Chicken Thighs with Butter Beans

I needed to use up a couple of chicken thighs and some aging veggies hiding out in the crisper drawer. So, I made this. It did not disappoint. It's more of a "method" than an exact recipe and the way I prefer to cook. 

• 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• Chicken seasoning of your choice (I use Bell's)
• Bacon fat
• Butter
• 1 leek, sliced, white part only
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced.
• 1 rib of celery, thinly sliced
• 1 large garlic clove, peeled, thinly sliced
• Dried thyme
• Salt and pepper
• Chicken stock (about 1/3 cup)
• Dry white wine (about 1/3 cup
• 1 can seasoned butter beans, rinsed and drained (I use Margaret Holmes brand)

Preheat your oven to 350-375 F.

Pat dry your chicken thighs. Sprinkle the underside with your choice of chicken seasoning, salt and pepper.

Add about 1 tablespoon each bacon fat and butter to a medium, heavy pan. When melted and hot, place thighs skin-side down. Lower heat to medium. Do not fiddle with them. When browned, carefully flip and brown other side. Remember, these will cook in the oven, so they do not need to be cooked through.

Remove thighs from pan. Add a bit more fat to the pan. Gently sautee your vegetables. Add chicken stock and wine, scraping up the brown bits. Allow to reduce a bit over medium low heat--until you no longer smell the alcohol in the wine. 

In the same pan or a casserole dish, layer the butter beans. Top with the vegetable mixture. Add a bit of salt, pepper, dried thyme. Tuck in the browned thighs. 

Cover and bake 45 minutes. Uncover. Bake another 10 minutes. If the tops are not as browned as you like, place under broiler. If you use the broiler, do not walk away and keep an eye on it the entire time.

Allow to cool a bit. Serve.

1. Notes: I buy my bacon fat. I used to get it over Amazon, but now one of my supermarkets carries it. The brand is called "Bacon Up" and I love it. It is triple filtered but retains the bacon taste.
2. Leeks bring a dish a lot of flavor. One could substitute shallots, even onions in a pinch.
3. To the wine/stock mixture, one could also add a bit of Half-and-Half or cream. 

Mayonnaise Muffins (Three-Ingredient Muffins)

Who knew? A simple muffin transformed into a bagel. Yes, you can do it, too!
Don't be a bagel snob.

I've seen versions of this recipe floating the Internet for awhile now, so I thought it time to give it a try. I'm always on the prowl for an easy "bread" that is table-presentable even for company.

This did not disappoint. It's a keeper. But I do suggest you give it a trial run, first.

Is it celebatory fireworks worthy? Not really. But it is simple. It's good. And it fills a need.

This most common of these recipes goes by the title "Three-Ingredient Muffins." But I have also seen people roll them like a "biscuit"! (I don't know why, since that defeats the ease of the recipe and easy clean up.)

After reading many reviews with so many changes, I settled on the one below. I baked mine in a "mini" muffin tin that fit into my counter-top oven at a lower temperature but for around the same time if they had been regularly sized. I also added a bit of sugar. And I took one reviewer's advice and added just a few pinches of yeast.*  It's important to let these sit for about 15 minutes before baking, a good rule for any muffin to give them a head start to rise.**

For half, I sprinkled with "everything bagel" toppings. I enjoyed them very much split open, smeared with a bit of cream cheese and topped with smoked salmon. For a "dinner" roll, the savory route of planting seeds in a pillowy and fertile loam of dough is the the way to go. One could just as easily use caraway or sesame or any favored dried herb, such as dill to match the occasion and taste of the main dish. Even seasoned pepper--such as my favorite, Aleppo.

(Please note: not all bagel seed toppings are the same. I prefer brands that include some type of salt. If yours does not, I suggest you add to it a bit of sea salt, pink salt or Kosher salt.) 

Because I live in the South, I am spoiled and used White Lily self-rising flour. If you do, too, adjust amounts as recommended on package. If you do not have self rising flour on hand, simply add, for each cup of all-purpose flour: 1½ teaspoons (6 grams) baking powder and ¼ teaspoon (1 gram) kosher salt.

If you want these for a breakfast or morning muffins, measure dry ingredients into a bowl the night before. In the morning, sleepy-eyed and groggy, it's easy to add wet ingredients and pop into the oven while prepping your coffee or breakfast. I even grease the tins and measure the milk in a mug the night before. Really, what could be easier?

Don't be put off the mayo. It contains oil and egg. That's it. If you have never had a mayonnaise cake, you don't know what you are missing! Very moist and tender.

For the future, it would be interesting to add a cinnamon streusal in the center and/or top. Lots of variations one could use for these ... Add cheese, pieces of sausage/bacon. Some pieces of fresh fruit. It's a great and easy base for creative cookery. And it's cheaper than a loaf of good bread or a slice of cheap bread.

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1.5-1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
• 4 tablespoons full-fat mayonnaise
• 1 cup whole milk 
• Bagel seed topping (optional)

Place dry ingredients into bowl. Mix. Add mayonnaise and incorporate. Add half of the milk. Stir. 

Continue to add milk until you get a thick, pancake-like batter.

Spoon into greased muffin tins. Allow to rest 10-15 minutes. Bake in a 375-400 degree oven 13-15 minutes.

Remove from oven. Allow to cool a few minutes. Tumble onto a rack to cool.

This little  puppy outdid everyone in the pan!
(Did it rise/raise/rose?)

Notes: The muffin tin I used is visually attractive. My mom had several. But the muffins picked up the "tinny" taste. 

*These really do have a nice texture. Sadly, the yeast added no taste.

**RISE ROSE RISEN are verbs. They simply discuss "action." Just think of Jesus. He has "risen." He "rose" He will "rise" again. In other words, a person or thing MOVES UP! Words like am, is are, was, were, being, been and has, had, will ... are clues or helping verbs that you want one of these words.

But "raise" must always have an attachment or "object" telling you what is actually "raised." They "raised" the rent. "Raise" your hand. The committee "raised" a number questions? That's it ... just two words ... raise and raised unlike RISE which has three conjugations but a ton of helping verbs.  

If you would like a week-long lesson on this, let me know!

Lunch Lady Hot Rolls~

I was raised a Baby-Boomer Catholic. 

That meant several things. First, I went to Catholic or private schools, not "public." My church and school was ST. JOSEPH in the small town of Dyer, Indiana. I loved that small town! It was once a beautiful church until pagans remodeled it. Very, very sad.

In the 1950s, there was a clear divide between Catholic and "public." For example, we were not allowed to walk in front of the "public" school. We had to cross the street! I'm serious!

Even though "public" school busses took us to school and back, we were not allowed to sit with any of the "public" school kids.

School lunches at private, Catholic schools were pure torture for any child.  There was no federal or state money or aide. No menus or recipes. They were just terrible. At best, food was donated. Lots of cans. I honestly do not remember anything FRESH or made from scratch, except peanut-butter cookies. It was cheap. It was garbage. 

For the most part, my siblings and I had "packed" lunches prepared by our mother. Back in the cafeteria, kids who had packed lunches ... were separated from kids who had "HOT" lunches. Note the dichotomy ... Hot/Cold ...

The worst was the Friday lunch. We were not allowed to eat meat on Friday's ... so the lunch was always the same ... ALWAYS! Putrid fish sticks (often cold), canned peas, a piece of cheap mostly-stale white bread and a pat of "butter" that was so dense it ripped the bread when you tried to spread it. The redeeming ingredient, hopefully, not always, was a peanut butter cookie.

Well, come Friday, my mom was done making lunches for me and my brother and sister. Instead, she gave us a quarter to buy our lunch, and sent us on our way ...

It was a death sentence. The worst lunch of the week.

Nuns served as guards next to every garbage can to make sure every child ate everything (even if we had a home-packed lunch.) There were "children in the world starving to death," they loved to remind us.

Well, from Grade One I learned early. Screw that piece of white crappy bread. I stuffed it in my pant pocket. Canned peas and horrible "fish" sticks? Drain carton of milk ... and stuff it into that. Out of sight--out of mind. The nuns smiled. And I was cleared to leave cafeteria prison to enter playground freedom ... regardless of starving children in the world.

I can't begin to tell you how often my mother yelled at me ... when she went to do laundry ... and stale bread fell out of my pant pocket. Looking back, it should have been a wake up call ... NO SCHOOL LUNCH ON FRIDAYS! Better yet ... contact school ... discuss school lunches ... 

I graduated to a classy catholic high school ... Great food! They figured it out ... Make good food ... and reap a profit!

Eventually, I became a public school teacher, in rural Indiana. Many of the lunch ladies were regular moms and moms who worked on farms. They were all good cooks! Sadly the Feds eventually barged in and put an end to home-cooking. It was a horrible period of bad food until everyone eventually figured it all out.

One of my favorite Lunch-Lady foods was yeast rolls, usually served with beef stew! In the mornings, the smell of rising rolls permeated hallways. I once asked the head cook for the recipe and she obliged, but it was the original recipe, 25 lbs of flour, etc. I wish now I had saved it. I have made an effort to contact people who may still have it, but to no avail ... and some have simply passed on.

Lunch-Lady Rolls have become a cult classic in the U.S. Below is a video of a former lunch lady, Miss Lori, from her You Tube channel, Whippoorwill Hollow, making yeast rolls. In other episodes, she also shares recipes for Lunch Lady Pizza and Lunch Lady-Peanut Butter Cookies. She's a great cook! Enjoy!

Easy Fresh-Baked Bread from Frozen Rolls

I know it sounds weird, but I associate a loaf of fresh bread
with the same joy and satisfaction of holding a newborn. 

My doctor tells me I have a gene that must be very French. Why? My three weaknesses are bread, wine and chocolate. None, of course, diminish weight or waist (or wait and waste!). And good bread needs good butter. Quality butter is not sold in "sticks" like cigarettes. It is sold in a block. A big fat beautiful block of fat! My favorite is, of course, French: "Président." It's a bit saltier than other brands which pairs well with a fresh yeasty-fermented bread. My second choice is Plugra. I avoid Kerry Gold. It's too expensive for what it is supposed to be ... but is not.

Today, many grocery stores bake their own bread not prepared from scratch. Instead, it is baked from dough that has been prepared somewhere else and then frozen and shaped. The destination store will thaw it and proof it in large steam ovens. Then bake it. Easy peasy. Most is pretty good. Very good, in fact. But it will cost you because of shipping!

Some stores bake only a few loaves for just the aroma ... Yes, it's true. Customers go crazy . . . But a lot of bread sold in grocery-store bakeries, which includes rolls, etc., is simply shipped frozen and then put on the shelf to thaw.

The last grocery store I worked for, Publix, actually creates bread from scratch. Now, that is unusual! It results in some incredible bread but, more importantly, it saves on shipping costs! For a while, I was obsessed with my store's rye bread! Because I worked in the deli, right next to the bakery, I could put aside a fresh loaf and have it wrapped in a special bag the preserved the crispiness of the crust! How spoiled was I?

Unlike biscuits, these are not really flaky; instead, they are
light and airy. And, unlike biscuits, they have
that great yeasty taste! 

Early in the morning, one could hear bakers slapping the dough against large wooden counters with iron legs. Several times a week, 50-75-pound bags of bread flour are delivered. 

A loaf of "artisan" frozen bread is now hovering between four to five bucks a loaf! I don't think so. Even at three bucks, I tend to walk away. I wish they would just sell the frozen dough. Sometimes, if you ask the bakery department, they will sell it to you that way ... but don't expect a discount because you have to thaw and bake it yourself.

Prior to the star appearance of artisan loves of bread in a grocery store, I often made my own!  Seriously, it is not that difficult. I use what is called a "poolish" (rhymes with POO-LEASH) and the work is evenly divided between evening and the following morning, making it less complicated and strenuous. It's a great weekend project, and if you or your family has never had homemade bread ... OMG .. y'all are in for a real life-changing experience and you will finally discover the "goddess" distinction you always craved as matron of your home.

I thought of purchasing a bread machine ... but ...  for one loaf a week ... do I really need to go that route? And the consensus seems to be ... use the machine to mix the dough ... but NOT to bake it. So, really, what's the point?

I have a counter mixer with a bread hook, but I still have not used it. Soon, I will have no choice even though it is yet another "contraption" to clutter my limited counter and cabinet space.

Several weeks ago, I found this bag of "dough" in the frozen section of biscuits and rolls and decided to give it a try. The price was certainly right--Less than four bucks!!!

I created my own directions and  put three of the frozen rolls into a greased, small dish, sprayed them with some olive oil, and allowed them to rise. Then I baked them. Wow! They were incredible. Why? It was their distinct yeasty taste. When I was young, I made bread using "cakes" of fresh yeast which are now impossible to find. This had that incredible, old-world, iconic taste! Nice crust. Fluffy interior. 

A communion, a trinity. Perfect with breakfast!
And they sop up egg yolks so well . . .

Today, I just bought my third bag for $2.99 ... But it was raised to 3.69 ... (but on sale.") Still, this is a great bargain! I can get a good two loaves from each bag and then some. It will depend on your loaf pan. I use glass, 7.5 x 3.5 inches. You can use any size pan you want. Be creative. The tighter you pack the frozen dough, the higher it will rise. This is also true of biscuits. You do not necessarily want them to "spread" as much as you want them to "rise."

Here are some tips. I bake mine at 375 convection oven in a glass loaf pan I spray with PAM for about 18 minutes. They release easily ... and I put the "loaf" back on the rack. Turn the oven off and leave it for a good five minutes or so before removing it to cool on a rack. Do not cut into it while hot. You will release the steam which is needed to finish baking.

Frozen dough in a glass bread pan. 
Sprayed with PAM. I do this the night before.

In the morning they have risen. Be Happy!

Sometimes, I take a hunk of cold butter and rub it over the tops of the "bread" like one does biscuits or cornbread. It will melt and dissolve into the crevices--like icicles on a spring day. Remember, icicles have no fat or calories ... We should probably consume more (especially if used to stir a mixed drink)!

Honestly, I would rather make these than canned, refrigerated biscuits.

I don't have a photo of this, but, more and more ... just before baking, I spray the top with olive oil or brush a bit of egg/milk (best "glue") and sprinkle with sea salt. Then I sprinkle on my favorite "Bagel Topping." Definitely "over the top" but so good ... even with a smear of strawberry jelly. 

I have also kneaded this when thawed ... worked in a bit of cheese, chives, green onion, olives, etc. It behaves just like a bread dough would. Very forgiving.

Let me know what you do with it. And, please, send me a photo! Enjoy ...