I like fried Chicken

     Like a great many people, I like Chicken.  I've had it Baked and Broiled, Roasted and Stewed. Cacciatori and Marengo,  Creamed Chicken on Biscuit.  Chicken Soup to soothe  the  soul.  Of all the was to prepare Chicken the one I like the best, the method that makes me salivate the most when just thinking about it is Fried.  Both my parents made great tasting Fried Chicken,  mom's being brighter and livelier on the tongue that Dad's deep full Chicken flavor.  Both used just salt and pepper and flour.  How they made their chicken taste so different I never learned, though I was in the kitchen many times while it was being prepared.  I've never been able to duplicate the taste of their chicken, and I've tried so many myriad of times.
     I've collected many books on food, a couple exclusively devoted to Fried Chicken, but still haven't come up with an acceptable "recipe".   Oh I don't throw any of it out,,even when fried chicken is bad, it's still good enough to eat.  What I've been looking for is that taste that compels you eat the meat and suck on the bones to get every last bit of goodness the chicken has to offer.
     I was channel surfing the other day and came across a show "Top Secret Recipe". Synopsis: a guy and a food truck travel around and try to duplicate famous chain food, i.e. Domino's Pizza or the Outback's Blooming Onion.    I Tivo'd the shows and lo one was KFC.  He travels to KFC headquarters and talks with the corporation's President and the head of food research, getting nothing from either save that the chicken is cooked in x oil in a pressure cooker.  But he also went to see the Colonel's last personal secretary.  And there he learned that the Colonel had confided to her that his mother had told him when he was little that Sage and Savory were critical for good fried chicken.
I remembered that the next time I went to Kroger's in Bridgeport and bought a bottle of savory.  Trust me on this reader's Sage and Savory are critical for Fried Chicken.  I hate to Fry chicken in the house when it's closed up, too much grease in the air, coupled with my bad lungs makes a bad situation. So I baked a batch of drumsticks.  I know it was baked not fried, but then I ate a full meal of asparagus,a fair portion of  long grain and wild rice, and all five of the drumsticks.  I had prepared them on a rimmed cookie sheet on parchment paper.  My stomach distended from the meal and quite uncomfortable having a hard time breathing from the pressure on my lungs,  I peeled the congealed juices that had leaked out of the bone ends from the parchment and savored them one by one till there was no evidence that chicken had ever been prepared save for the faint odor left in the kitchen and my upstairs bedroom when I took my much needed nap after dinner.

I don't have  a recipe, but I know how a made the chicken,,,and it starts with an overnight soak in Buttermilk dosed with Sirachi hot sauce.  Wiping the excess marinade off the next day and dusting the chicken with a mixture of sage, savory, black pepper, poultry seasoning, salt, turbanado sugar, garlic  powder, and cayenne pepper.  Then shaking the herb crusted chicken  in a paper bag with Kentucky Kernal seasoned flour.   400 degree oven for 20 minutes, turn, then 20 minutes
more.  Out of the oven, rest for 5 minutes, then scarf, snorph, gobble  the goodness.  Can't wait to buy some Crisco,  get out the electric skillet and try the recipe fried.

This weekend sucks

Why?
1.  First off the bat is North Marion getting blitzed by No. 1 Bridgeport.
2.  The Mountaineers get stunned by Louisville.  As I'm typing this I'm watching Louisville/WVU Big East          Soccer Championship game.   Most of the girls on the field would make better kickers than what we have.  And Casteel better get his head on straight.  If it wasn't for Irvin there wouldn't be any defense.
3.  Homeboy Nick Saban goes down at home in Tuskaloosa.
4.  While the Falcons eked out a win over State,,and are on track for a 7-3 season,,,I haven't seen any of the games.
5.  Surely the Steelers can squeeze out a win later this afternoon against the hated Ravens......please, Please, Please
6.  By the way the Mountaineers are ahead One to Zip at the half...Go EERS.

7.  Okay so maybe it's not so bad....Lady Mountaineers Soccer team are back to back Big East Soccer Champions....final score  2 to 0.   Go EERS.

Murmuration, Murmuration, Murmuration

Follow the link below and be ready to be blown away.



Two women in a canoe happen upon a flock of starlings.



I would like to say something here,,,,but I have no words.

Grey's Anatomy

I can't remember how I came across Grey's Anatomy, I don't watch much broadcast mainstream TV. But when  I  opted in for Netflix,  the first thing I began watching was Grey's Anatomy.   Now I've watched pretty much every episode and I'm in the middle of season 7.  After 100 + episodes it's fairly safe to say that I wouldn't send my pet snail to Seattle Grace Hospital.  This soap opera with very high production values has opened my eyes to many issues confronting modern medicine and society, and done it with style and grace.  At times the plots are predictable and seemingly trite and just at that moment "Bang" the shooter kills the first doctor and proceeds to attempt to kill the hospital.   But what really bugs me about the show is that sometime during every episode something happens and tears begin to well up in my eyes and my vision blears and I cuss under my breath, for they have touched me deep inside and I have reacted with empathy for the characters.  I know it's all make believe,,,,but the emotions engendered are real and they  feel human after all.

That said, the garden is done for the year, though there's a couple of tomato volunteers that started really late and are just putting buds on.    Winter is upon us, so spring is just a season away.

Great Game

First off...Sorry for forsaking this blog.

The Pittsburgh Pirates were totally synergistic() tonight.   The crowd...the sold out crowd...was the tenth man.
Don't remember a crowd that into a game....gotta go see them play....so,,,someone,,,take me....please.

Damn it Mike, I kinda liked Jake

I hate winter.

It's cold, and makes you want to huddle around the home fire.

It's only saving grace is the omen of spring.

If death is here,  can't resurrection be far behind?

I'm a kronic pessimist,   Yet  still a perennial optimist.

And all because of           " Spring is in the air".

Ondrej Smeykal Playing a Chad Butler Didgeridoo