Fake-fried Chicken

3-4 pounds of chicken, cut up, skin removed
1 c. ranch dressing
2 cups instant potato flakes

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 

Coat baking sheet with oil.

Lightly brush chicken with ranch dressing, then roll in the potato flakes.  Place on greased pan.

Turn down oven to 350 and bake for 25 min. or till juices run clear.

The verdict:
Not too bad, but there was a lot of mashed potato flakes left over.  The chicken was tender and almost melted in your mouth.  I should have put more oil on the pan, perhaps that would have made it more crispy.

In the future, I will just use Oven Fry...less waste, more crisp.

The Real Scoop
by Andrew
I couldn't really taste the ranch dressing, and I thought it would be crispy since it's supposed to be fried chicken.

Turtle Burgers

When I was little, my parents called me "Turtle."  I am sure it was because of the lightning-fast pace in which I moved.  So imagine my dismay when Mom sent me this recipe....

While your plain hamburgers are cooking, cut a hot dog for the head, feet and tail. When burgers are done, toss in the hot dog parts to brown and curl. Lay a slice of cheese on the burger, and use "heat 'n serve" bacon and weave it like lattice on top of cheese. Attach the head, feet, and tail with toothpicks.  Pop them in the microwave to warm the cheese and burger. Turtle Burgers are the only seafood I will eat!  P.S. These could be made ahead of time and just heated in the oven.    Mom served these to my dad as a joke.  Anyone notice a divorce notice in the St. Marys paper?  LOL

Pizza for Breakfast

When we woke up this morning, we were still inspired by the pizzas from last night. (Yes, they were THAT GOOD.)  We prepared the store-bought crust simply by lightly rubbing it with olive oil.  We then topped the crust with scrambled eggs (which had a bit of garlic) and just a few diced green peppers.

Over that, we sprinkled crispy bacon and cheddar cheese and baked it till the cheese melted.










To drink, we got a bit fancy with our sweet iced tea by adding fresh strawberries.






The Real Scoop
by Andrew
The fun part came afterward when we brainstormed what else we could add to our iced tea.  We then went to the grocery only to find they had no raspberries or blueberries. Seriously, I hate Wal-Mart.

Playin' with Pizza

Andrew and I did some serious experimenting with pizza tonight.

The pizza on the right:
We brushed olive oil infused with onion and fresh garlic onto a thin and crispy crust.

We topped the pizza with green peppers, tomatoes, feta cheese and fresh mozzarella.  We then sprinkled the top with Mrs. Dash.

The flavors were amazing!

I wish the picture of the pizza on the left had turned out better.  If it had, some of you would notice that it's my Buffalo Chicken Dip.  We put ranch dressing on the pizza crust, then the dip.  Oh, my goodness!  The only thing that would have made it better (in my opinion, not Andrew's) is if I had added some thin celery slices as soon as it came out of the oven.

The Real Scoop
by Andrew
I'm used to pizza having red sauce, but neither one of these did. I was surprised how much I liked them.  I would eat both of them again, but if I had to choose, I would say the Buffalo Chicken one was my favorite.  Good stuff!

Even the dog thought it all smelled good.
If he had gotten any closer to the table, he would have been sitting in Cliff's chair.