This week the menu was for one of my all time favorite dinners, fried chicken. And it was specifically oven fried chicken which is how my mom always made hers and how I normally make mine. Along with the chicken were some traditional mashed potatoes and gravy. To round out the meal there were “French-style” green beans, some cranberry-orange relish and strawberry shortcake for dessert.
A couple of observations I have about the menus and I assume the way Americans ate 60+ years ago. First off the portions are huge! I used slightly less of both the chicken and the green beans (weight wise) and the amount of potatoes called for and I was stuffed half way through the plate. I ended up covering the plate and re-heating it for lunch the next day. Secondly there is a much heavier emphasis on starch and protein in these menus than I think i see in more modern cookbooks.
So let’s talk about the items in today’s menu one by one.
The oven fried chicken, I love oven fried chicken and it is my go to for how I make mine. I did follow the recipe in the book so this batch was a little less seasoned than how I normally do mine. The book only called for adding salt, pepper and paprika to the flour. I normally add more herbs and spices than that and I normally add a bit of cornstarch to my flour to make the coating even more crispy. This really did remind me of the chicken my mom made though and it was wonderful. The only thing I did differently from the recipe was to dredge the chicken in a dish rather than shaking them in a bag with the flour.
Of course there were mashed potatoes with pan gravy along side the chicken. That was exactly what my mom would have served most of the year with it also. As much as I love mashed potatoes and gravy I don’t make it for myself very often and it was such a wonderful treat.
The book called for cutting the green beans “French-style” as in 4 thin strips from each green bean. That was a very tedious job so I ended up cutting mine a bit differently. The beans at my store were not in great shape this week (we lost our wonderful produce manager to another store and the department is not the same) so my beans were a bit limp and very curvy. I ended up cutting them all in half crosswise and then just once lengthwise. I don’t think I have ever cut my beans in this style although I have gotten them this way both frozen and canned. I think I’ll stick with not doing this in the future.
The cranberry-orange relish was a raw dish and I was not sure how it would turn out. I used some frozen cranberries that I had on hand and I think that is what saved the dish. I have made raw cranberry relishes in the past and not cared for them. I think because the berries had been frozen and then thawed they were softer and juicier which made for a very nice side dish.
For dessert the menu called for making strawberry shortcake. For the biscuit portion it just had me make a half batch of the shortcakes on the back of the Bisquick box.
We are well past the season for strawberries and the ones I got were not very good. I really wished I had skipped them and went to the frozen aisle. Again the fact we lost our wonderful produce guy is partly to blame along with the season.
So there we have it another menu under my belt and a bunch more to go. I am loving this journey and having a great time both with the cooking and eating of the foods but also with the memories they bring up.
I peeked ahead and next week the menu is for pork chops so I am really excited about that one also.
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