Fried Chicken? Please!

So last night, I was in the mood for some chicken, lemon pepper chicken to be exact! So I fried up some lemon pepper chicken for the hubby and me. I paired it with sweet peas, au gratin potatoes, and toast, but not your typical toast... I'll explain later.

So, for the chicken, I used three boneless skinless chicken breasts (you can use bone-in, skin-on, but my love prefers the bone/skin-less variety), 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 cup of Panko breadcrumbs (aka God's gift to those of us who loved deep frying foods), 2 teaspoons of lemon pepper seasoning, and one large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water. I also used canola oil to fry up the chicken, of course (enough to completely cover the chicken in the pot/pan).

So first, I got one of my big Paula Deen (MY HERO!!!!) pots out and popped it on a burner with about a quart of oil in it at medium-high heat. **** Points of advice: Make sure there is enough oil to COMPLETELY cover the chicken (Props to Marcella for that advice, she makes amazing fried chicken). Also, get the oil hot, hot, hot! You can check it by dropping a little drop of water in it and it will pop and fizzle (probably not a real word lol).****

Next,  In three spearate shallow dishes, put your flour, egg wash, and Panko crumbs mixed with your lemon pepper seasoning and arrange your dishes in that order. You take each breast and roll each one in the flour (fully coat it), roll it in the egg wash (again fully coat, dont forget the edges and ends), then roll in your Panko/seasoning mixture. The flour helps hold the egg on, and the egg works as your binder for the breadcrumbs. (I thank Paula Deen for that process) Once all the brests are coated, drop them in the prepared HOT oil. I let them cook in the oil for about 12 minutes. I turn mine, but that makes the breading come off so leave it to cook. **** Remove one of the breasts and cut into it to make sure it is throughly cooked or use a meat temp. gauge to check that it is at 165 degrees.****



Swap where the flour and egg are. I had them backward in this pic.

Ok, last night, I wanted some toast with my meal. We had hot dogs last week and I had a couple of buns left over and we needed to eat them before they got too old. So I decided to toast them up. I opened the buns without breaking the middle and popped them in the toaster then buttered them. My husband thought it was goofy, but buns are bread too and I would rather eat them than let them go bad and have to toss them. It's all about being frugal and creative. That is why I love to cook. You can be as creative as you want!

Dinner was great, and I hope you can use this quick and easy fried chicken recipe to your liking! Feel free to throw in some cayenne pepper or just garlic salt instead of lemon pepper. It is a very versatile recipe, so play with different ideas and have fun! Enjoy! Happy cooking and don't be afraid to get creative!

Xander's Mario Birthday

This past week has been the absolute busiest week of my life! My darling stepson, Xander, celebrated his 6th birthday this weekend. He picked a Super Mario Brothers theme this year, and guess what... I couldn't find decorations ANYWHERE! (Well I did find some online, but $96 for a plastic table cloth, and enough plates, cups, and napkins for 8 kids seemed a little ridiculous to me!!) So I took the challenge and made the decorations myself! I had plenty of extra time between work, so I got it done.

This pile is made up of: a cardboard box, some toilet paper rolls, a shoe box, some funny shaped cardboard (computer parts came in), some stirofoam pieces, spray paint, and Mario, Bowser, and Peach figurines. With a little LOT of hot glue, I stacked the pices, painted, and decorated it all to become this....



Stacked and glued it.



Painted it.

Decorated it a little.

Decorated some more.

Right side.

Back side.

Left side.

I really loved how this turned out! The materials were mostly free, except for about $4 for the spray paint and of course the figurines were a little pricey!


Next up, I needed something to fill the time for the kiddos before we went swimming. I had two activities planned.

Pin the Mustache on Mario

I bought two green, two red, and two white posterboards, poster board markers, adhesive backed Velcro, and a sheet of black foam. I sketched Mario onto two pieces of white poster, colored him, then cut him out. I got a big cardboard box and gkued the red and green posters as the background. Then I hot glued my Mario onto the posters. I added a small strip of Velcro to the area where his mustache should go and cut out a mustache from the black sheet of foam and added Velcro to it.
**** Point of advice: Instead of doing Velcro, use an adhesive like sticky putty so the kiddos can stick it anywhere on him (like Pin the Tail on the Donkey). They kept just feeling for the Velcro on him, so the blindfold was really pointless.****

Chomp Chomp Pinata

This was one tough pinata! I wanted to make sure it wouldn't just fall apart when the first kid hit it, so I made it REALLY tough!! The materials for this pinata were a huge balloon (mine was 3' in diameter), black spray paint, lots of card board, lots of newspaper and old phone book pages (hey, I don't use the phone book, and they work!), flour and water paste (typical paper mache' mix), a coat hanger, and LOTS of hot glue (of course). ****This was a 4 day process, so get ready to dedicate some time!****

I blew up the massive balloon and cut some cardboard strips. I hot glued all of the strips into a sturdy frame around the balloon. I did all of this while watching the finale of Glee (which was terrible, just saying). ****Careful not to touch the balloon with the hot glue.****

I covered the balloon and frame with paper mache'. It was a VERY messy process but kind of relaxing and fun. I let it sit in the sun to dry and harden. I did this for three days in a row, layer upon layer. I left a hole so I could add the candy. Pop the balloon and remove it.

Next I made a hanging mechanism in the hole for candy. I added more cardboard framing with hot glue just like the inside. I poked a hole in the pieces and ran a hanger through then took a strip of cardboard and wrapped around the hanger to stabilize it. ****This pinata was heavy especially after the candy, so make sure your hanging mechanism is secured very well.**** My hubby spray painted the entire thing black while I was at work. When I got home I drew the eyes and face onto scraps of posterboard and hot glued them to the pinata.

This is the inside of the pinata.

It was a hit!! (Haha puns!)

This year I didn't make a cake. I got a cake pop baking machine. It is so neat!! Anyway, I decided to get oober creative so I made Mushroom Pops. They are supposed to look like the mushrooms that make Mario bigger. I used two boxes of white cake mix (WAAAYYY too much batter). The whole little bottle of red food coloring I added  made it very pink, so I added 4 packets of cherry Kool Aid. It made the red brighter and the cake was cheery flavored (pretty good too!) I used mini marshmallows, black food coloring, and vanilla icing. They were very fun and easy to make and ended up being a great conversation piece and yummy!!

I smushed three mini marshmallows together and put them into a skewer. I cut a cake pop ball in half and put some icing on the bottom to act as an adhesive to the marshmallows. I added the dots on top and drew on the eyes with black food coloring. There ya go, that's all there was to it!

Xander was very happy with his party, and I'm so glad it went so well! He got lots of presents and had great friends there with him! After the party, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. Needless to say, we are all a little sunburnt!