Merciful God, You are great in compassion and Your tenderness for us is without measure. We ask You to give us today our daily bread, and also provide for the needs of all of Your hungry children around the world. Through Christ Your Son and Our Lord. Amen.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Tailgate Party


We had our Championship Game tailgate party last night. Fortunately the food was better than the outcome of the game.

The recipes I used for the party were all unknowns to me. I usually don't do that, but having a tender tummy amongst us has required me to go outside my comfort zone and find some new recipes. Fortunately they were all winners (unlike the game). I am posting the Oven Fried Chicken recipe here, which I made several changes to, and the bean dip later. Two others I made no changes to and highly recommend.

Deborah tested dough pretzels recently and came up with her own recipe, which was a wonderful thing, since they turned out very yummy. If you like Auntie Anne's, take note here. And they are not difficult to make, although the dough is soft and you might not have a picture perfect pretzel. The taste more than makes up for the appearance. Everyone raved and begged for more soon.

The big surprise of the night for me (other than the score of the game) was these Baked Zucchini Chips. I think these are supposed to be like a low fat version TGI Friday's zucchini sticks. These were a cinch to make and the only fat in them comes the Parmesan cheese. Wow! I don't even think they needed to be dunked in ranch dressing. I will definitely make these again -- they would be great as a side to some grilled meat or sandwiches.

This chicken recipe was very good. It was very easy to make and each of the kids, and Doug, raved about it. We are big fans of fried chicken, so I wasn't optimistic that this recipe would rival real fried chicken, but it turned out better than I imagined. I made quite a few changes from the original recipe, since the original was very seasoned and
Joshua is not supposed to eat highly seasoned food . I think they would have been over-seasoned as the recipe was originally written (you can find the link to the original recipe down in my menu for this week). We will definitely be eating these again and they would be great made as chicken fingers, too. I salted and peppered my drumsticks after they came out of the oven, but you could add it to the cornflake mixture if you like.


Oven Fried Chicken
1 1/2 cups low fat sour cream
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary (or 1 t. crumbled dry)
14 chicken drumsticks
2 1/2 cups crushed cornflakes cereal*
salt and pepper to taste

Place a baking rack over a large cookie sheet (you may need two pans and racks).
Spray baking rack with oil spray.
Mix sour cream, garlic, sage, and rosemary in a medium-sized bowl.
Place cornflake crumbs in a large- to medium-sized bowl.
Rinse chicken with water and pat dry with paper towels.
Dip chicken into sour cream mixture.
Roll in cornflake crumbs and place on baking rack.
Cook at 375 degrees F for one hour, or until chicken juice runs clear.
Salt and pepper to taste.


* If you have a processor, use it for these. I processed mine to a fairly fine crumb and it would be difficult to do that without a processor.

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