Godzilla likes 'em!

What you'll need to make these tasty little morsels. My picky kids (well Godzilla did, at least) at an entire plate and asked for more. So, maybe this will work for your kids. We also gave them raw broccoli ("brockie", as Godzilla says) with ranch.

3 or 4 good sized chicken breasts, cubed
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour (maybe more)
1 cup Italian bread crumbs (or more)
cooking oil (enough to mostly cover nuggets in skillet)

heat oil in skillet while arranging your assembly line for dredging your chicken.
roll chicken in flour
dip in egg
roll in breadcrumbs
drop in oil
remember: don't get the oil too hot or breadcrumbs blacken and do not look appetizing. Be sure to flip chicken if you are using a skillet. Some people use what's called a "fry daddy", but I cannot justify having one. Because if I had it, I would use it and no one needs to deep fry everything in the house.

Fried Pickles (amongst other things)

I swore I wasn't going to eat fried stuff....this is why.

What you'll need:

1 box of tempura batter
1 jar of dill pickle chips
2 or 3 zucchini (good sized)
1 vidalia onion (or Maui) sliced
what ever veggie you would like to drop in tempura batter and fry.

in your wok (skillet, whatever) pour 1.5"-2" of cooking oil and get it hot.
dip desired piece of food to be fried into tempura batter, letting some drip off as you remove from batter
drop into oil until a golden crust forms.

I'll have a picture later. (it's of what was left after I finished plowing through the food)

Letter from Management

Hi Everyone!

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried any of these recipes? Tell me what you liked, didn't like, which were gave good or bad instructions, or just a simple comment on how we can make the Caddywampus Cafe a fun place for you customers. I have somewhat been throwing out what I like to make, because it's my place, but if any of ya'll have anything good, email me and I will try to get it on here. If you send me enough and would like to contribute, I would love to have some contributors.

Thanks,

Management of the Caddywampus

Dinner (not Breakfast) At Tiffany's

Can you find me? Well, I guess if you've never seen me.....you probably won't find me. I'm the closest guy serving dessert in the foreground of the picture. We actually got applause for serving food......I didn't know we were that good.

So, I said over at my general blog that this was a "Casino Royale" themed party for the top twenty-five patrons (contributors) to the Pacific Symphony Orchestra . They even had a fake Dr. No . That's my humble opinion anyways. He had a really, really bad accent and used every single British cliche in the book.

The food on the other hand, was awesome. It was a 5 course meal that Chef Pascal was asked to match with a fitting wine. The first course was the appetizer, "salmon timbales and tuna tar tar" (the tuna was in a sesame seed crepe with olive oil, lime juice and anchovies........it was probably one of the best things I've eaten in a long, long time.) paired with Pino Gris (some French name that I cannot remember, much less pronounce). Then there was a wild mushroom soup with a biscuit style crust on top (same wine). Next was the main course, beef tenderloin (fillet) with steamed lobster tail served with a Syrah (again, I don't read French very well, so I cannot remember it). (OK, now that looked amazing and the wine smelled just as good as the food looked.) Then there was a baby greens salad topped with a fried goat cheese on top. *sigh* why can't I eat like that all the time? because I'd have a heart attack if I did. The dessert served with some stinky French Port, was "Flawless" chocolate cake, pineapple upside down cake, and a (h)azelnut (leave out the "h" when pronouncing it in French)

We had to bust our butts all night long and then I got to drive home to Riverside at 11:15 p.m. Sunday was somewhat of an early day, but I had a good weekend anyway.........did anyone else have anything good to eat?

Chicken Stir Fry

two chicken breasts, diced
hand full of snow peas
hand full of asparagus
hand full of chopped carrots
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2T of Oyster Sauce
2T oil (peanut preferred)

throw in chicken and garlic, when chicken begins to brown toss in veggies (you don't have to use those vegetables, but they were yummy last night) serve over rice or udon noodles and enjoy!

I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...and I forgot to take pictures

DANG! Ya'll missed a good one last night. Easter is usually a boring ol' ham, right? Well, I'm tired of ham for the holidays. My wife asked me if we should get a ham and I said, "Nope, we should get some ribs." I served them with my special green beans, baked potatoes and salad. I'll let you prep your own starches and salads, but we'll talk about the ribs and green beans now.

You're saying, "mmmmmm, ribs.....how did you make them?" Well get a pin or some paper for the printer. I'll wait.......................................................................................... done? good...let's get started.

For Ribs you'll need:
2-4 racks of ribs (I did 2 racks)
Olive Oil
Lawry's Season Salt
Coarse Ground Pepper
Whatever Bar-b-que sauce is on sale (I like Chris 'n Pitts', but I used Bullseye yesterday)

1. pre-heat oven to around 275 Fahrenheit.
2. place the ribs on some aluminum foil, rub them down with olive oil, Lawry's season salt, coarse ground pepper, and minced garlic
3. place in oven for about 2 hours
4. when the 2 hours is almost done, get your grill nice and hot......lower heat right before you put them on (or use indirect heat if you have a large grill)
5. place on grill meat side down for about 5 minutes brush with bar-b-que sauce, flip (be careful because they should be nice and "fall off the bone" moist) and brush the inside with the sauce. let cook for about 3-4 minutes (don't let the sauce burn on your ribs.....)
6. Then make sure you call your mama to let her know she can't cook as good as you.

Caddywampus Green Beans:

You'll need:
1-1 1/2 lbs of fresh green beans
3 slices of bacon
1 yellow (or vidalia) onion sliced
salt and pepper to taste

1. rinse and clean beans (they have these stem like pieces you'll want to pick off....not fun to eat)
2. cook bacon to where they're crispy but not burned
3. remove bacon from skillet and drain, then put in the beans
4. toss them around in the bacon grease for about 2 minutes then add the onion
5. once onions begin to soften, remove from heat and crumble bacon over beans.
6. call your mama again and make her come to your house so you can prove that you're a better cook.

We were so hungry that I didn't have time to take pictures after plating up. Trust me, they looked amazing and tasted even better.

Variations on a theme

The past 7 days have been interesting food wise. We're in a spot where we need "fillers" so, we've had potatoes and rice and such, but the two nights I cooked, I noticed that I actually cooked two versions of Chicken, Rice and Broccoli.

Last Thursday night, I did two boneless, skinless chicken breasts diced stir-fry style with broccoli and oyster sauce over jasmine rice. (sorry, no pictures) This went quick, I defrosted a couple of breasts in the microwave while prepping the rice, chopping the broccoli and garlic. It's good to chop the veggies first so you can use that board to cut up the chicken. While you're chopping your chicken heat a skillet with some oil over medium heat. Throw in the chicken and garlic until chicken begins to cook through, then add the broccoli. Once the broccoli starts to sweat, add oyster sauce until it spreads all around, remove from heat and serve over rice.

Last night, Monday, I grilled the chicken with a "jerk/teryiaki" marinade. And because I'm lazy, I put the broccoli in aluminum foil...then drizzled olive oil, sprinkled salt & pepper....put it on the grill with the chicken. (I don't want to wash any more dishes than I have to.) I cooked the jasmine rice according to directions (or memory...whichever).

Again, Chicken, Rice and Broccoli

2500 points to the first person who tells me how many times I mentioned broccoli.