An Easy Recipe for Good Old Southern Fried Chicken

I love to cook--especially these days when the days tend to be shorter and the nights are colder and longer. After a long day at work, I want to make dishes that are delicious and easy to prepare.

One of my favorite meals to prepare these days is good old Southern Fried Chicken with Mash potatoes and corn. Now, from the sound of this, it sounds unhealthy and a difficult meal to prepare-but trust me, it's not.

Fried Chicken to a Tee

I like to purchase skinlesss, boneless chicken breasts. The pieces are pretty big so I tend to cut them in half. I marinate each of the pieces with fresh,ground black pepper and salt to taste, as well as a touch of paprika.

I let the pieces sit in the marinade while I turn on the stove on medium heat, and place my skillet to warm up. Once the pan is heated, I place approximately 1/2 a cup of oil.

As the oil heats, I dip each of the pieces in a cup of buttermilk then coast them in flour ( like my fried chicken to be crispy so I put a thick coat of flour around each piece.)

The pieces have now been prepped for frying and the oil is hot enough for frying. I drop in each of the pieces slowly (to avoid spattering) and allow them to cook for about 5-7 minutes on each side.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove them from the oil; pat with a paper towel to remove excess oil.

Delectable Mash Potato

Mash potatoes are my ultimate comfort food, but I don't sit there and peel 10 potatoes! I like the red potatoes. After washing one, I wrap it in a paper towel and cook it for about 3 minutes. Once it's cooked, I cut it into half, throw it in a pan and begin to mash it. I throw in a bit of milk, sour cream, cream cheese, as well as salt and black pepper and mash it all up. Once all the pieces are mash, I use a hand beater and whip it up for a minute or so and voila-they're done.

My chicken is ready, my mash potatoe is done and I enjoy them both with a side of corn.

In a "Fallish" Kinda of Mood-Squash Casserole

Fall has always been my favorite season. I enjoying creating some of my favorites comfort foods like broccoli casserole, spinach quiche and corn chowder(pure comfort foods.) Growing up with a mother who was a genious in the kitchen (she still is by the way), I learned how to make some of the simplest comfort foods--the first being broccoli casserole followed by bean casserole and my favorite squash casserole.

The first time I ever made my famous squash casserole was for my mother's 60th birthday. Unlike other casseroles that I had made, I did not have mix Campbell soup mix into the mixture.

Recipe for Squash Casserole (a fun dish to serve on a cool, fall day).

1-1/2 lbs. of yellow squash
1 large red bell pepper
1 package of shredded chedder cheese
1/4 cup of cornbread stuffing (I prefer Pepridge Farm)
1 tablespoon of garlic
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation:
Wash and cut squash into thin circular slices.
Wash and slice bell peppers into long skinny pieces.
Spray casserole pan with PAM or a nonstick spray.
Turn oven on "Bake" at 350 degrees.

On the stove:

In a wok or saute pan, place tablespoon oil on medium heat.
Once the oil is warm, drop in garlic.
Let the garlic turn pink. Once it turns pink, drop in the squash and bell pepper slices.
Cook until tender.

Pour squash into casserole dish.
Create a layer of cheese on the next layer.
Place bread crumbs on on top of the cheese and put into the oven for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and serve.