My birthday was in November…I am now officially a quarter of a century old! It feels like time has just flown by since my last birthday. Every year my mom will cook me a birthday dinner—anything I want. Some past birthday dinner have included seafood lasagna, oven-fried chicken, chicken fried steak….but this year I wanted her amazing fried chicken. I’ve grown up on mom’s fried chicken, and it is one of the best things you will ever put in your mouth (plus she makes a SUBSTANTIAL amount of it, so you have leftover cold fried chicken for days).
Don’t ask me how to make the stuff, though. Seems easy enough, but making fried chicken seems too intimidating for me. Anyway, sorry I haven’t posted in forever…my birthday, plus traveling for Thanksgiving & Christmas, plus work, plus family health issues PLUS me getting my wisdom tooth taken out has forced me away from blogging. Hopefully I’m back for good now! Since I’ve been gone for so long, I’ve decided to write up a two-fer blog post. A little while after my birthday in November, I decided to cook my good friend Barbara dinner. Her husband was out of town so we settled in for a little girl’s night. I made her a Spinach & Pork Picatta recipe I had on deck and it turned out excellent. We’re both big fans of Italian food & capers, so it was a hit.
For an appetizer I found a recipe I had copied down years ago that was in my old black photo-album, which is full of family recipes. This recipe I had copied down from some old cookbook from my aunt a few years ago, and it seemed simple enough I decided to give it a whirl. Easy to make & easy to devour A MILLION OF. Ugh. So good.
Mushroom Puffs
- 2 pkgs. dinner crescent rolls
- 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 (4 oz.) can mushrooms, drained and chopped
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 TBS. poppy seeds (optional)
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lay out crescent roll dough & press perforations to seal.
- Mix the next 4 ingredients & spread over dough. Roll up jelly roll style & slice into 1″ pieces. Brush with egg & sprinkle with poppy seeds.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Serve hot. Makes 48 puffs.
For a salad to go along with our girls night feast, I decided to deviate away from a normal lettuce salad. I do love a Roquefort Pear salad, and a knockoff Olive Garden salad, but I wasn’t craving greens. A slaw sounded fantastic, so I went back into my black binder of family recipes and found this slaw recipe. My late aunt Theresa used to always make it for family gatherings and I remember always going back for more. It’s also another incredibly easy-to-make recipe.
Ramen Broccoli Slaw
- 1/2 cup oil (I used olive oil)
- 1/4 cup vinegar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 pkg. chicken flavored Ramen Noodles, seasoning bag & noodles seperated
- 1 pkg. broccoli slaw (without broccoli heads….trust me.)
- 2 pkgs. sliced almonds
- 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries (optional)
- For dressing, in small bowl mix oil, vinegar, sugar, and Ramen seasoning packet. Stir until well dissolved.
- Pour dressing over broccoli slaw mix. Crunch up Ramen noodles and sprinkle over the slaw. Stir everything together well. Sprinkle almonds & cranberries in while tossing. Serve chilled.
So, how did everything taste? Wonderful! A little bit of a disjointed, eclectic menu, but stand-alone everything tasted great. Here’s the end product of the full dinner:
Enjoy!
