Honey Pecan 'Fried' Chicken with Hot Sauce Butter

This is slap-yourself-in-the-face good. Hot, crunchy, spicy, sweet. Serve with extra hot sauce butter and honey on the side to dip the chicken in as well as any sides that are dip-able I.E. biscuits, sweet potato fries, phalanges, what have you. Or if you'd like to eat it as portrayed in my spectacular photo (kidding!) make the herbed goat cheese grits at the bottom of this post. And remember it's 'oven-fried' so pat on the back, buddy. Way to go.

Pecan Crusted Chicken with Hot Sauce Butter and Honey
Chicken and Marinade:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon coriander
3 fat sprigs fresh thyme
4 garlic cloves, smashed
2 dried bay leaves
fresh cracked pepper

Chicken Coating:
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon chopped pecans
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon Panko breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Hot Sauce Butter:
4 tablespoons melted butter (I use salted) combined with 1 tablespoon Frank's Hot Sauce, or more to taste

Honey:
1/4 cup or so, for drizzling over hot baked chicken

ASSEMBLY:
Add the buttermilk to a large ziploc along with the sea salt, smoked paprika, coriander, thyme, garlic and pepper. Mix well then dunk the chicken breasts in, seal, and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Remove from the fridge 45 minutes before cooking.

Preheat your oven to 375. Drain the chicken, pat dry and place in a rimmed glass or ceramic baking dish sprayed with nonstick spray. Lightly season with salt and pepper, then gently spoon the chicken coating (above) over the chicken trying to cover every exposed surface and applying in as even a layer as possible. Now you drizzle the hot sauce butter over the top using a spoon - use a zig zag motion and pour in a thin layer - you don't need to douse the chicken (though you could) - just give the coating enough moisture to achieve that 'bake-fried' texture.

Cover the dish with foil and cook on the center rack for 15 minutes. Uncover and cook another 15-18 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the chicken juices run clear when pierced with a knife (unless breasts are very thick - they should be cooked through by 25-28 minutes.) If at any point the topping begins to blacken, recover with foil. Let rest 5 minutes before serving, drizzling liberally with honey.

Herbed Goat Cheese Grits:
3 cups low sodium chicken stock
1 fat peeled garlic clove
3/4 cups quick grits
2 oz goat cheese
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
pinch fresh cracked black pepper
handful fresh minced basil
handful fresh minced flat leaf parsley
pinch fresh chopped rosemary

Add the chicken stock and garlic to a medium lidded pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the grits and slowly stir in. Lower the heat to medium/low - just until the liquid is gently simmering and no longer boiling. Cook, stirring continuously until the grits have thickened to your liking - usually abotut 7-8 minutes for me. Kill the heat and stir in the goat cheese, parmesan, pepper and herbs. Serve right away, removing garlic clove if desired.

Grilled Fish Tacos with Ginger Basil Crema

These tacos were pretty good but to be honest I could eat this sour cream sauce on just about anything. Maybe even tofu. It's a shame I'm not a real country girl or I'd shoot the raccoons destroying my yard at night and try it on them. But for now, fish tacos will do.

Grilled Fish Tacos with Ginger Crema Sauce
Serves 5.

Ingredients:
1 lime, zest and juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon coriander
2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
handful chopped basil
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 tablespoon sea salt
2 smashed garlic cloves
1 jalapeño (deveined and seeded for less heat) roughly chopped
1 1/2 pounds mahi mahi
Extra limes for squeezing over after grilling

Plenty of tortillas, wrapped in foil and warmed in a low oven
Ginger Basil Crema, recipe follows
1 1/2 cups fresh Pico De Gallo (Chop a fresh tomato, jalapeno, small white onion, and giant handful fresh cilantro. Squeeze over the juice of 1 lime, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and a minced garlic clove if desired.)

Directions:
Add the marinade ingredients - the lime juice, zest and lime carcass through the jalapeno to a large ziploc and squish around to make sure everything's well blended. Add in the mahi mahi, seal and refrigerate for 4 hours. Remove from the fridge 30 minutes before grilling.

Set the heat to medium/high heat (around 400) and oil the grates. Remove the fish from the marinade shaking off any excess herbs or marinade bits and gently pat dry. Season with a little more salt and pepper and add to the grill - skin side down. Cook for about 10-12 minutes or until the fish flakes easily when probed with a fork. Let rest for 5 minutes, then slide a spatula between the skin and flesh to get the flesh away from it (no skin in my tacos, please.) Squeeze a lime wedge or 2 over the cooked fish, taste for salt/pepper adding more if necessary.

Serve in warm tortillas with pico de gallo and ginger basil crema, recipe follows.

Crema Sauce:
1/3 cup light sour cream
2 tablespoons light mayo
1/4 teaspoon grated fresh ginger, or more to taste
handful chopped, fresh basil
zest of half a lime
tiny pinch salt and pepper

Cinnamon Butter Cookies

Another one from Martha's "Cookies" Book, actually called Buttered Rum Meltaways. Someone quite close to me went on a psychotic baking spree during the holidays last year, froze these (unbaked) in logs wrapped in parchment wrapped in ziplocs, recently found them again in her freezer, baked them off and found them good as new... nine months later.

I won't mention her by name. She'd be embarrassed. It would be awkward. And so on. That said if you were to do such a thing as her it helps to add some edible glitter to the powdered sugar you roll them in to make them feel more 'now.'

Buttered Rum Meltaways (Cinnamon Butter Cookies, because that's what they taste like to me)

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup dark rum
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
good pinch edible glitter, available at baking supply stores or online, to toss with remaining powdered sugar

Directions:
Whisk flour, cornstarch, spices, and salt in a bowl. Put butter and 1/3 cup powdered sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in rum and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, and gradually mix in flour mixture.
Divide dough in half. Place each on a piece of parchment paper; shape dough into logs. Fold parchment over dough; using a ruler, roll and press into a 1 1/4-inch log. Wrap in parchment. Chill in freezer 30 minutes (up to 1 month).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap logs. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds; space 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until just golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool 10 minutes. Gently toss warm cookies with remaining 2/3 cup sugar and edible glitter (optional) in a resealable plastic bag. Cookies can be refrigerated in airtight containers up to 2 weeks (or frozen, unbaked and in logs, if you're Alisa Sengel Wixom for up to 9 months if triple wrapped in parchment and two ziplocs, prior to slicing, baking, and tossing in remaining sugar.) ;)

It's beginning to look like...Halloween! (and Carrot Ginger Soup)

I know, I know. It's not even October yet. You're probably thinking I'm some Halloween freak who already has my house, yard, and bathrooms decorated. And you'd be right.

Now that that's out of the way...let's talk carrot ginger soup. Why do I think of soup when it comes to Halloween, you ask? Well here's where I pour you some sparkling apple cider (alcoholic at my house) and pull you up a chair. Several years ago, Kris and I got a bug up our bottoms to leave San Francisco and head for the midwest. The promise of having a 'normal life' or at least something more like what we had growing up in Texas - i.e. a house and a yard and a mortgage - made us glaze over with excitement, shunning the naysayers who said "Fargo?"

So off we went, buying a 1905 Victorian house near Lake Calhoun. Our first fall there was the first 'real' fall Kris and I had ever had. Leaves turned into orange confetti and fluttered through the air like a scene from Charlie Brown. Mittens were broken out by October 1st along with hats and snow boots and I thought I was living in the middle of an after school special.

About that time, a friend told me how it was a tradition in the Minnesota neighborhood where she grew up to give kids soup after trick or treating. At first it sounded weird to me (who wants soup when you have a bag of candy?) but when Halloween came around, I got it. It was damn freezing out and most kids actually had to flash their Halloween costumes at us like miniature perverts because it was already so cold out they were hidden under huge down coats! Of COURSE they'd want a bowl of hot soup once they were finished pounding the freezing pavement all night for a sugar high - probably along with a blanket and a nip of brandy...or hot chocolate.

Hearing this tradition made me want to raise 10 kids in the freezing midwest just so I could partake in it. But then second winter came hitting negative 5 degrees before Thanksgiving and I changed my mind (though I could brine a whole turkey in a bucket on the back mud porch - loved that!)

Anyhow, that's why I think of soup at Halloween. And what soup could be more perfect than one that's this color?

Carrot Ginger Soup
Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients:
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) salted butter
1/2 inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped (use a 1 inch knob for more ginger flavor)
3 shallots, chopped medium dice
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 pounds carrots, cleaned, ends removed and sliced into thin coins
1/4 teaspoon coriander
pinch kosher salt
pinch fresh cracked pepper
4 cups (32 oz box) low sodium chicken stock

Directions:
Add the butter to a large dutch oven and put over medium heat. Once melted, add the ginger, shallots, and garlic. Saute, stirring often, until the shallots are translucent, lowering the heat a little if at any point the garlic begins to brown or crisp. Add the carrots and coriander, salt, and pepper, and saute for 20 minutes - until the carrots have softened and the begun to brown along the bottom of the pan. Raise the heat to high and pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, give a good stir to ensure nothing's stuck to the bottom of the pan, then lower the heat so that the soup is just simmering with the lid closed - not hot popping mad boiling. Let simmer for 30 minutes, then kill the heat and move the pot to a cool burner and let cool for another 30 minutes.

Use a ladle to add, in batches, to a blender or food processor. Once all blended, return to the pot over low heat, if eating right away to heat through, taste for salt and pepper and make any last minute adjustments before serving.

Broken Spoke Pork Chops

These have no official affiliation with The Broken Spoke other than I had just come back from a late night there seeing Mr. Dale Watson with friends when I remembered we had gone to Central Market that day and bought some delicious fat and juicy pork chops. Sensing I might be hungover the next morning (who, me?), I decided there was no time like the present (3 am) to go about marinating them.

I went with my gut throwing things in the marinade that sounded good to me at that hour. Luckily those things actually tasted good the next night when we came back from the lake - starving - and threw them on the grill.

And that's the story of how these became the Broken Spoke Pork Chops. Good night. (PS - rude super huss waitress who yelled at us to leave while Dale was graciously chatting with us - you have a fat granny ass. Night y'all;)

Broken Spoke Pork Chops

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped (no need to peel)
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, rubbed between your fingers
4 small dried (Turkish) bay leaves, crumbled up with your fingers
Juice of 2 limes, reserving the bodies to cut up roughly and add to marinade
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
Good pinch red pepper flakes
Couple grinds of fresh black pepper
Fat sprig of fresh basil
2-4 bone in, healthy pork chops

Directions:
Add the olive oil, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, lime juice and chopped spent limes, salt, red pepper and black pepper, and basil to a large ziploc or sealing marinade bag. Close and smush everything around until well combined then immerse the chops in the marinade, turning over several times to be sure they're well coated. Refrigerate overnight - remove one hour before grilling to let the chill come off. Grill at medium/high heat for 4-5 minutes per side - depending on thickness. Remove and cover with foil to let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Italian Pepperoncini Beef for Lots and Lots of Sandwiches.

This is one of those recipes that is so simple your first instinct is to just skip it altogether or try and give it some jazz hands. But you'd be crazy to do either. It's perfect just the way it is.

It makes a TON so it's ideal for laid back parties (my favorite kind) or for when you want something you can make a lot of meals out of during the week when you're really busy.

A few years ago we had house guests staying with us and they went through the whole batch in one day while Kris and I were at work. Needless to say I don't recommend eating it all in one sitting unless you want to volunteer for a meat sweats study, but this will keep in the fridge for up to five days to make sandwiches out of. Go for the best quality sourdough rolls you can get your hands on and don't forget to toast them. Sourdough + Italian Beef + Melted Provolone = Mama Mia!

Italian Beef, For Sandwiches
* From Charlotte Wixom.
* You can adjust the heat if serving to kids. I.E. only use half the jar of pepperoncini and juice and add 1/2 cup of water or beer to the crock pot make up for the moisture.

Ingredients/Tools:
1 (3-4 lb) beef roast (sirloin, shoulder or rump)
2 (1 oz each) packages dry Italian dressing mix (Good Seasons brand)
1 (16 oz) jar pepperoncini peppers, whole or sliced
Slow Cooker
Provolone slices, for sandwiches
Sourdough rolls or buns, toasted, for sandwiches

Directions:
Rinse the beef off with cold water and pat dry. Add the beef to your crock pot then sprinkle the packets of seasoning over and pour the jar of peppers - with the juice - all over and around the meat.

Put the top on and cook on low for about 10 hours or until the meat shreds easily with a fork. (You could also start this in the morning for the first two hours on high, then put on low for the remainder of the day if making for a party that night.) Once the meat pulls apart easily, let it cool for 20 minutes before shredding with two forks. If using whole pepperoncini, remove the stems and slice them up a little if desired.

Serve the meat on toasted sourdough rolls with slices of provolone cheese.

Let cool before storing leftovers. Leftovers should keep for up to 5 days in the fridge well sealed.

Pioneer Woman's Mac and Cheese

I have to admit, I was so excited about The Pioneer Woman's show premiering on Food Network that the first episode was a massive letdown. It wasn't the show's fault. It's just because I had built my expectations up to epic proportions...like Ed McMahon knocking on my door or waking up to double D's.

Now that the initial disappointment has passed I am utterly hooked. How could you not be? I mean it's too good to be true (full disclosure - part of me still believes PW is a fictional creation of the media. Home schooling 4 kids while maintaining the most popular food blog of all time AND writing cookbooks AND making your family dinner every night while professionally photographing it AND looking cute as all get out... Self doubt, anyone?)

Anyway it prompted me to make her mac and cheese for my most recent family gathering. I get a little giddy when I get to make an old fashioned recipe that can feed an army. My nephews and niece are all over 5'7" and they're all under 17 (I'm 5'4" on a tall day) so they can MOW THROUGH SOME FOOD. And I love it.

Cheers to family. And to old fashioned recipes. And to the pioneer woman.

Pioneer Woman's Macaroni and Cheese
* mildly adapted
Prep Time: 15 Minutes | Cook Time: 15 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 8 as a meal, 12-14 as a side dish

Ingredients:
4 cups Dried Macaroni (1 lb box)
1 whole Egg, beaten
1/4 cup (1/2 Stick Or 4 Tablespoons) Butter
1/4 cup All-purpose Flour
2-1/2 cups Whole Milk
3 teaspoons Dry Mustard
1 pound sharp cheddar Cheese, Freshly Grated if possible
3/4 teaspoon Salt, More To Taste
1/2 teaspoon Seasoned Salt (OLD BAY is what I use)
1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
pinch fresh grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.

Cook macaroni until very firm. Macaroni should be too firm to eat right out of the pot. Drain.

In a small bowl, beat egg.

In a large pot, melt butter and sprinkle in flour. Whisk together over medium-low heat. Cook mixture for five minutes, whisking constantly. DO NOT LET IT BURN.

Pour in milk, add mustard, and whisk until smooth. Cook for five minutes until very thick, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low.

Take 1/4 cup of the sauce and slowly pour it into beaten egg, whisking constantly to avoid cooking eggs. Whisk together till smooth.

Pour egg mixture into sauce, whisking constantly. Stir until smooth. Add in all the cheese besides a half cup and stir to melt. Add salt, seasoned salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne pepper. Taste sauce and add more salt and/or seasoned salt as needed. DO NOT UNDER SALT. Pour in drained, cooked macaroni and stir to combine. Serve immediately (very creamy) or pour into a buttered baking dish, top with extra cheese, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly and golden on top.