Fried chicken!

I believe tonight was the first time I have tried fried chicken. I found the recipe really fast so I didn't realize I didn't follow the directions all the way but it turned out fine.. I don't know why this person made it so hard? haha So I'll give you all MY recipe! Slightly different than theirs...

-  Chicken breasts, cut into strips or nugget sizes.
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup of buttermilk (they called for a whole cup and I wasted all of it.. ugh.)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (I added this, this was not in the original recipe and it gave it a good flavor but it is optional.)
and oil to fry them in.


Directions :

1. While skillet is warming up to 375 degrees F, beat egg and buttermilk together in a bowl.
2. In a re-seal able bag, mix together : garlic powder, flour, salt, baking powder and Parmesan cheese. Dip chicken pieces into egg/buttermilk mixture then coat them in the flour mixture. Do this to all the chicken pieces (place each aside until they are all finished).
3. Now add the oil and begin placing each of the chicken pieces into the oil.
4. I cooked mine for 10-15 minutes and they came out great! It said to fry until golden brown and juices run clear.
5. Drain chicken on paper towels.

And there you go! Served great with honey mustard! hmm!!! Well, that is what I had with my chicken!



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Crosstiching and wrapping

 For my parents anniversary I wrapped my dad's present to my mom and my mom's present to my dad. Funny. Anyways, we only had Christmas wrapping paper left so I had a pretty great idea if I do say so myself to flip the paper (depending on how the back looked). So instead of snowflakes, it was plain brown which could then be decorated in any way desired. They looked nice and simple which I like.

So since I'm home so much, I thought that I would use this time to do something constructive and enjoyable. So I'm going to TRY to cross stitch lots of little movie book marks. They will have a movie character or two with a quote underneath such as in the picture here.
I did not come up with the complete design to this, I will admit. But I did change the face and the colors to make it my own.

Anniversary Dinner

 Well, yesterday was my parents 20th wedding anniversary!! So since like the beginning of August I began to plan out a special anniversary dinner for them. All day yesterday I cooked their dinner and clean most of the house.
But for dinner I cooked Salmon (I don't eat fish so it is funny that I cooked it for them), pasta with Alfredo sauce, broccoli and cheese soup and for dessert we had sparkling grape juice and cherry cheese cake :) We had a great family night. We ended it by watching the Lorax. I have already seen in quite a few times so I cross stitched while they watched it.

For the Salmon, I found the idea on Pinterest but changed it up a bit. I Laid down 6 lemon slices on the bottom, put the 2 salmon fillets on top, then sprinkled Oregano, Basil and Parsley over the fillets, then topped them with 6 more lemon slices (I used about 6 lemons).I also took some seeds out as I went. I wrapped it in tin foil and baked it in the oven at 300 degrees for 25 minutes but this is where my cooking gets complicated. I was busy with other things so left it in the oven for maybe another 5 minutes. When I took it out and unwrapped a part of it, it didn't seem cooked (but how would I know?? I never cooked any type of fish before besides tuna fish!) So I did a quick Google search and decided to cook it longer. I turned up the heat to 350 degrees for another 10 minutes. But after 5 or 7 minutes I turned it up to 400 degrees and set the timer back for 10 minutes. After all of that it was done! It was so tender that it was falling apart when I was taking it off the lemons and onto the plate! I must say that it did look really good and unfortunately I did not take a bite (not that it lasted long anyway haha my parents gobbled it up).


I'm sorry but I forgot to take a picture of the Salmon before my parents devoured it! But here was what was left. My dad said this was probably the best fish he had ever eaten including what he has had at restaurants! That made me very happy!





Like I said, I made cheese cake for dessert. This was my first time making cheese cake ever so I was nervous but it turned out pretty yummy. The texture was off but that is something I can work on to make better. I made this on Tuesday ( a day early). The cheese cake was so warm and yummy and just calling out to me to take a bite. So I took advantage of the very large cracks in the middle and ate a crater out of it :) It was so good!


Then on Wednesday after an incident where this almost fell on the floor (thankfully it slid off the plate (the spring form plate slid off the cake stand) rather than flipping off or something.) It was easily recovered. Though I did have a mini heart attack when it fell!

We have so much broccoli and cheese soup left over! I know what all three of us will be eating for lunches for the next couple days haha ;)

Harvest time!

 One of only two cucumbers I found when I went through the plants. So sad :(

 Some beans didn't make it either but most did and were tastily enjoyed!

 Dead cucumber plant. It was like rubber or something. It swayed too much and was very much dead.

 The second cucumber I found. It grew more than the first but still died. Something got inside of it and pushed cucumber flesh out. Very sad.

 Empty garden where my cucumbers were...

 All of my dead cucumber plants.

My healthy first harvest of green beans! They were very yummy! That night, my dinner consisted of green beans and cake. haha. I was very happy with my green beans!  Can't wait to do them again!
My peas will be harvested within the next couple days. My tomato plant is still giving me tomatoes and the garlic is growing well :)

Beans and systems

 Found some beans on my bean plants on August 11!!

 Finally put a system up in August for my peas and cucumbers.

Such a nice looking plant ;)

Strings for my cucumbers...