comfort food - grace grits and gardening

Let’s talk about fried chicken, shall we? This buttermilk honey chicken tenders recipe is sure to please the kids (of all ages) in your family. The chicken tender is the most versatile of cuts. Eat ’em straight up, wrap them in a tortilla, chop and add them to a salad, dip them in gravy, barbecue sauce, or ranch dressing. On a biscuit or waffle, presto, instant breakfast to be enjoyed any time of the day.

If you think about it, fried chicken is medicinal in that comfort food sort of way. And while I don’t fry very often, certain dishes call for whipping out the cast iron skillet. That’s the simple truth of it.

Momma made frying chicken look easy in that magical way Mommas do. Through the years, I’ve made my fair share of mistakes in the chicken frying department, and I’ll bet you have, too. Trust me, if I can make buttermilk honey chicken tenders while wearing a cast on my arm, it can’t be that difficult.Continue Reading

I made mini pineapple upside down cake for bookclub Tuesday night. Our book of the month was The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin, which I’m sorry to say I haven’t read yet. Even so, since the book was set in the 1950s and 60s, I wanted to make a retro-chic dessert popular during that time.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake has an interesting history that originated back when most everything was cooked in a cast iron skillet. Flip cakes, as they were known, involved some sort of fruit on the bottom—usually apples, cherries or plums—layered with sugar and a thin batter. The cake could be baked on an open fire, stovetop, or oven. When the batter was done, flipping the cake onto a plate made for an instant fruit and glazed sugar display. (If you think about it, this sounds almost like a layered cobbler.)Continue Reading

Buttermilk Honey Chicken Tenders

Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cake

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