sunday night dinner: september 18, 2011 — chicken scratchbacks

when you cook almost every meal at home, research sometimes becomes necessary.  out come stacks of cook books looking for new recipes and old forgotten recipes.  ever just read a cook book?  there are actually pretty interesting and can start generating ideas beyond whats on the page.

research, research, research and a beer

this week’s sunday night dinner came from a very old friend of a cookbook.  one i have had since i was a kid.  it was my american girl cookbook for the character addy.  don’t skip over kids’ cookbooks there are some damn good recipes in them!  my nancy drew cookbook, yes i have a nancy drew cookbook, is where i got my curried shrimp recipe.

you can just ignore the instructions that tell you to have an adult take things out of the oven

chicken scratchbacks……what is that?  well scratchback is a term that was used to describe a method for baking cornbread.  scratchbacks are spoonfuls of cornmeal batter that are dropped into a buttered baking dish.  when baked, scratchbacks have rough, scratchy tops, thus is where they get their name.  baked the bread too long?  turn them into dogers.  those are cornmeal cakes that are baked so hard that if they were thrown, you better dodge them!  i was so excited i got to use my new cast iron cornbread pan for dinner.  there was much debate about what size of pan to get the 5 cob pan seemed too small yet the 10 cob too many so i got the 7.  after making a whole batch of cornbread batter…..should have gotten the 10 cob.

love that cast iron

look at them golden scratchbacks

to turn a scratchback into a chicken scratchback, take cooked chicken, make a milk-based gravy and add the chicken to it.  let it all get heated through and in the true farris way add lots of pepper to that gravy.  of late i have actually been contemplating making the holes bigger in my pepper shaker, like every other farris does.  any veggie is yummy to pair with chicken scratchbacks but i recommend peas because you can mix all that together!

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Sunday Night Dinner: September 4: Vodka Sauce at Lynley’s House- Steph & Lyn Conversation Post

Menu: Nest of pasta (spaghetti with ravioli in the middle) with homemade vodka sauce, salad, ciabatta bread and the best pie in Knoxville.

Steph: We showed up at Lynley’s apartment to find her taking a cherry chocolate pie out of the oven.

Lynley:  this pie was totally an experiment, and probably the fastest pie i ever put together.

Steph: I said hello to Lynley’s friend Alana and strapped on an apron. I was put in charge of washing and blending the tomatoes.

Lynley:  How many people can we fit in the kitchen!!!!!!

Steph: Then I sautéed the tomatoes, garlic, onions, and peppers.

Lynley:  I believe this also involved an in-depth discussion of the cast iron we should have purchased that day at the factory outlet.

Steph: Then I moved on to salad.

Lynley:  I had to keep washing my hands because I made the mistake of de-seeding peppers with my fingers and not a knife, slight burning sensation that wouldn’t go away.  IT BURNS!!!!

Steph: We threw in some grape tomatoes whole and uncooked to add an interesting texture and look. Eggs in our nest of pasta as Alana said!

Lynley:  The master plan was to have the slightly burst open, it didn’t work.  Think we got to do it earlier next time.  I now always want eggs in our nest of pasta.

Steph: this is my favorite picture of us (next to the tap dancing from Thanksgiving 2009)

Steph: John took pictures of Dottie entertaining herself. He’s a good Uncle even to the furry nieces.

Lynley:  I think he as a secret crush on Dottie.

Steph: Lyn dished up the spaghetti.

Lynley:  The nest of pasta thank you Zios for this wonderful concept….spaghetti with ravioli on top, yum.

Steph: While I dished up the ravioli and sauce.

Lynley:  We need to have another marathon of ravioli making, I think we can do so much better than what we purchased.

Steph: I tried to get a picture of the “nest” but the sauce was so thick (and AMAZING) you couldn’t really see the ravioli on my plate.

Lynley:  Looking at this makes me HUNGRY!

Steph: After I added the rest of the meal to my plate. Lyn, do you remember what we talked about? All I remember thinking was how it was the best meal I ate all weekend.

Lynley:  No I really don’t remember to well.  I do remember us describing dad as a totally wimp when it comes to anything scary, movies, stories, etc.

Steph: That pie was wonderful Lyn. I loved it with all my heart. Cooking with my sister is one of my favorite top 5 things to do!

Lynley:  and the sherridan’s that traveled 12 hours to go with it, pretty freakin amazing.