Editorial
Front Page - Friday, April 9, 2010
Kay's Cooking Corner
Kay Bona
This morning Don and I went to Chick-fil-A to get a chicken biscuit for breakfast. We just love those things! Put some honey on it and OMG is it ever good!
While we were there, we started talking with the drive-thru ladies about chicken, and such – Don had them laughing because he ordered the fat-free chicken biscuit. Anyway, the conversation morphed several times, and we ended up talking about wringing a chicken’s neck. They knew all about it for some reason.
We lived in the country. We didn’t go to the store and buy frozen meats or vegetables. We ate deer, rabbit (that’s not that pretty either!), quail, squirrel, chicken – you name it, we raised it, killed it, and ate it.
I know – sounds kinda, well – mean, for lack of a better word – but that is what my granddaddy taught us children to do if we were going to eat dinner that night. I know, I know – horrible thought! It is one of those memories that sticks in a young childs head forever!
I am going to relate the entire procedure with you – so if you would rather avoid “the rest of the story” you need to stop reading now. (Unbelievably, I am still eating my Chicken Biscuit minis with honey!)
Anyway, he would take us out to the backyard and grab a nice, plump chicken. Then he would grab his axe. You know the cartoons you always see where the turkey or chicken sees the farmer approaching the pen with his axe in hand, and the animal would get this wide-eyed “deer-in-the-headlights” look? I wonder if any of our chickens ever really did that?
Paw-paw would go grab a chicken, and bring it out to the chopping block which was nothing more than a nice round tree stump. But first he would twirl the poor creature around and around to break it’s neck. Then he would lay it across the stump and whack it’s head off! That poor chicken would run and jump all over the place before it would give up and die! It would literally scare the be-dickens out of us, running around the way it did! I just know there were some that chased us!
After it would finally give up the ghost, he would then take it and dump it into a large galvanized barrel of scalding water. This would make the feathers easy to pluck off – because you see, you can’t hardly eat a chicken with feathers all over it. This is where we came in – we were the feather-pluckers. Not that pretty at all ... needless to say, it was messy, gross, and stinky!
But, you know what? We grew up, and we don’t seem to be too traumatized from all of it either. However, as I said, that whole scene is forever emblazoned in my memory.
Well, here’s a healthy recipe that is sure to please at one of your coming-up backyard eat outs, and no – it is not chicken!
Roasted red pepper dip
8 ounces sour cream,
fat-free
1/4 cup red sweet peppers,
roasted
2 tablespoons chopped
green onions
1 tablespoon fresh chopped
basil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
Assorted vegetable dippers (baby carrots, zucchini, pea pods, yellow squash, sweet pepper strips)
In a small bowl, stir together sour cream, roasted red peppers, green onion, basil, garlic and salt. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours to allow flavors to blend. Stir before serving. Serve with assorted vegetable dippers, tortilla chips, or pita chips.
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