Oven Crispy Chicken: Recipe from Julia's Take Away Gourmet, found HERE.
Julia is an amazing chef/caterer here in Winston, and I was so excited when she shared this recipe on her website, www.juliastakeawaygourmet.com. Here is a little bit "About Julia's Take Away Gourmet," written by Julia found on her website:
Julia’s Take Away Gourmet & Catering is a small specialty foods and catering company. We operate out of a fully inspected & licensed catering kitchen in Winston-Salem, NC. There is no retail site, yet! However, on Wednesdays, customers can choose delivery or pick up from a weekly dinner menu offered to go.
The tag line “Enjoy the best of food and life” encompasses a lot about what I feel we should do more on a daily basis. Too often we get bogged down with busy schedules, and I try to remind myself, and others, that to enjoy the best of food and life we simply need to sometimes slow down with good food shared with the ones we love.
For more information or questions, please look at the links on the sidebar for catering and dinner information, or email bluemoose@triad.rr.com. Thank you!
NOTES: You know that Bruno Mars song that says, "You're amazing, just the way you are..." Well,
that's what I have to say about this. This chicken reminded me of being at Taddy's (my grandmother's) house on Sunday afternoons. The beauty of it is that you don't have to worry about the mess of frying the chicken, but you still get the delicious crispy skin that you crave. My 4 year old announced that he couldn't use his fork, because the chicken was just TOO good.
Creamed Spinach: Recipe from The Pioneer Woman, found HERE.
NOTES: I only had one bag of spinach, so I decided to only do 1/4 of this recipe. Next time, I will do the whole thing because we were still wanting for more spinach once this was gone. This kids were not huge fans, but they at least tried it. This was easy, and so much yummier than using frozen spinach.
Mashed Potatoes:
6 medium russet potatoes
4 T butter
4 oz mascarpone cheese
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 T milk (or more)
Dice the potatoes into about 2 in pieces and boil until tender when tested with a fork (about 20 minutes.) Drain the potatoes and pour back into pot. While potatoes are hot, add the butter and the cheese and mix with a hand or stand mixer. Add milk until you reach desired consistency. I prefer mine a little lumpy, so 2T did the trick. Add salt and pepper and mix until incorporated.
NOTES: You may call these whipped potatoes, but I'm going with mashed :) I had the mascarpone cheese on hand, which is why I used it, but you can certainly use cream cheese or sour cream, or even Greek yogurt to add some creaminess to the potatoes. I like my potatoes pretty peppery, so if you're not a huge fan of pepper, you may want to cut down to 1/4 tsp. My 4 year old announced that they were "kind of spicy"! If you do add too much salt/pepper for your taste, you can always add a little more milk to cut it.
