I'm Fixin' To Go To The Store

For the last week I have been craving Bush's Chicken.  I realize most of you have no idea what that is.  It is a chain restaurant that serves chicken strips that are amazing.  And their sweet tea is excellent as well.  Here in the Northwest, we don't have any restaurants that come close to Bush's.

Until I was 4 1/2, we lived in Tennessee.  This means my introduction to food was from a southern perspective.  I love nearly all foods southern.  Okra is the exception.  I don't have a lot of memories of those years spent in Tennessee, but it did impact my diet.  My speech was also impacted.  After moving to Idaho, I had a southern accent for a time.  It has since gone, but a few words still finding their way into my vocabulary like fixin' - as in I'm fixin' to go to the store.

One of my few memories of our time in Tennessee is of paying rent.  I know that's normally a strange memory for a kid, but our landlord was always really nice to me.  We would walk down the street to his house.  He had a carnival type popcorn popper and would give me a bag of popcorn.  He would also give me a half dollar.  I still have those coins.  My mom kept them for me with our important papers and now I keep them with my important papers.  I also remember walking across the street to get my haircut.  And anytime I smell honeysuckle, it takes me back to playing outside at the babysitter's house.

Because I can't get Bush's chicken until I visit Texas, I have learned to make my own chicken strips.  While they aren't as good as Bush's, they will suffice for my craving until I am in Texas again.

Chicken Strips
2 cups flour
1 tsp season salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder (not salt)
2 eggs
1 lb chicken tenders
Pan with grease heated to 350.

If you cannot find chicken tenders, you can get chicken breast and cut into stips.  Mix flour, garlic powder, & season salt in a shallow bowl.  Lightly beat egg in a separate shallow bowl.  Heat enough oil to cover strips - 3 inches deep.  You can tell oil is hot enough by sprinkling water into oil.  If it pops, it's ready.  Be sure to not heat oil too hot.  Keep heat at medium.  Dredge chicken strips in eggs, then in flour mixture, in egg again and then in flour mixture again.  Place strip in oil.  Once the flour coating is golden brown, remove from oil.  Repeat until all chicken is cooked.  I keep a pan in the oven to keep the chicken warm until it is all finished.  I set the oven at 200.  Do not cover because the crust on the chicken will no longer be crisp.

Gravy to dip chicken in
6 Tbsp butter
6 Tbsp flour
3 cups milk
3 chicken bullion cubes
salt & pepper to taste

In a sauce pan,  melt butter and add flour.  Mix together to make a paste.  Add milk and whisk together until all the lumps are gone.  Add bullion cubes, mix until dissolved.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  Stir constantly while gravy is on the heat to prevent burning.

We Would Add Hot Dogs To The Lure

I've always been an animal person.  When I was really little, we had cats.  My mom tells me I named my first cat Spike.  Not sure where I got that name but I guess I thought it was perfect for it.  While we still lived in Tennessee, I got a duck from someone at church.  I named it Peep.  It would follow us around the house and it would get into the bath tub with me.  Peep got too big and we gave him to some people who lived in the country.  After moving to Idaho, we got some more cats.  Simon and Rags.  Simon was a mischievous cat and later ran away.  Rags was an interesting cat.  She drank like a raccoon.  I don't remember what happened to her.  When I was 8, I got a dog.  She was the only black curly haired dog in the litter.  She was an adorable ball of fluff.  I named her Muffie.

Muffie was a great dog.  She was a mutt.  From what we could tell, she had cocker spaniel, terrier, & poodle in her.  In the summer time, we would shave her.  In the winter, we would let her hair grow out to keep her warm.  She would be a big ball of fluff in the winter.  After her running around in the backyard through the snow, she would come in the house with balls of snow stuck to the bottom of her.  In the summer time, when she was skinny without the hair, she could get through the fence.  Our solution was to attach a empty milk jug to a leash and attach it to her.  She could get through the fence but the milk jug couldn't.  Often we would have to go untangle her because she would go out one hole and back through another.  If she got out, she ran.  We would have to drive around the neighborhood looking for her.  She loved to ride in the car so we could con her into hopping in.  After a few times of that she caught on and wouldn't come.  So we would add hot dogs to the lure.  And then drive around town making her think we were actually taking her for a ride.

Muffe loved to eat people food.  While we didn't want her to do it, she found ways around that.  She would snatch things when left around.  Once in a while we would give her leftovers if there was just a little bit.  I learned the hard way to not give her beans.  Apparently, beans are not good for animals at all.  One of her favorite things to eat was cookie dough.  Maybe she ate it often because I also like to eat cookie dough.   I had a bad habit of leaving a bowl of cookie dough on the couch or bed while I went to do something else for a minute.  She would get into it.  One time she got the chocolate chip cookie dough.  We were so afraid she was going to die from the chocolate.  It never phased her and we were thankful.  I tried to be better about leaving cookie dough down after that.  Sugar cookie dough is much better for dogs but not as good to eat as chocolate chip cookie dough.  Although they are very good cooked with a little frosting.

World's Best Sugar Cookies
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
2 lightly beaten eggs
2 tsp vanilla
5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream together powdered sugar, butter, sugar.  Mix in oil, eggs, vanilla.  Add flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.  Dough can be rolled out and cut with cookie cutters or rolled into small balls and press down to flatten.  Bake for 10 -12 minutes.   After baked you can either sprinkle with sugar or cool and frost.

Frosting
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
food coloring
1/2 tsp vanilla (leave out if you want white frosting)

In mixer with whisk attachment, mix powdered sugar, milk & vanilla.  Add food coloring to achieve the color you want.  Add powdered sugar or milk to achieve the consistency you are looking for.

I Ate Things Like Burritos

I am not a morning person.  I've tried, and it just doesn't work.  I used to be worse.   I used to be a whole lot grumpier in the morning.  Waking me up wasn't a wise thing to do.  However, people would often risk their lives to wake me up.

My dad was usually the one waking me up.  My bedroom was in the basement, and my parents room was above mine.  My dad would wake me up for school by banging on the floor.  I would bang on the wall to tell him I was awake.  I would then go right back to sleep.  If I didn't get up after a few times of this routine, he would go to the top of the stairs and yell.  On the days I was really tired, I would stand up and yell, "I'm up," and then get back in bed.  I didn't want to lie to him.  I would eventually get out of bed.

My little sister also liked to wake me up.  She wasn't always nice about it.  Because my room was in the basement, it had one window, but we had put a piece of insulation in it, so no light came in.  So I couldn't tell the sun had come up and my room was always dark.  It made for great sleeping.  Because of that, my sister loved to turn the light on in my room.  It was quite a shock to the system.  I would be really grumpy when she did that.  One morning, I heard her coming down the stairs to wake me up, then heard her feel on the wall for the light switch.  Before she could get it on, I said loudly, "don't you dare turn that on."  I scared her.  I don't remember her doing that again to me.

My eating habits in the morning aren't any better than my ability to function.  I say my body just can't handle food until I've been up for about an hour.  As a kid, my mom forced me to eat breakfast.  I wouldn't eat normal breakfast foods.  I just didn't like them.  I ate things like burritos.  Not breakfast burritos.  Regular burritos that we had for dinner.  Mom would make extra burritos when she made them for dinner.  She would wrap them up and freeze them.  They worked for me. It was easy to pop them in the microwave.  I don't eat burritos for breakfast anymore, but I still don't eat breakfast like a normal person.  I am more of a brunch kind of girl. It just works better for me.

A few years back, I hosted a baby shower for my little sister.  She and I neither one like the games of a normal baby shower.  So we had a brunch and visited with friends.  In preparing for the shower, I found a great recipe.  It is a quiche.  However, my grandmother insisted she didn't like quiches, so we called it Brunch Casserole.  She loved it and never knew the difference.

Brunch Casserole
1 lb sausage, cooked
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup bisquick
3/4 cup sour cream (or greek plain yogurt)
3 eggs
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350.  Spread sausage in a 2 quart baking dish.  Sprinkle onions and cheese on top of sausage.  In a blender, mix milk, bisquick, sour cream, and eggs.  Pour into baking dish.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper.  Bake for 35 - 45 minutes or until set in center.  Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.
Makes 4 - 6 servings.

I Was Going To Save Her

Camping was a big part of my growing up.  I have many memories of roughing it.  Living near the Snake River gave us great places near us to go camping.  When I was little we would camp in a tent.  In high school, we had a motorhome.

Camping in a tent was fun as a kid.  Unlike most families, we did not camp at state park that had flushing toilets and showers.   We would find a place that had an outhouse and was along the river.  I don't remember much about the cooking part of camping.  Mom always took care of that.  Us kids would spend our time fishing and exploring.  My nephew was usually with us.  He liked to see what animals he could catch or if he couldn't get an animal (which I don't think he ever did), he would catch bugs.  It rained occasionally while we were camping.  As tents go, as long as you didn't touch the tent it wouldn't leak.  My nephew took that as a challenge to see if he could touch every part of the tent.

I remember one time of camping very clearly.  We had set the tent up.  Mom, dad, my sister and nephew had gone down to the river to fish.  I was at the campsite doing something when a strong wind came up.  It started to blow the tent away.  I thought I will get in the tent so it doesn't blow away.  The wind got stronger and I started screaming.  No one came to my rescue.  I was frustrated because no one seemed to care I was going to be blown away with the tent.  Finally someone came up to the car to get some fishing tackle.  I yelled at whoever it is that I had saved the day because the tent almost blew away.  They didn't seem to care. But later we decided a storm was blowing in, and we should just pack up and go home.

Another time of camping, we had gone with some friends who had a motorhome.  We slept in the tent and they slept in the motorhome.  We set up camp close to the river.  My littlest sister must have been 3, making me 10, and my nephew 9.  The adults had some misadventures of their own with losing fishing poles in the river.  But us kids didn't really care too much.  We were having fun and that's what mattered.  My nephew and I were jumping off the dock and swimming.  We would get tired and sit on the end of the dock.  My sister like most kids do wanted to do what we were doing.  Mom wouldn't let her jump off the dock because she couldn't swim, but she let her sit on the end of the dock with us.  We were kicking our feet in the water, so my sister kicked her feet too.  As most little kids are, she was a bit top heavy and fell over head first into the water.  My nephew jumped into action.  He hopped up and started to jump in the water to save her.  My mom in the mean time calmly walked to the end of the dock, grabbed my sister's leg and pulled her out.  She was fine and my nephew kept saying, "I was going to save her, I was going to save her."  And I'm sure he could have.

Later when we got the motorhome we took a few camping trips in it.  Always a bunch of fun.  But my best memories of the motorhome was playing in it while it was parked in the driveway.  It was the place to go to get away from the world as a teenager.  When I had friends spend the night, we would sleep out there.   For a while we had a tv with cable out there.  It felt like my own space until my dad would come tell me he wanted to hang out there a while.  One summer while a friend was spending the night, we created a recipe for lemonade.  I know it wasn't so fabulous, but if you added enough sugar, it was good.  Since then I have gotten a real recipe for lemonade.  It is far better than the lemonade we made way back then.

Lemonade

7 cups water

1 cup fresh squeezed lemonade

1 cup sugar

Mix all ingredients well until sugar is dissolved.  Chill and serve.

Apparently He Had An Itch

Growing up 3 hours from Yellowstone gave us a great cheap vacation in the summer.  We went nearly every summer.  Anytime anyone came to visit us in the summer, we would take them.  Over the years of going to Yellowstone, we saw it change.  The natural phenomenon moved and sprang up in new places.  It has been neat to see the changes over the years.

One summer, friends from Tennessee came to visit.  We went with them to Yellowstone.  I don't remember too many details of that trip but my mom tells me the plan was to stay one night.  However, we stayed several nights.  We camped out and I remember having a great time.  I'm sure my mom was freaking out because she had only brought food and packed for 1 night.  Our friends were introduced to many new things of the West including sage brush.  I remember hearing him talking to someone else in our campground saying, "Brother Ray, says them there things are called sagebrush" (with a very thick accent). It is always fun to show Yellowstone to people who haven't been there.

My mom's friend from California came one summer.  We headed to Yellowstone in her pickup.  She had a camper shell on the bed of her pickup.  If I remember correctly there was a mattress back there too.  My mom and I rode in the bed of the pickup, and our friend, my dad, and my 2 sisters rode in the cab.  I thought that was a great way to travel.  So much more room to move around.  I think I was 9.  We stayed in a cabin in Island Park or somewhere near there.  One night while we were there, our friend went out to her pickup to get something and came right back in looking a bit frightened.  She said there was a moose between the cabin and the pickup.  She decided it was much safer to just wait till it left.  We roasted marshmallows over a candle.  It didn't work so well, but we managed to get them roasted. The next day while we were in the park, we stopped to look at something.  Suddenly the pickup started to rock back and forth.  I looked out the window just in time to see a buffalo rubbing himself on the pickup.  Apparently he had an itch.

Those trips to Yellowstone as a kid were great memories and so much fun.  I wish I still saw things through the eyes of a child.  I also wish I could still sleep on the ground like a kid.  Camping would be so much more fun.  Now my camping consists of key cards, indoor swimming pools and comfortable mattresses.  Whether I'm camping or staying in a hotel, I pack food because eating in Yellowstone is expensive.  An easy take along breakfast food is muffins.  I found this recipe in a magazine and like most recipes I have made it my own. There are also a bunch of variations of it so you can pick what you like. Enjoy!

Muffins 
For all muffins combine the following, then add the ingredients for each variation:
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar

Cinnamon & Sugar Muffins
Add:
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Blueberry
Add:
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
2 cups frozen blueberries

Apple Cinnamon
Add:
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
1 apple, chopped
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Orange Cranberry
Add:
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Double Chocolate
Melt 3 oz semisweet chocolate squares & 1/2 cup of better
Add:
chocolate mixture
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
1/4 cup Nutella
Before baking drop an additional 1 tsp Nutella on each muffin

Chocolate Coconut Flake
Melt 3 oz semisweet chocolate & 1/2 cup butter
Add:
chocolate mixture
3/4 cup coconut flakes
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
Sprinkle 1/3 cup coconut on muffins before baking

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix all ingredients for each muffin.  Spray muffin pan with cooking spray.  Pour muffin batter in pan so cup is 3/4 full.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Christmas At Grandma's Was Alway Fun and Always Eventful

As a kid, we would go to my grandma's house for Christmas.  It was a long drive from Idaho to California.  We would pack up the car the night before we were to leave.  We would get up really early in the morning, hop in the car and be off.   We would drive until the sun came up.  Dad would stop so we could eat breakfast.  I always got biscuits and gravy.  I loved biscuits and gravy.  After breakfast, we would get back in the car and head down the road.  My sister and I would color, play games or sleep.  We would stop in Winnemucca for lunch.  The cheapest places to eat were in the casinos, so that's where we stopped.  We'd head back down the road after lunch.  We would drive past Battle Mountain and into Reno.  After Reno was Donner's Pass.  A few times, it was snowing over the pass and we would have to stay in Reno.  Once we ventured over the pass in the snow.  We had to put chains on the tires to make it.  I'm sure my dad was really nervous.  Most of the times we went, it didn't snow.  After Donner's pass, we were basically there.

Christmas at grandma's was alway fun and always eventful.  Like most families, not everyone got along. There were tiffs but for the most part us kids stayed out of the way.  My birthday is just before Christmas so we would celebrate it.  I felt lucky because I got to open presents before everyone else.  Our tradition for Christmas was to open all the presents from each other on Christmas Eve.  Then the kids would go to bed early so Santa could come.  Morning would come (well almost) and us kids would get up.  We would go climb in bed with Grandma and Grandpa.  They would tell us it was too early and make us lay on the floor and wait.  We, of course, would fall back asleep.  After a couple hours, we would be awake again.  This time we would be successful in getting the adults up.  We would spend the next few hours opening presents, eating breakfast and just enjoying the morning.

A couple Christmases it actually snowed.  That was so much fun.  We would get sleds and slide down the hill next to the house.  One year some of the cousins decided to go sledding on the road.  It wasn't a well travelled road so there really was no danger of getting hit.  I didn't go with them but they said they had a blast.  Later on, people in cars had a hard time getting up that hill in the road because they had made it slick by sledding on it.  I thought it was kinda funny.  Some others of us, went up in the hills to go sledding.  We had a blast.  It was different from the hills we sledded on at home.  This hill was really long.  You could slide forever.  It wasn't as steep as the hills at home either.  It was much easier to walk to the top.   I'm sure I was exhausted by the time we were done, but I had so much fun.

When I think back to Christmas at grandmas, I think of desserts, cousins, and lots of fun.  As an adult now, one of my favorite desserts at Christmas is ginger snap cookies.  However, I don't bake them long enough for them to be snaps.  So they are just ginger cookies.

Ginger Cookies
2 ¼ cups flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

¾ cup butter

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup molasses

1 egg

1 t baking soda

1 t ginger

1 t ground cinnamon

½ t ground cloves

small bowl of granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375. In a large mixing bowl combine 1 ¼ cups flour and the rest of the ingredients.  Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed till combined.  Beat or stir in remaining flour.

Shape dough into balls.  Roll ball in granulated sugar to coat.  Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until tops are crackled.  Do not over cook.  Cool and serve.

Maybe Because He Learned To Drive A Pickup at 7

I have said about myself for a long time that I have rancher blood running through my veins.  My grandfather was a foreman of a ranch, and my great grandfather was also a rancher.  Although my dad grew up on a ranch, he did not carry on the family trade.  But I believe he passed on in his DNA a love for ranching.  I am not sure that any of my sisters got this, but I sure did.  I love riding horses. I love hanging out with the cows.  I have from time to time had farm animals.  I'm sure there is a lot more work involved in ranching than I've experienced, but what I have experienced I enjoy.  I hope someday to have my own ranch. 

The first time I rode a horse was at my aunt's house in Colorado.  I was 8 or 9.  My aunt had 4 horses but only 2 saddles.  One of the horses was too wild or too old to be ridden (I can't remember which).  My cousin and one of my older sisters took the saddles and two of the horses and went riding.  I wanted to ride also, so they put the bridle on the 4th horse, and let me ride bare back.  I look back now and am not sure what my dad was thinking letting me ride alone for the first time.  Maybe because he learned to drive a pickup at 7, riding a horse was no big deal.  No matter, I went off riding alone.  The horse I was riding didn't like the small streams of water that were running across the property from the snow run off.  The horse would jump over them.  So at each stream I came to, I had to get off, lead the horse across the stream, and then get back on.  I'm not sure how I got back on, but I did it.  My sister and cousin didn't want me to ride with them.  They rode over in the hills, and I went the other direction into the woods.  I don't remember too much about the ride except that I rode quite a while and absolutely loved it.

I didn't ride a horse again until I moved to Colorado when I was 24.  And even though my backside hurt so terribly bad after the first few times of riding, I loved it again.  I rode every chance I had.  I even rode in the winter through the snow.  I think that was my favorite time to ride.  Dressing warmly was key, but I always had a blast.  I haven't ridden in quite some time but look forward to the next time I ride except for the sore backside. 

While I as at the ranch in Colorado, I found something else I throughly enjoyed.  We had a menu that repeated each week.  Us staffers had our meals that we looked forward to.  We knew which meals to show up for.  One of my favorite desserts that we served was Buttermilk Pie.  The recipe for that pie was given to the cook by a previous employee.  That employee had asked them to not give it out.  So I never got a copy of it.  However, after much hunting and baking,  I have found a recipe that I think is similar.  And since it didn't come from the ranch, I can share it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Buttermilk Pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 pie crust
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 Tbsp flour
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400.  Place pie crust in pie plate.  Mix sugar and flour together in a large bowl.  Lightly beat egg and add to the bowl.  Mix well.  Add butter and buttermilk and mix.  Stir in lemon juice, vanilla, nutmeg and salt.  Pour into the unbaked pie shell.  Bake for 15 minutes at 400, then turn the oven down to 350.  Continue baking for 35 to 40 minutes or until top is golden brown.  Place pie on a cooling rack and cool completely before serving.