October 31st.......

Seriously, tomorrow is November 1st? How the hell did that happen?

Like, 2 weeks ago it was July 4th.

I dunno about you but the older I get, the faster time flies by, and I'm not really happy about it, but it is what it is.

Next comes Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Years and BOOM! It's Halloween 2013.

Somebody's got to hit the brakes on this time thing, really.

That said, here's the pics of the week- I ain't no chef, but every now and then dumb luck prevails and I make something palatable (Hey Pav, I said palatable!)

Amish White Bread-Looks good, but really wasn't. 

I rushed it, no patience equals bread that doesn't reach its potential.

 Lesson learned!

Well, it wasn't that bad....

Then I made a Stromzoli-Kind of a cross between calzone and stromboli.

Now that, was wicked good!

Finally , there was the Apple Pie.

Good stuff!

This pic will never make Foodgawker, but that's my 2nd slice, with Edy's Creamy Vanilla Ice Cream.

Damn!

That's all kids-see ya! 

GP

Bagelssssss...

Had the urge to make bagels yesterday.

So I came home and started the process.

Here's the recipe I used, it's simple, well, it's simple for me, and I'm a simple man (love Lynyrd Skynyrd.)

Got the recipe off of King Arthur Flour.

Didn't use KA flour, any APF will do.

Mixed all of the dry ingredients and wetstuff and let it do a first rise,

Then I realized I didn't want to mess with it anymore, so I covered it with plastic and threw it in the fridge.

We'll call that the ferment!

So today, I finished it off.

Threw the dough, rolled it, made little bagel balls, poked a hole, let 'em rise again, boil 'em and bake!

The better half rolled 'em in onion flakes, poppy seeds and garlic flakes.

Everything Bagels!

After the boil, before the bake!

The finished product.  Seriously, if I can do this so can you!

 I just slathered a little Land 'o Lakes butter on one-it's almost criminal!

GP

The Easiest Chicken You'll Ever Make....

While mulling dinner options the other night, I decided to make chicken.

Now I'd been down with a cold for a week and the better half had been doing all the cooking, so I wanted to give her a break, I mean, I wanted to cook, but I didn't want to get locked in the kitchen on a week night.

So I ran across this, I can't even call it a recipe, it's too friggin' simple.

Dutch Oven Chicken.

Ingredients:

I fryer, mine was 5 lbs.

EVOO

Salt, Pepper, and whatever else you want to season with.

Butter

Splash some olive oil in the bottom of the dutch oven, cover the botttom.

Brown the bird on both sides, seasoning as you do.

When she's browned up, put the lid on and bake @ 350 until the internal temp. is 160. I'd say 70 -90 minutes for a room temp bird.

I served it with brown rice with a half cup of renderings, and carrots from the garden.

No fuss, no muss!

Browned, seasoned, and with a little butter on top. Just a little...

Lid on, and into the oven

There she is, ain't she a beauty?

And the other plus is, you get to make wicked good chicken soup the next day, which will last at least two more days. 

Carrots form our garden.

And rice.

I was going to name this post Cooking Chicken for Dummies! 

But I thought better of it, some people are just intimidated by the kitchen.

If they realized how easy it is to make decent meals, they might rethink it!

You often hear people say, "I can't cook!"

Well if you can't pull this off, you're probably right!

GP

Popcorn.........

Just a little more than a year ago, I was the lucky guy who won a pack of heirloom popcorn seeds from Paula at The Dishing Divine.

Pretty cool I thought, here's my post from last year.

The seeds were tucked away with our other seeds and needless to say, I almost forgot about them until mid-June.

Our growing season in the Adirondacks is 90 days give or take, so I was worried they wouldn't produce, but what's to lose, right?

So in the garden they went, they germinated, the cornstalks grew and grew, but my mid-August, no tassles. 

Oh well, maybe next year, but then, at the end of August, the tassles came, and sure as shit, we had some itsy bitsy popcorn growing. 

Well, to make a long story short, it kept coming, and we had a nice little harvest. We've got it drying now, and I might even try popping some at some point.

I love the colors. 

Cool stuff!

Stalkers.

Quite a variety of color in those seeds, we'll definitely do it again next year, because it's fun!

GP