Fried Mozzarella

This has nothing to do with the wedding but I just had to post this! Jaime and her husband were able to spend quite some time at home this year around Christmas and the wedding. One day while we were at the mall Christmas shopping, we decided to grab lunch at Maggiano's. Jaime and her husband ordered fried mozzarella and told me I'd love it. Well....they were right. I hope we get to eat this in Heaven it was so good!! My husband LOVES mozzarella and so do I. Last week I decided to buy some fresh mozzarella with no real plan for it. Yesterday, I thought of the perfect plan! I did some researching on the internet and had to experiment some on my own.

You'll need:
Thick (about a 1/2") slices of mozzarella
1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cup Bread crumbs (plain or Italian)
Italian seasoning (if bread crumbs are plain)
a few tablespoons Vegetable or olive oil

My block of mozzarella was already in a sort of rectangular shape so I just sliced it from top to bottom length wise. Mozzarella doesn't always like to be cut to it wasn't the easiest. But I got a good slice and cut it in half so my husband could have one triangle and I could have the other.

Mix the egg and a little bit of water in a bowl. Put the flour in a separate bowl. And in a third bowl, combine the bread crumbs and some Italian seasoning (we have ours in a grinder so it was fresher). Ok now here's where I didn't follow the recipe all too well and I went wayward. The recipe told me to pat the cheese in flour THEN in the egg wash. Well, what I did was dip the cheese in the egg wash then dipped it in flour. Then I dipped it in the egg wash again which wasn't too easy for it to stick to but I covered that sucker. Then I dipped it in the bread crumbs really patting the crumbs down making sure every inch of the cheese was covered.

Now, in 12-in skillet, add the oil at medium heat. You can heat this up while you're preparing your bowls. Carefully place the coated cheese in the pan. Fry each side for about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Do not melt the cheese completely. It will be very soft but not completely melted. If it completely melts it will come out of the breading and get all over your pan. Some cheese may come out and that's fine as long as it's not much :) Now serve with some warm marinara sauce (which I added after the picture) and dig in! SO yummy!

Chicken and Waffles Recipe

A few weeks ago my husband texted me, suggesting fried chicken and waffles for dinner. I was game. I was in charge of the waffles and he picked up the chicken. Afterwards, he did a little poking around and found a recipe for the 11 original herbs and spices of KFC's fried chicken and we tried it out. We came very, very close to KFC's original recipe:

The Colonel's Fried Chicken 
Adapted from Chicken Recipe Secret.com


Ingredients:

Breading Ingredients

2 cups of white flour
1/3 tablespoon of salt
2 tablespoon of garlic salt
4 tablespoon of paprika
1/2 tablespoon of thyme
1/2 tablespoon of basil
1/3 tablespoon of oregano
1 tablespoon of celery salt
1 tablespoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of dry mustard
1 tablespoon of ground ginger
2 tablespoon of MSG (The name brand is Accent)
2 eggs
3 cups of milk
4lbs of bone-in chicken, which skins on (like breasts, thighs, drumsticks)
Oil to fry in

Directions:


1. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a shallow bowl. This is your breading. Mix the milk and eggs together in another deeper bowl. Wash and pat dry your chicken. Put your chicken in the egg and milk mixture and let sit for 15 minutes, making sure the mixture completely covers the chicken.

 

2. While the chicken is in the egg and milk mixture, heat up the oil to 375 degrees. We have a deep fryer  which is safer to use when frying things. Once the oil has heated up, dredge the chicken in the breading mixture. Then place in fryer for approximately 10 minutes.

Remove the pieces an allow do cool for about 5 minutes. Enjoy.

Fluffy Waffles from Scratch
Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook


Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 ¾ cups milk

½ cup cooking oil or ½ cup melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.

2. In another bowl, beat the eggs, slightly; stir in the milk, oil and the vanilla.

3 .Add the egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir until just moistened (the batter should still be slightly lumpy).

4. Pour 1 to 1 1/4 cups batter onto the grids of a preheated, lightly greased waffle iron . Close the lid quickly and do not open until done.

5. When done lift the waffles of the iron with a fork.

6. Repeat the procedure with the remaining batter.

Serve chicken and waffles together, and don't forget the syrup---something I didn't know!

What do you think of this unlikely duo? Is chicken and waffles something you dare or leave to the crazies?

Homemade Tortilla Chips

This weekend I visited my sister, Jordan. Over the weekend we decided to make 7 Layer Dip (no worries, that post will come soon.) After we had gone out for some errands we did NOT want to go back out even after we found no chips in the pantry. We did find some tortillas though. Jordan brought out the deep fryer and I cut up the tortillas. They were small (about 6 in. diameter) and the perfect size after cut into sixths or eighths. We cooked them in the fryer until they turned golden.

Jordan's son helped us put them in the oil. Be careful when dropping them into the oil!! It might splash if you drop them in too hard. We only fried about a dozen triangles at a time to avoid overlapping or sticking.

After they turn golden, remove them from the oil onto a plate with a paper towel on it. The paper towel absorbs the excess oil. Sprinkle some salt on them and let them cool. They are super yummy and perfect for dipping!