Oven Fried Chicken

I try to eat well. We don't eat a lot of pasta, rice, potatoes or bread. But every once in awhile I get this craving for fried chicken. Its crispy skin calls my name sometimes and every so often I have to give in to temptation.

This turned out a lot better than I thought it would. The chicken was very moist and the potato chips made a nice crispy coating.



Oven Fried Chicken

2 1/2-3 pounds of cut up chicken
1/2 cup melted butter
2 cups of crushed potato chips OR crushed corn flakes OR crushed rice crispies
Granulated garlic
1/4 tsp pepper

Grease a large, shallow baking dish. Sprinkle chicken with granulated garlic. Melt butter and dip chicken pieces into butter and then roll in crushed chips or cereal with pepper added. Place pieces in prepared baking dish skin side up. Sprinkle with remaining crumbs and drizzle with remaining melted butter. Bake at 375 for an hour or until done, do not turn.

**Note** The original recipe called for garlic salt to be mixed in with the cereal or crushed chips but I do not use any salt when cooking.

Cinnamon Raisin Bars

This was the first thing I made out of this cookbook. The people in my office absolutely love these.




Cinnamon Raisin Bars

1/2 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oatmeal

Cream butter and sugar. Sift together dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture. Add oatmeal and 1 tblsp water. Firmly pat HALF of the mixture into a greased 13x9 dish. Spread with raisin filling. Mix remaining crumbs with another 1 tblsp water and pat over the raisin filling. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. Cool. Drizzle with cinnamon icing.



Raisin Filling

Combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 tblsp cornstarch in saucepan. Stir in 1 cup water and 2 cups raisins. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly.


Cinnamon Icing

Mix 1 cup sifted confectioner's' sugar with 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon. Stir in enough milk until a good consistency for drizzling.

Drizzle over the top of the cooled bars.

Swiss and Crab Pie

So here was the cookbook I picked for January. Actually I didn't really pick it I used it to make something else and thought that since I had it out I might as well bite the bullet and make a few dishes from it.

Since I was gone 2 weekends in January I only made 3 dishes.






Swiss and Crab Pie
4 oz. shredded Swiss cheese
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust
1 7 1/2 oz can crab meat, drained and picked through
2 scallions, sliced (with tops)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3 eggs, beaten
1 cup light cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp dry mustard
dash ground Mace

Arrange the cheese evenly over the bottom of the pie crust. Top with crab meat; sprinkle with green onions. Combine eggs, cream , salt, lemon peel, dry mustard and mace. Pour over crab meat. Bake at 325 for about 45 minutes or until set. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Pie Crust: makes enough dough for a 1 crust pie
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Crisco
4-5 tblsps water.




Mix together flour and salt. Using a pastry blender mix in Crisco until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add water by tablespoons, mixing with a fork until everything is in a dough ball. Roll out on a lightly floured surface.

**NOTE** I did not have Scallions so I diced up part of a Spanish Onion. I also only used a 6 oz. can of crab as that was all I could find. This took a lot longer to bake but then again I am at 4,800 feet in elevation.

Overall, it was very delicious. We had it with a small salad.

A Trip to Warmer Climates

A trip to California is always nice when the temperatures there are a good 40 degrees warmer than at home.

I went out and spent a week with my mother. It is good to see her but sad to see how the Alzheimer's is taking her memory away.

I found it interesting to stand out by the pool of their rental house, look across a lush green fairway, through the palm trees and see snow capped mountains in the distance.


One day my mother, my sister in-law and I drove up to a small town named Idyllwild for lunch at a great restaurant which uses massive amounts of garlic in their food.

We saw this sign as we pulled into the parking lot. I loved it!

A Winter Adventure At Home

Over the period of time from January 7th to late on the 8th we got hammered with snow. 28" in maybe 36 or so hours. It was miserable.

During the brunt of the storm a Cardinal took time to rest outside the kitchen window.


Liliuokalani went out but finding a spot to "go" was not easy with the falling and blowing snow. When she came in the only place that was not totally covered in snow was around her eyes.


Now one of the best things about a storm is when it leaves. We usually get the beautiful Carolina Blue sky and Sunday morning was no exception. I took this from our bedroom.


This was looking out the front door, in the center of the photo,near the bottom you can see our American Flag.


The sun came out for awhile and the kids went out to play. If you look behind them you can make out some landscaping timbers. The snow was over the top of the timbers before I finished plowing.


The kids are great and do their best to protect us. Here they after something under the snow,,,,,,,,


What ever it was they were after required even more digging, team work at its best.


One of these days I will have my camera in hand and will be able to catch a shot of Morgan as he flops onto his back and shimmies in the deep snow.

New Year's Weekend

For New Year's weekend Richard decided that I needed to get out of town so we packed up the kids and headed over to boat. The weather there was some warmer than at home.

We arrived about 6 pm on New Year's Eve and since I had a cold we stayed onboard, had a scotch and I was in bed by 9 pm.

New Year's Day we took the kids and drove around town to see friends and spread New Year's cheer.

The afternoon found us sitting in the cockpit of Hale Kai enjoying the day. Morgan and Liliuokalani were enjoying it also.



Richard and Liliuokalani


I mentioned to Richard that our swim ladder had fallen in the water and apparently had been there for some time. When he pulled it up I was reminded of the Pirate of the Caribbean movies because it was so gross and slimy.


Later that day we headed over to "Base Camp" for a New Year's dinner with Harry and Melanie. Here Richard and Melanie are discussing some great subject,,,,


Harry was listening,,,,,,


And the kids were sleeping. We all had a wonderful time there and are looking forward to our next time together with Harry and Melanie.