Oil Braised Garlic Chicken

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Oil Braised Garlic Chicken

If you have never tried oil-braising, you are missing out!
No, it does NOT make food greasy, but it does seal in moisture, flavor and will have your loved ones pushing each other aside to be first ‘dibs’.

It’s so very easy: Season liberally with salt and pepper, and brown your bone in chicken, skin side down, in an oven proof, heavy bottomed skillet or roasting pan. I prefer a cast iron. Make sure to preheat your oven to 375. Once the meat is browned, add olive oil (yes, olive oil. it is a good fat, and healthy for you. plus, it really adds to the flavor. DO NOT WASTE EVOO, just use regular old olive oil)  to about 1/2 way up the meat level. Add lots of peeled garlic cloves using this tip for easy and fast peeling. The garlic which ends up being braised along with the meat, comes out soft, creamy and mellow. It’s delicious to spread on crusty bread, served on the side. (Or GF biscuits in our case).

Give the oil a head start by allowing the pan with chicken, garlic and oil to stay on the heat for a couple of minutes. When the oil is hot, put the whole thing in to the oven. (Please be careful when dealing with hot oil. This is why I like my cast iron pan that has 2 handles to hang on to it securely, not splashing oil.)

Braise until meat is cooked through, about 45min to an hour depending upon the cut and size of the meat. (use a thermometer to ensure its cooked to correct temp) Breast meat will cook more quickly than thigh meat. Do not attempt to make this with boneless-skinless chicken. I fear it would just dry out with the cooking time needed to really cook the garlic. When it’s done, it will come out of the oven looking like the photo above, bubbly, moist and tender.

Serve with mashed potatoes or root veggies and a nice green salad, or roasted broccoli or cauliflower.

With my easy peeling technique, there is no reason to be discouraged about peeling 40+ cloves of garlic.
Plus, leftovers (if there are any) are delicious on homemade pizza, in casseroles, or in eggs. What isn’t good in eggs?

Billie Rupp’s Popcorn Balls

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Here is my second attempt to post my godmothers wonderful popcorn balls. It appears wordpress is not exactly easy to navigate for someone who is technologically handicapped. My wonderful, reminiscent ramblings were deleted somehow, some way I’ve yet to comprehend.
So back to old school, type it up in Word and then copy/paste. I’m never going to rely on word-press to save my draft for me, no Sir-E-bob. (UGH! SO FRUSTRATING!)

When I was 6, my parents moved our family up from California to a cul-de-sac in the western suburbs of Portland, Oregon. I have fond memories of that house: riding my banana bike with ‘reins’ (a piece of string) tied to the handlebars of which I had vivid fantasies of riding some great white majestic mare; making mud pies with my brother, digging caves in haystacks of cut drying wheat in the fields next to our housing development, playing on our Jungle Gym; and going over to Mrs. Rupp’s house, a wonderful woman who would become my Godmother.

Mrs. Rupp you see, always had something wonderful going on in her kitchen. My own mother was a stay at home mom, but as we all know, the grass is greener elsewhere, and my mother was a busy woman. My little brother and I would regularly traipse over to see what interesting thing she was working on, and hopefully score a treat.

Mrs. Rupp had the best sarsaparilla ever. She made the syrup from scratch and kept it in a mason jar in her fridge. She’d fill a tall glass with ice, pour the molasses colored brown liquid in, then fill it with old fashioned seltzer water. Half the thrill was holding the glass up and letting the bubbles pop in our noses. Mrs. Rupp’s mother made shrunken apple ‘people’, which created a mixed reaction of ‘neato’ and ‘gross’. But, the memory most fond for me was of her popcorn balls.

You see, every Halloween, Mrs. Rupp handed out homemade popcorn balls. Creamy, sticky, caramel-loaded goodness that we waited a year for. Those were the days eh? When people actually handed out homemade goodies like real candied apples (bright red and shiny), real lollypops, homemade divinity and fudge, real candies. Oh yes, those were the days alright, and lest I start on a rant about the world we live in now…we’ll move on.

My Godmother would hand them out at Halloween, but I make them over the Christmas holidays. I prefer to give baskets of homemade treats over store bought trinkets which end up in the trash. I wrap my popcorn balls up in waxed paper and tie them off with a piece of string or colorful rubber band, and nestle them in with other homemade goodies. So, as we begin the Christmas giving season, here is the gift of my Godmothers famous (at least in my mind) Popcorn Balls:

Pop 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels and pour in to a large bowl.

In a saucepan melt:
1 stick of salted butter (extra for your hands and molding)
30 large marshmallows
1 cup of brown sugar, packed

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You could use unsalted and add back a bit of salt, but I just use regular salted butter. The marshmallows I buy are Gluten Free, be sure to check the ingredients if you are intolerant. I supposed you could make your marshmallow from scratch, but I don’t bother. If you do, a bag is 10 oz and you don’t use the entire bag, so I’d estimate you need about 9oz.

Once the mixture is all melted and all the marshmallows have turned to goo, pour the whole thing over the popped corn and stir to mix.

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Then take additional softened butter and liberally rub it all over your hands. Grab a lump and form in to a ball, putting on some waxed paper (or parchment) to cool. Try not to compact them too much. They should be kinda loose, just packed enough to keep them in their shape. See in the photo below? These are not lead balls of sugar. When they cool, you want to be able to pull them apart, its half the fun!

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You will likely need to reload your hands more than once to keep the mix from sticking and making clubs out of your hands. You’ll want to work fairly quickly to keep the mix from setting up. I recommend for large quantities you make multiple batches instead of doubling. Its easier to work with while warm.
Note: If they are too warm, they will not stick together. Just wait another minute and try again. Keep your hands covered in butter to keep them from sticking to your hands-which can be frustrating!

That’s it! I hope you enjoy them as much as we all do. I hope they become a tradition in your house, and if you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below.

Finally! Gluten Free Scones worthy of Praise!

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My daughter was diagnosed last year with having gluten intolerance as well as lactose intolerance. If you are tested for celiac, and you come up negative but still have issues, they put you on the elimination diet. That timing coincided exactly with the holidays. I was in a fluster. I have grown up cooking and baking with flour my entire life. Going gluten free, wheat free as well as eliminating all dairy and dairy proteins over thanksgiving and christmas was just more than a little overwhelming. Gluten is hidden under all various forms and names, and so is that dairy protein. 

Well, after 8 very long weeks we have pinned it down to Gluten and Lactose. There are pills to help with lactose, so that has been a HUGE gift to me. But gluten? That one is tougher, and as a newbie to this style of cooking it was just easier to buy pre-made or go without. (As a family, we ALL adopted this lifestyle) 

That left out something I really excel at. Scones. I make really awesome scones, just ask around. I’m not bragging, just making a statement. It’s a combination of technique and knowing your ingredients. My mouth waters just with the thought of them. A dollop of Devonshire cream or Marscapone and I kid you not, heaven on this earth. 

I have been attempting to re-create a Gluten Free (GF) version, using GF flours, mixing my own flour ratio, adding in extra fat, tweaking here and there and all were failures. I kept ending up with grainy, tough, heavy, dry and not very tasty lead bombs. The most successful attempt was tasty but like eating sand, generally not acceptable in my kitchen nor any kitchen. Then, while searching the web for tips, I saw a video for Pamelas’ Baking Mix. I actually saw it while researching for pizza crust, another thing I’ve been unsuccessful in reproducing. She was using her bread mix, but there were links to her ‘baking’ mix. I guess you could sort of equate it to Bisquick, but its not Bisquick. I proceeded to read all the reviews on it, and it received glowing comments on its ability to substitute very closely for real flour. 

Hmmmmm, I thought, maybe I can try this and see how they turn out? I scooped it as directed, I added just a smidge more fat, a little less baking powder (the mix has some in it) and mixed up a batch. It was loose, so instead of forming a disc, I used a batter scooper and ‘dropped’ it on to my sheet pans, garnished with sugar crystals and popped in to the oven. I adjusted the time to compensate for smaller scones and a looser batter. Pulled them out and put them in front of my daughter piping hot with a tub of Marscapone. 

“THESE ARE AWESOME MOM!!!!”

Dang if my heart didn’t just swell up! She had been missing my scones for months now, and I fear was getting very tired of being a guinea pig. There are some days that just ROCK as a mom, and this was one! The only downside was they looked kinda/sorta like cookies. Food, whether we want to admit it or not, is a visual experience. I wanted my scones to look like scones. That is when hubby, who I’ll confess has moments of true brilliance, said: “You need a mold”. Seriously, why didnt I think of that? I’ve seen them in my cooking magazines and I’ve always thought to myself: “Why would anyone need a mold? Just pat it in to a disc and cut it in to triangles with a bench knife”. Well, those molds may not have been designed specifically for GF scones, but its on my ‘to buy’ list as of now. 

Some days are good days, and then there are some ROCKIN good days. Making my GF daughter GF scones I could be proud of makes this a ROCKIN good day.