Laurel and Hardy

Somedays I feel like my body is like Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy. My appetite and taste buds are Stanley and the rest of my body Oliver, meaning what I crave, cook and eat will leave the rest of me with a fine mess as Oliver always said, "Well Stanley, here's another fine mess you got us in." I've written that at times food is my enemy, and of late more so like Laurel and Hardy.

The problem is that I love fried chicken, especially crunchy deep fried chicken. Recently a store (their on-line store) had a good one on sale. It's the same brand, Breville, as my other recent acquistion, a convection oven. The oven is way cool for cooking a lot of foods. You don't have to worry about watching it or the time to take it out when it's done.

The only real issue I have with it is broiling things, like bacon or other foods which splatter. Don't, simply don't. It's messy. Use a real oven where you can put a big pan around or under it. Otherwise I use it several tiimes a week, often for a favorite baked chicken. Yeah, after fried chicken is baked or roasted chicken.

Anyway, I got the deep fryer up and running, prepared breaded chicken parts, and cooked up a platter of chicken. The Stanley in me felt good and the food was really good. Ok, I need to find a good breading recipe. But alas it was short-lived as these days are with food and the Oliver reminded me later into the night and the next morning.

Needless to say I won't give up. I suspect, ok hope, it was the spices than the chicken or the deep frying as I've had deli fried chicken without problems. And I can work toward really good stuff, homemade potato chips and french fries and the best, doughnuts. If you have had a fresh homemade doughnut, you're missing a great food.

And on the horizon now is, according to Jimmy Buffett, the eighth deadly sin, Pizza. Stanley is alive and well despite the problems and medications. Oliver will do what it does and wants, and yes, I'll learn about it and live with it, but that's later.