Marlene

It is never too late! I have not made the cornbread yet, and I'd love to see your recipe. Please?

Ok. I don't get this "sprinkle the chicken" first though. Why wouldn't I just combine the seasoning mix with the flour?

What exactly did you change? Rum balls are made, truffles are up next. But not likely until I've picked up Ryan's friend. then biscuts. I think Ryan had a toaster strudel for breakfast. Strawberry though, since I do draw the line at chocolate at the breakfast table. Naturally, the boys will be hungry when we get back here, so it will likely be grilled cheese sandwhiches for lunch. Coffee, I need more coffee.

Ryan has rolled out of bed, but informs me he's not hungry yet. (Must be coming down with something. ). He wants the French Toast tomorrow with his friend. He can fend for himself for breakfast although I shudder to think what he might have. In the meantime, I can get started. I've turned the chicken pieces, (I'm sure Brooks will post his recipe here soon. ), and I'm going to start on making rum balls. I'd like to get truffles in today too if I can. I love the biscuts idea. I'll make them up this afternoon then warm them in the oven while the chickens are frying. So what should be on our criteria list for rating the chickens?

I think that's a great idea! Let's develop a ratings list shall we?

I had so much fun doing the pizza, that I'll be trying it again next week some time. I wanted to concentrate on getting the technique right before worrying to puch about toppings and ingredients. And although Ryan is branching out in terms of his eating, there are still some things he's adamant about. Pizza toppings are one of them. I'm looking forward to the chicken experiment. I have never fried chicken skillet or deep fried. I have to confess I've always been a Shake and Bake chicken kind of girl. I've done it in the oven with cornflake crumbs once or twice but that doesn't really count as fried chicken does it? So fried chicken experts, chime in today with your tips etc. Remember, this is interactive. And lord knows, I need all the help I can get.

Sounds like he's about to have a growth spurt. Wasn't there a thread recently about teenage boys eating their parents out of house and home? ← Oh there's no end to this child's growing, but he eats like that all the time. He's always been a bit of a "grazer". When he was younger, I couldn't get him to sit still long enough to eat a full meal. He'd have a couple of bites, be off to explore something and come back to his plate. Dinner for him could usually take a couple of hours easily!

Morning. I trust y'all slept well? Of course the lad is still asleep, which gives me time to ply myself with coffee while I decide on breafast. I had thought perhaps french toast and bacon, but I may save that for tomorrow for a couple of reasons. Ryan is having a friend sleep over tonight, and it would make a good breakfast for both of them in the morning, and also we are now under a winter storm watch in which we are expected to get 15-25 cm of snow overnight and into the morning, making it a distinct possibility that my husband will be forced to remain at home as well. Today will be a day then to make sure I've enough supplies to start doing some of the Christmas and boxing day dinner preps, I want to get to those rum balls today as well. I've got to go turn the various chicken pieces and then more coffee. I'll be back.

Bedtime folks. Think breakfast. Think French toast, bacon, coffee. Think fried chicken competition. Choose your side, place bets, come one come all! see you in the morning

Brilliant. I'm very impressed with your pizza, Marlene. Of course, never having done it successfully myself, I'm easily impressed. ← Hero, if you're impressed, I'm thrilled. It had two ears, but I think Ryan ate one. Since dinner, Ryan has eaten a banana, a chocolate bar, a shortbread, a huge bowl of fruit, and now he says he's hungry again. I'm surprised his teeth are still straight. That retainer never spends any time in his mouth. I've brined the chicken, and now it's soaking in buttermilk (Dave's chicken). I've got Brooks' chicken soaking in ice water and baking powder. I've decalcified my coffee maker. I do this about every 3 months when I change the filter. I've taken the turkey out of the freezer to start thawing. I'm now having a nice glass of wine and thinking about how to manage everything tomorrow. Don has promised to be home in time to man the deep fryer, while I man the skillet, so that should help. I can't wait to do this next experiment!

It was a lot of fun! And it was more fun because y'all helped. I did let the pizza stone heat up for a while, but obviously not at a high enough heat. It was still good though.

Oh well, I give it 20 minutes or so. He had a chocolate bar for "dessert" or half a bar anyway. Sigh.

I did it! I did it! I did it! Success! First, this is my breadmaker. I love this model. I've had others, including a Black and Decker, but I always come back to this one. Ryan has put the toppings on Then cheese and a "happy face" Voila, Pizza! For me, pizza has always been something one ordered. I even tossed the dough a little bit here. Fortunately, no one was looking! The next time, I'd make the crust a little thinner, but I like a thin crust pizza. Again, I did this in a convection oven at 300 and it took about 15 minutes to cook. The crust was crispy and absolutely perfect. It got a little well done in some spots on the crust, but who's complaining. Anna, that splatter screen tip was pure gold! I'm amazed at myself. Thanks all! Just wait till tomorrow's experiments!

I'm having enough trouble concentrating on getting one right . If this turns out at all, I'll consider branching out and making two or more at the same time. If you decide you'd rather make something Don will like, consider shoo fly pie. Here are some results for a Google search of "shoo-fly pie recipe" ← Interesting thought Pan, thanks!

I'm glad you saw the part about the splatter screen as peel, because the stone should be in your oven as it heats (and then let it heat longer than usual). You can't build the pizze on the stone. ← Well then it's highly possible, that cleaning my oven will be on my to do list tomorrow, but this is going to be fun!

While I wait for the dough to be finished, I've chopped some green peppers, sliced the pepperoni, and sliced some pinapple. (those are the only things Ryan will let me put on this one and he's pretty dubious about this whole experiment anyway). In the meantime, I've set one chicken to brining per Dave's recipe. It's to brine for three hours then soak in buttermilk overnight. Does one put the chicken in the fridge when it's brining? Brooks' chicken recipe calls for the chicken to soak in ice water and baking poweder for several hours, so I'll do that first thing in the morning. They both have different seasonings, so I'll be making those up tonight. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do both recipes at once, deep frying and skillet frying, but I like a good challenge. Of course we're going to have way more chicken than we can possibly eat, but who cares? I can make a pan gravy from the skillet drippings to go with the mashed potatoes, and if I have enough hands, I'll make biscuts as well. Let the cook off begin

Now here is a brilliant idea! I do have a splatter screen!

Google to the rescue...again Soba ← Thank you Soba. I'm far to busy blogging and cooking to google Aha! I see I put the dough on the stone first and then build it. Of course that makes perfect sense. Duh. I have a cutting board, a round one even. Rolling this into a circle should be fun. This is the girl who can make a circle look like a square and can't draw or cut a straight line to save her life. No matter. The bread machine is on. I'm going to clean up my kitchen and then I'm going to have an eggnog.

Yes, they are coloured sugar. Ok guys, this is the interactive part. My dough recipe says to roll out the dough on a pizza pan and let it rise for 20 minutes or so. So can I do that and then build the pizza and then slide it from the pan onto the stone? Am I looking at disaster here?

Oh Oh. I don't have a pizza peel. Now how am I going to get the damn thing onto the stone?

Cookie pics. But before we get to that, here's the horror that is currently Ryan's snack. Chocolate toaster strudel He actually had to learn how to use the toaster for these, since I wouldn't make them for him. - No I didn't buy them. Don and Ryan bought boxes of these things when they did my groccerie shopping last week. Note though that he takes after his mother in decorating abilities Now I know you're not supposed to put sprinkles on shortbreads, but I can never ever resist doing so. Mostly because I have a lifetime supply of sprinkles I think and I'll use any excuse to use more of them up. I'm about to load the breadmaker to start the pizza dough

Et à vous mon ami Didn't there used to be a Canadian brand of golden syrup? I had some when I moved down here but I had to replace it with Lyle's, since that's what the import shop carried. Beehive is the most common corn syrup sold here I believe. ← Soba, peameal bacon is cured bacon (not smoked) rolled in cornmeal. All you ever wanted to know about peameal bacon Shortbread is almost out of the oven, pics in a few minutes. I did them this time in a convection oven, and I reduced the time by about 10 minutes, it seems to have worked well. Um, I'm rapidly getting to the point where I need to know how to use this lovely new pizza stone I have.

While I'm savouring this coffee, before I head back into the kitchen, here's Grandma's recipe for shortbread. Place 1 lb of butter in a bowl and leave it sit overnight. Add 1 cup brown sugar to the butter and beat until light and fluffy. Then gently fold in 4 cups of flour. Add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts if you like. Roll out onto a floured surface and cut with cookie cutters. Bake until very lightly coloured , about 30 minutes at 300 degrees.

I have a shortbread recipe from my grandmother so I assume it's Welsh. But this one I get to cut out into cute little christmas shapes. But this stuff melts in your mouth.