Kitchen Creations - Cranberry Feta Salad

The girls and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It's where we create moments that we'll remember for the rest of our lives. The girls will always remember the meals we've created, the recipes we've concocted and the things we've shared in our home kitchen. It's something that we enjoy so much that we're working on our first family cookbook.

Last night, we delved into our soul food roots with a bit of a throw back, fried fish. This wasn't just any fried fish. It's Christian's famous fried fish. It's flaky and well seasoned and it just has real flavor. We all enjoyed it very much. Although I can't put the recipe here, it's definitely one we'll have in the cookbook.

We also had Courtney make my favorite salad, Cranberry Feta. You can see it below. It's a very simple salad that I will share the recipe for.

Cranberry Feta Salad

Head of Red Leaf or Romaine Lettuce
Craisins
Feta Cheese Crumbles
Red Onion
Grape Tomatoes
Lite Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette (Ken's)
Garlic Butter Croutons

Toss all together and add the croutons and you have one tasty salad.

Frying fish requires courage. Christian makes it look so easy.

Here it is on the plate with the Cranberry Feta salad.

Spicy Stewed Chicken Recipe

Ever forgotten to take the chicken out for dinner? Maybe you took it out but it didn't quite defrost in time. Well, here's a quick recipe that you can use that frozen or partially frozen chicken in. It has a lot of flavor. We came up with this one because we kept forgetting to take the chicken out for dinner. I should have very well called it Forgetful Chicken since we'd forget to take out chicken more often than I'd like to attest to. Anyway, I came up with a way to use the frozen chicken in a one pot dish without compromising flavor.  This one is a recipe that my daughter, Courtney, and I came up with. I like to serve it with brown rice but because it's a one pot dish, it can very well be eaten alone. It also incorporates staple veggies you may already have on hand.  I hope you like it as much as my family does.

Spicy Stewed Chicken

Serves 14

Seasoning Ingredients:
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
1 Tbs parsley flakes
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2-1/2 Tbs salt (It's a pretty big pot)

Main Ingredients:
5lbs chicken parts
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup flour
2 large onions cut into bite sized chunks
2 green peppers cut into bite sized chunks
3 cups of  veggies of your choice (mixed veggies, potatoes, green beans, or carrots)
1 cup tomato sauce
10 cups water

Cooking Instructions:

Rinse chicken in lukewarm water enough to separate pieces that are stuck together. Pat dry.
Add oil to a large dutch oven pot and heat on medium high.
When oil is hot, add chicken parts.
Toss chicken around, browning pretty evenly, sprinkling spice mixture onto browning chicken pieces.
Once chicken is browned, sprinkle flour onto chicken, tossing around to evenly coat.
Add water.
Add of tomato sauce.
Turn heat down, cover and simmer on medium low until pieces are tender (about 30 minutes)
Add vegetables and simmer until veggies are tender, 10 minutes.
Sauce should thicken to gravy or "stew" consistency.
Serve over rice, with biscuits, or by itself.

If adding canned veggies, add them last (about five minutes after adding onions and peppers) to avoid extensively mushy veggies in your dish.