30 Days of Cooking with Paula Deen

Alright, ladies! How many of you have ever felt in a recipe rut? You look in the fridge to see ground beef and spaghetti, tacos, meat loaf or hamburgers comes to mind...chicken legs prompts BBQ chicken, fried chicken or herb rubbed roasted chicken legs. My personal repertoire of recipes is larger than 25, but I swear it is the same 25 recipes that come to mind every time I look at an ingredient. So, I am spending 30 days cooking Paula Deen recipes--she and I have a lot in common, starting with a love of butter! :-) Plus, my husband loves her. He'd marry her if he could, I swear--proving that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! :-) (Thanks for reminding me of that, Bob!) And I just pray to be a strikingly beautiful as she is inside and out when I reach my Golden years. Paula, my dear, YOU ARE STUNNING! And I surely love you, too! :-)

So, Wednesday, August 10th was day one and the recipe attempted was from the "Paula Deen & Friends" cookbook. The recipe was Rosemary Chicken Legs and thighs. I only had chicken breast and had dried rosemary instead of fresh--alas when we PCS'ed from Fort Lewis to Fort Campbell, my garden beds stayed behind. (Enjoy them Priscilla!) Additionally, it was too sticky and buggy outside to grill--so I baked everything in the oven. Well...no one in the family just loved the recipe. *laugh* You melt butter and mix the rosemary in, lift the skin slightly and massage the butter/herb mixture directly onto the meat--which is a great technique that will be replicated within other home-made recipes. Rob's first bite was through the skin directly into the gob of rosemary. His face was priceless--and I believe that set the tone for the rest of the family. Rosemary, I think, needs to stick with pork. ;-) Sorry, Paula!

The Southern Style Biscuit Recipe was amazing and a big family hit--using baking soda that expired a year ago cause them to not rise as much as they should have, but a quick trip to the grocery store for the next attempt at biscuits will fix that right up. The sides were my own recipes--green beans drizzled in butter with bacon, fresh corn cut off the cob with butter and pepper--yummy!

Dessert was set to be delicious until I realized I used all my baking soda in the biscuits--so I used eggs thinking it would make the cobbler in my Southern Style Peach Cobbler more cake like. And I put too much nutmeg in the peaches...yuck. The home made vanilla ice cream, lovingly put together by my husband is outstanding though! :-)

What's for dinner tonight? Hamburger pies with home made buns (using a basic white bread recipe in my bread machine but doubling the yeast), left over corn and a salad. Rob and I are headed to a couple's communication class on post--I will let you know how that goes too! Oh and I will start taking pictures! :-)

In the mean time, Bon Appetite!