Cornmeal-Crusted Chicken Nuggets with Blackberry Mustard

A featured recipe from Eating Well Magazine....

very kid friendly, and ready in about 20 minutes.

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh blackberries or raspberries, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 pound chicken tenders, cut in half crosswise (see Tip)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 3 tablespoons cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

eparation

1. Mash blackberries (or raspberries), mustard and honey in a small bowl until it looks like a chunky sauce.
2. Sprinkle chicken tenders with salt and pepper. Place cornmeal in a medium bowl, add the chicken and toss to coat (discard any leftover cornmeal).
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook the chicken, turning once or twice, until browned and just cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes total (thinner nuggets will cook faster than thicker ones). Serve the chicken nuggets with the berry mustard.

Tips & Notes

• Chicken tenders are the lean strips of rib meat typically found attached to the underside of chicken breasts. They can also be purchased separately. Four 1-ounce tenders will yield a 3-ounce cooked portion. Tenders are perfect for quick stir-fries, chicken satay or kid-friendly breaded “chicken nuggets.”

Beef Fillets with Balsamic Rasperry Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 (about 4 ounces each) bacon wrapped fillets
• ¼  teaspoon(s) salt
• ½ teaspoon(s) coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoon(s) vegetable oil

Raspberry-Balsamic Sauce

• 1 teaspoon(s) vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoon(s) balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoon(s) seedless red raspberry jam
• ¼ cup fresh raspberries
• ¼ teaspoon(s) coarsely ground black pepper

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Directions

1. Prepare Fillets: Pat fillets dry with paper towels. Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper.
2. In nonstick 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add fillets and cook 2 to 3 minutes for medium, turning steaks over once. Transfer fillets to an oven safe pan and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or to desired doneness. When fillets are done, transfer to platter with any juice; cover with foil.
3. Prepare sauce:  In the skillet, heat oil over medium heat until hot. Add red onion and 1/4 cup water and cook about 5 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in balsamic vinegar and another 1/4 cup water; heat to boiling over medium-high heat. Boil 1 minute or until slightly reduced. Remove skillet from heat; stir in jam, parsley, and pepper until blended. Return fillets with their juice to skillet, and the fresh raspberries; heat through.

 

My Spaghetti

What do you do with a dozen Roma tomatoes that disparately need to used? Make spaghetti. All part of  the proper care and feeding of my curmudgeon.

I chopped about a dozen tomatoes and put them in a sauce pan with a little salted water. They boiled about an hour. Poured back in the pan added 4 beef bouillon cubes, a little more salt, minced onion,  and tomato paste and balsamic vinegar. Blended it till smooth in myVita mix, and then poured back into the pan

I cooked it for anther 45 minutes, added Italian seasoning. 

In a large skillet browned a pound of ground beef, celery, onion and green pepper. salt pepper and Italian seasoning. 

Next put pasta on to boil. cook to package instructions, drain, add pack to pot with butter parley and basil. mix well. 

Add sauce to ground beef, pour over pasta and serve  yum. The curmudgeon said it was so disgusting that I could torture him again with in any time. ha ha

. 

For the sauce:

12 Roma tomatoes

3 tablespoons dried minced onion

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

    

Ground beef mixture

1 lbs ground beef

1/2 green bell pepper

1/2 small onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

2 teaspoons balsamic

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

For the pasta

1 lbs spaghetti

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoons parsley

Hello Kansas City BBQ!

Ok, my big news of late is moving to the Kansas City area. As a foodie I am thrilled, because I can't wait to try the BBq!
Kansas City is one of the BBQ capitals of the world, (the other is Memphis) there are big countests, and at least 50 restaurants in the city with feature the saucey stuff. I have to metion Memphis because the worlds biggest contest is on Mud Island every spring. people compete from all over the world. My family being from Arkansas, Memphis style bbq was my first.

KC is known for the sauce, sweet and tangy. I found this on Wikipedia:

Kansas City barbecue refers to the specific inner city style of barbecue that evolved from the pit of Henry Perry in the early 1900s in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is renowned for barbecue. Kansas City, Missouri has more than 100 barbecue restaurants and is known in Missouri as "world's barbecue capital." There are large, well attended barbecue cooking contests, the two most notable being in nearbyLenexa, Kansas and at the American Royal.

Kansas City barbecue is characterized by its use of different types of meat (including pulled pork, pork ribs, burnt ends, smoked sausage, beef brisket, beef ribs, smoked/grilled chicken, smoked turkey, and sometimes fish) along with its sweet and tangy sauces which are generally intended for liberal use. A majority of restaurants also offer a spicy variety of the staple sauce. Ribs are mostly pork, but also come in beef varieties and can come in a number of different cuts. Burnt ends, the flavorful pieces of meat cut from the ends of a smoked beef or pork brisket, are a popular dish in many Kansas City area barbecue restaurants. Kansas City barbecue is also known for its many side dishes, including a unique style of baked beans, french fries, cole slaw, and other soul food staples.

My mom made a sauce that involved diet cola, and ketchup. There are pit masters shuddering right now at the thoutht.

Anyway as I trip into BBq heaven, I'll pass out the details