.5 gm fat, 8.3 gm carbohydrates, 2.4 gm protein, 1.7 gm fiber, 4mg sodium

*Cookie baking hint:  Use parchment paper to line your cookie sheet.  This way you avoid gunking up your pan with baking spray which then turns the pan black. You also don't get any funny taste from the sprays.  If you are making a ton of cookies this especially helpful because you can just slide the whole piece of paper onto the cooling rack and then re-use the parchment for additional batches.  Slide on, slide off.

Enjoy!  I think these are going to come to the Discharge Planning meeting with me on Thursday.  A hospital is a great place to sample allergy free treats, right?

By the way..I'm still working on trying to figure out my new cameras so one day we'll finally have pics back on the blog.  I'm such a slow technology learner...they should probably just give me an instant camera and then let CVS hand me a disk of pictures!

Why Even Our Little Business Needs a Plan B....

Early last week I started to get a little cough and Reid said "Oh Sugarbritches, that doesn't sound good."  I told him I felt fine and that I was sure it would go away.  So along with pretty much the rest of the South we enjoyed Monday's surprise "snow day."  We got to sleep in and our sweet neighbor even made homemade biscuits and had her husband bring them over while they were still warm! 

Tuesday morning there was still so much ice on the road in front of our house (along with a mini skating rink at our entrance) that we decided to cancel meals for the night.  We weren't sure of the condition of the roads to Tignall and the kitchen there is kind of off the beaten path so we were sure there was still a lot of ice there.  I was glad we canceled it because by Tuesday afternoon I was starting to feel pretty bad but thought it just might be allergies/asthma from being outside.  (Yep, I'm a dork who is allergic to oak trees and other random things and will have a full on asthma attack if I eat in too close proximity to exercise.)

Wednesday I went to the hospital to see patients.  By the time I got home I literally fell into bed I was so tired.  My chest hurt, my cough was worse which made my throat hurt and my head was just about to explode.  All I wanted to do was lay in a hot bath for the next day until enough steam made its way through so I could breathe again.  (Which made me wish someone would invent some kind of bath bed but I guess it's not actually good to stay in hot water that long). 

Thursday morning I called my doctor who called in a Z-pack.  I think half of Washington was already in line at CVS and I'm sure the other half were in line at Fievet's waiting on their antibiotics.  After that I ran to the store and picked up a new shower curtain to complete the first of three productive things I have accomplished in the last week.  When I got home I took my first dose cushioned with crackers and apple juice. (I never drink apple juice but it sounded more soothing than OJ-no wonder kids love that stuff, it is delicious and void of most nutrition.)

By this point I was in full-on misery mode.  But I knew I couldn't recover without changing out my shower curtain first and scrubbing the tub-especially if I was going to take a bath.  Plus, if I desparately needed someone to come to my aid, I couldn't very well have them see a messy bathroom. 

I was so happy to see Reid when he got home that night.  For the first time being really sick and married, I wondered how I ever handled being sick single.  I was getting chills so he would take a blanket, stick it in the dryer and then when it was hot come wrap me up in it.  He was so great, peeling oranges and making sure I had plenty of water. 

Friday we went and did the second productive thing all week which was to finalize the new insurance plan for the business post-Tignall kitchen.  Poor Reid drove while I went through a roll of toilet paper sneezing and coughing the whole way.  Luckily, his birthday gift to me had come in-a pair of Manitobah Mukluks.  They have a fleece inner lining and then suede/leather/rabbit fur exterior.  My feet haven't been cold since.  I fully realized what a horrible outfit I was wearing in public with my layers to keep warm, no makeup, this fuzzy hat and furry mocassin boots but I really didn't care.  (I even sported it in downtown Athens while running in to grab a bag of coffee at 1000 Faces-UGA students-you're welcome for the entertainment.)

I basically slept all day Saturday and on Sunday afternoon I accomplished my third productive thing which was to finish monogramming and sewing this really simple dog bed.  I probably wouldn't have finished it if our dog Mattie hadn't found her way in the guest bedroom and "dug" through the block of foam that was going to go in it.  This little excavation has left little pieces of foam ALL OVER the room.  (Again I'm glad I scrubbed my bathroom-just imagine if someone had seen that AND a dirty tub?)  I filled the the bed with an old pillow instead and soon will get all the little pieces up-probably when I'm more over this though.  (For some reason the dogs have switched beds-so we have this 30# dog on a huge bed and an 85# dog trying to fit on a cushion the size of a standard size pillow).

So what does all this have to do with a Plan B?  After canceling two meals and a market due to the ice and illness (and an order due to unexpected no propane at the Tignall house-which is being looked at tomorrow since we just had it filled), I started to think about what all could go wrong.  From my experience managing kitchen employees in a hospital, I've known you don't ever want to only have one employee who can do a specific job.  It's better to have people who can "crosstrain" and fill in when someone is sick, on leave, etc.  Having an organized work environment where jobs can be broken down into simple tasks also makes it easier to hire and train employees.  Now being a "business owner" (gulp!) I see firsthand what it's like when YOU are pretty much the only employee (except for your husband who already has a full time job). 

So while laying in bed over the past week I've thought about how important that concept is even in our little business.  My first thought was "How could I have made it so that someone else could have cooked & delivered the meals?"  It is easy to get away with not being organized and exact when your business consists of you and your husband.   I think the best thing about being sick this week (other than the Edy's fruit bars) has been getting to see our little business from a completely new perspective.  Mainly from being sick (and we'll chalk Tuesday to the ice), we had to forego 2 nights of meals and the market-which in our little business is the equivalent of being "closed" all week long.  Not very good if you plan on staying in business for very long... 

Once I'm back to feeling-good mode and not getting-by mode, I'm looking forward to working (hopefully) a bit smarter in our little business.  We're excited about a girl coming to help do prep work after school and finding out which parts of our business are good to delegate to others and which parts are best to do ourselves.  (It's always a good start when you realize you can't do everything, right?)

Hope everyone is feeling better (or doesn't get sick to begin with) around here!  How many more weeks of winter????

-Kathryn

Washington Farmer's Market Still Open!

Most Farmer's Markets have closed for the season and will open back up when the weather gets a little warmer...but not in Washington-Wilkes!  As long as it's not raining we will be in the parking lot behind the courthouse from 9am-noon every Saturday.  And if it is raining we will be under the awning to the side of the Chamber of Commerce. 

The following vendors will be there for sure this Saturday from Wilkes County:

Tink's Grass Fed Beef-the most amazing tasting beef & pastured pork ever! 

Lazy Willow Farms-sweet potatoes, garlic, spinach, homemade soap, (incredible) homemade sourdough bread, and really awesome novels

Harvest Moon Garden Farm- so excited the Carter's will be there!  Rumor has it John has lots of  homegrown tomatoes...yep, in January! 

Southern Scratch-fresh out of the oven cinnamon rolls, scones, Better Than's, homemade granola and more! 

I'm also pretty sure Leonora and her made from scratch jalapeno & cheese or spicy chicken tamales will be there too!

 Even though it's going to be cold come down and see us!  Get ingredients for soup & stew with locally grown vegetables and beef or pork and some dessert to go with hot cocoa in case it does snow Sunday!

See everybody Saturday morning!

-Reid & Kathryn

And We're Back!

Happy New Year! 

Although it always seems you can't believe it is the New Year, I will say this past year doesn't seem like it could have fit anything else in it!  What started as a busy year with the final stages of wedding planning ended as just as busy a time with filling the final Christmas orders and traveling all over the southeast to see family. 

Since we knew we would start back up in January with a packed schedule, we decided we would take this week "off" as much as possible!  Reid still worked all week and I started orientation as the new part time clinical dietitian at Wills Memorial, but overall we really relaxed.  We ate out a lot, laid low at night watching movies and just enjoyed a week without any real deadlines.

Friday night we went up to Athens for dinner and realized that although a Japanese steakhouse is great in theory, the amount of margarine added to innocent rice and vegetables is borderline criminal.  (Not to mention the couples beside us who added about two cups each of mayonaisse based "yellow sauce" to their plates which kind of grossed us both out big time.  Atleast it did give me an idea to do a few posts centered around how good food can be turned bad so quickly...).  I was in bed by about 10:30 and woke up right at midnight somehow to squeak out "Happy New Year."  Not quite the exciting end to such an exciting year but it felt great to not be staying up all night baking for one of the first Friday nights in months!

Yesterday we continued our holiday theme with sleeping in.  Since we had plenty of time, Reid cooked a big breakfast of grits, organic cage free eggs, some of Tink's pastured pork sausage, with some of Sandy's whole wheat sourdough bread toast and sharp cheddar.  I think by far this was the best meal we ate all week.  Maybe because he lived alone for so many years, Reid is a grand master champion at grit cooking.  He doesn't add anything fancy to them, just salt, pepper and butter but they are incredible. 

For dinner I cooked black eyed peas, collard greens, cornbread in the cast iron skillet, and a little risotto.  I overcooked the peas so we didn't eat a lot of them which maybe will indicate a little less change in 2011 than 2010 but you never know- I think we would both be happy just working on what is on our plate already!Luckily Reid did eat plenty of collard greens...

After dinner Reid taught me how to play gin.  (And then I beat him in 2/3 games to 100).  Between games Reid read out goals we had each written down for the year.  He had told me Saturday morning he "needed my goals by the end of the day."  So before he read them out he told me that since this was our first holiday together married and we were creating traditions, that he thought sharing our goals together should be one of our traditions.  It was fun to see what we each put down and a lot of them were along the same lines.  I even did a little separate section for Southern Scratch which I think I need to formalize some what to guide our decisions over the next year. 

After a few more rounds of gin and a mug of Rocky Road  for me (for some reason I hate eating ice cream out of bowl and just always eat it from a coffee mug-maybe because I like adding just a little milk on top to make those ice crystals form) and some dark citrus ginger chocolate for Reid (my sister's in-laws gave us this awesome gift bag of all kinds of artisan chocolate for Christmas addressed:  To K&R, from K&R-loved it!), we went to bed pretty early again. 

Today after church we decided to go to Heavy's barbeque in Crawfordville.  I had never been but seen all the signs and heard all the legendary tales about the place including the filming of part of "Sweet Home Alabama."  The food was definitely just good ole' barbeque and stew and fit into our "let's not cook so much this week" plan!  I was so full we fell into a total fat-kid-coma and took a Sunday afternoon nap. 

I (finally after nearly ten months of living here) made a primary appointment for annual check-ups tomorrow in Augusta.  And in more eat-whatever-you-want-because-heck-it's-the-holidays confessions, I totally signed Reid and I up for a free Chick-fil-a spicy chicken biscuit in the morning.  (Definitely not pre-doctor's appointment food).  After our "morning date" Reid has to go to work and I'm going to do some shopping/errands in "the big city."  Then maybe I'll save any Sam's errands for when Reid get's off work so we can hold hands and people watch together.  Oh what an exciting life we lead.

Then Tuesday it is back to busy!  I am loving the time I have spent so far at the hospital and looking foward to seeing patients in the morning.  Then heading over to our kitchen in Tignall and getting dinner fixed for our first ever TUESDAY night Weekday Gourmet meal. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's!  I think our "tradition" is definitely going to include the week after Christmas being our real "low key family holiday" time when we (and maybe one day our children) get a break from home cooked meals and get to eat out, sleep in and play games. 

Well, I've got to hurry up and finish because Reid is fixing hot chocolate and then we are on for another gin match-up... 

Thank's y'all for making 2010 so wonderful!