meatloaf cupcakes

Mmmmmmm, Savory cupcakes for dinner!! My kids will eat without a fight tonight!!!

Hey gang. Hope everyone is having a great week. It's been less than a week since my last post, I'm on a roll!! So I thought we should make something fun, and super simple for dinner. My hubby HATES meatloaf. He has offered to try these, but as of yet, we still make these only when he is working and not going to be home for dinner. With 4 kids, and our sweet *foster* son last year its hard to prepare a meal each kid will enjoy. With this fun twist, we always have great success. Who wouldn't love cupcakes for dinner?!? Let's get started!

I use 1 1/2 lbs of ground Italian sausage and 1 1/2 lb of ground beef. We have a local butcher I get a lot of our meats from. This sausage is from him, and it is so good.

Add an egg, about a cup of bread crumbs, salt, pepper, parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, celery salt, katsup...no restrictions, whatever you like. Measuring is completely optional. I guess-timate prob 3 -4 tsp of the herbs maybe a tsp of salt & pepper.

No, long before man invented spoons and utensils, God created our hands. It worked for our Great - Grandmas and before, it works for us too. Mix and mix and mix. You will start to feel the bread crumbs absorb the moisture in the mix and soften up. When this happens, it ready for the next step.

Grab a muffin tin, and fill each little cup about 1/3 full of meat mixture. Use about half of the meat, and reserve the rest. Next layer another 1/3 of green beans,shredded zucchini, blanched asparagus, wilted spinach, again your choice. Be creative! Top with the remaining meat mixture to complete the cupcake, sandwiching the green "filling" in the center. Pre-heat the oven to 350* and then bake these for around 30 minutes, until the meatloaf is done.

While the cupcakes are baking, make mashed potatoes. I try to keep them just a bit dryer than I would If they were being served on a plate, like in a chicken fried steak dinner. This way they hold the shape better as the "icing" on our cupcakes. Sometimes I take the time to pipe the potatoes on so it's prettier, but this was a rushed meal, so I skipped that this time.

We need gravy. I always have stock on hand. Any time we make pork or beef ribs we boil them before they hit the BBQ, or if we have turkey or chicken carcass, we boil that, I turn it into stock and can a few quarts each time. Make a rue, and salt and pepper to taste, then let it boil down and thicken.

When cupcakes are finished baking, pull them out, and frost with your mashed potato icing. remember this is their serving of potatoes, so be generous!

Now, poor the hot thick gravy over top, so each frosted cupcake has plenty of syrup.

These literally fly off the platter, so I'm not sure why I arranged them on a serving platter at all. I could have just thrown them at kids, and they would have been devoured in mid-air!! We love to eat these with warm, buttered homemade sourdough bread.

Well, they are cupcakes, so here they are in a cake platter, and they are very easy to make, pack, and travel with, so they would be perfect for a picnic, party, or pot luck as well as a quick dinner for the kids at home. We love these treats for dinner, and I truly hope y'all enjoy them too. I'm am loving this quiet time in the office at 5:00-6:00 am to get a few things rolling on this Blog. There are so many things to bake, fry, grill, and enjoy coming up On Fried Okie's Suburban Kitchen, so hurry back. Until then, all my love and tons of (((hugs))) from this Fried Okie!!

A visit to the Chicken Spa

Good Friday morning to you all!!! This may sound funny, but I love Friday for a different reason than most. It's garbage day!! I feel like we get a clean slate. No more trash!! Lol. I'm sitting here writing this post listening to the clunk, squeak of the sanitation truck in front of my driveway! Yay!! Okay, I'm doing things a bit different today. My hubby leaves for work at the ungodly hour of 4:30am. He loves his Bacon and egg breakfast sandwiches, so it's up at 4:00 for me. When he leaves, with sandwich in hand and warm coffee in his belly; I have almost three hours of *me time*. During this time, I usually get ready for the day, shower, dress, make my bed, clean my hubbys mess in the office, and then sit down and try to watch a few of my favorite TV shows I've DVRed. It's never dawned on me, for some reason, to work on the blogs during this quiet time. So today I guess I've done had myself an idea!! Lol. Second difference, this isn't a recipe. we will not be looking at pretty, fresh ingredients. We will not go step by step into a Yummy dish. Instead, we will be delving into the world of insects and waste. Yup, we're talkin creepy crawlies and poop!! Ready? Hold your nose, and get ready for a case of the itchies!!

It's a morning like any other. A few of my girls are early risers, and layers. I'm gathering the few early eggs, and getting ready to clean the coop and give the girls a treat(yes, they are incredibly spoiled, so much so if I don't clean and treat daily, they will not lay at all!)

Today, its pear and zucchini leftovers, and a bit of berry kefir.

As I went to pet sweet little J-baby, I saw a chicken lover's nightmare. Chicken Mites!!!! Oh no, tiny, biting, blood sucking monsters! Ugh. Well, we try as hard as we can to stay organic, without pushing it to a level that hurts us or our animals. We do not use herbacides, we pull weeds. As a general rule we don't use pesticides. So plan of action, wood ash, baths, and diligence in cleaning...

We are in for a long day, and truthfully, most other chores are going to get behind, but here we go. Logan gathers the eggs, as I grab a few veggies for tonight's supper.

I sent Logan in to go change into scrubby clothes while I weeded the garden a bit, and when he returned there was one more egg.

Out of my five girls (no roosters allowed in Good Ol Rio Vista:( Only two have mites bad, but it is just a matter of time if we don't get on it now, before all are ill and loosing feathers.Here is J-baby's back. If you look closely, you can see tiny white specks. Those are the young mites.

Here, even though hard to see, Goldy Locks has them even crawling on her wings. Poor baby!!

The top of J-baby's head, next to her ear where I saw the first mite.

My laziest hen, Goldy Locks, is always laying down. She rises to eat and drink. I don't see her rear end often. So as I inspected all of the girls, I was shocked to see how many feathers she has lost just under her vent.

If I had been a better chicken mommy, I'd have done this as I brought new girls home from the breeder, but only two weeks before I had purchased three hens from the same breeder and they were fine. Well I am doing it now. As I spread Goldy Lock's tushy feathers, I gasped. At the base of every remaining feather was a bundle of mite eggs. Oh my goodness, there were so many!!! *sniff sniff* Well, if you aren't feeling itchy yet, just wait. Ha Ha!!

Remember its around 8am, no make-up, work clothes, and glasses....the chickens got all the primping today!! So I started with the girls who had little to no mites. I was trying to get them done quickly, so I could focus more on the hens who needed TLC. This is Jade, Logie's chicken. She is a huge Rhode Island Red, about 8 months old. She liked her bath, but strongly objected to holding still as I used the blow dryer to dry her off. On the ladies who had no mites, I simply used Dawn dishwashing liquid.

This delicate little one is Victorious. The breeder I got her from also breeds Goldendoodles. Somehow little Victorious, or Tory wandered into a dog pin, and had to be rescued from the mouth of a rambunctious pup. As a result, she has a few perilous injuries. The most sever being a compound fracture of the left hip/thigh. Had anyone there known how extensive the injuries, I am sure they would have put her down. The wound has healed completely, but horrifically. She gets around with ease. Her eyes are bright. She is thriving, but the bone has healed outside of her skin!!

As this little girl was set into the water, she just melted. She floated and floated. I felt mean taking her out. I just still had so much to do. I think the warm water helped her feel better, and the floating took weight off her hip.

Jade is preening up a storm. It is as if she knows how pretty she looks clean, and is going to pick up where I left off, Apparently I do not do it as well as she!

So as Victorious floats, The two washed and dried birds, D.B. Pecker (Dayton's hen) and Jade are running around the warm restroom pooping everywhere!! Oh the mess they made!!

When you are blow drying a chicken it can be completely different each bird's turn. This is Jade shaking her head "no!" at me.

Jade also turned around, aimed her tail at the mirror, and let 'er rip in protest! This was the filthiest bathroom in the history of all my bathrooms!

To add insult to injury, Jade then ran across the counter, knocked the girls cup over, and tried to tuck herself in the sink!

D.B. Pecker, on the other hand didn't seem to mind or love the blow dry. She just stood there and looked at me like I had grown 6 heads!!

D.B. Pecker is the head hen in this small community of fowl. She is ornery, and a complete bully to the other girls, but a treasure to hold, pet, and play with. She is our best layer, and very cocky.

She knows how good she looks here. Boy if you could have seen her strut her stuff!!!

Here is Goldy Locks. She is a lemon Orpington. She is the only hen we have that isn't a Rhode Island Red, and occasionally she is ostracized. i am looking for another orpington to keep her company. Any ways, she is my chicken. My baby. Worst layer in the hen house, impatient, and loud, not to mention lazy. But today she was the Queen of Sheba. She, and Jenna's girlie J-baby, had the mite infestations. So for them, instead of just counting on the wood ash dust baths they take in the coop, I used flea and tick dog shampoo, to try to jump start the annihilation of the minute vampire buggers.

Now, you wanna talk about different experiences with blowing the girls dry?!? Goldy Locks LOVED it!! Never before have I seen a chicken roll forward, to rest on her breast and stretch her legs out behind her, but Goldy Locks just fell into this strange position and fell into a sort of hypnotic state. She seriously would have laid there all day, with her bum in the air, letting me warm and fluff her pretty golden feathers. I couldn't get her to move. I couldn't get to her breast feathers, so I had to lift her. I had to manipulate her wings manually. When I finished, I had to pick her up, and rest her on the ground.

I started this project early. At 4;00 pm my son was on his was out the door to go to football practice, and I was just finished scrubbing the coop, changing the bedding, feeding and watering the girls, and putting them back into the coop. What a day this was, but again, like most days, I was amazed by the completely different attitudes and personalities each of these birds have. They are each one different as night and day. Well, This fried Okie is pooped, pooped on, and itchy all over. I'm gonna hit the shower, and say to y'all...I hope your kitchen is warm, your bathroom is clean, and your chickens bug free! Heartfelt hugs to all of you, and hurry back for great eats at this Fried Okie's Suburban Kitchen!!

Stuffed artichokes

Hi Fried Okie fans!! Oh how long I've been gone. I've missed y'all!! School is winding down! Only 4 days left, I can't wait. No more alarm every morning. No more school lunches. No sitting down to help with K-7th grade homework. Since the last post, we have had a run away, a car finally die the last time, bought a mustang, and put one of the boats up for sale. Two days ago, my grandmas garage burned down, and while they were fixing a hole in my street, I had to move my car to make room for equipment, and I got a registration ticket!! A few days ago, I had a tune stuck in my head I just couldn't shake. It wasn't a song I knew, so I sat down and wrote lyrics. Three songs later, my hubby has a song, my oldest has a background track for his YouTube, and my daddy is going to lay down the music for them. With all this, I just had to make this dinner. sometimes I feel like I'm going to lose my mind, but a few minutes in the kitchen, and I feel better, and when we sit down to eat and everyone eats it up and loves it, I am a happy girl. All right, enough rambling, let's cook! I made enough stuffing to do 6 artichokes, but only made four because my hubby was at work, and my oldest is on a camping trip for the long weekend. First, cut off the stem, snip the thorny tips off the leaves, and cut each choke in half. I love the pretty purple on the inside!

I steam the halves about 10-15 minutes, just to soften them.

I had four slices of sourdough I made the other day, so I toasted up the bread in small cubes, added some salt pepper, rosemary, basil, parsley, oregano, and sage. After a quick whirl in the food processor, I had bread crumbs. I'd guess about a cup and a half.

I grated up two cups of fresh parmesan, my favorite, so it is very hard to not munch on it, and run out before I can get it into dinner!

Brown off a pound of Italian sausage, add a package of thawed and drained spinach, salt, pepper, a cup of white wine, about 1/3 cup lemon juice, and your bread crumbs. Remove from heat.

Here's where you get burned if you're not patient!! Using a spoon remove the center leaves, and the fuzzy stuff from the heart.

Add the parmesan to the filling mixture and stir in so it melts. Then just spoon the mixture into the wells you made in each artichoke.

Put a bit of olive oil on a cookie sheet, and place each choke leaf side down and bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes.

For the picture I have both halves on a plate, but this is so filling, a serving is probably just a half, especially if you serve this with warm Italian bread. Enjoy. So good, and very easy. It only took me about 40 minutes, from start to finish!

Give this one a try, and come back and let me know how it was! I had Facebook friends request this one, so I posted it today. I'm gonna give it an honest shot to post more often, so many posts and recipes half finished, and so very little time to get them up! It's almost summer vacation, so get ready to see what the kids are cookin up in this Fried Okie's kitchen!

Sweet zucchini relish

I have been having a hard time with my careras as of late, so I apologise for the delay in posts....again! The Wednesday befor my father-in-law passed, the kids and I headed to the farm with buckets of zucchini and an armload of sweet spices to go can with my grandma. Most of you know my grandmother rents a home on my husband's farm, so we got to see the whole family, with the added bonus of extra hands in the kitchen to shred the zucchini.

We had a wonderful time. The kids and I got to spend that time with Papa too, three days before the accident, so this relish is not only delish, but holds extra special memories too!

Any one who gardens, knows you tend to get an abundance of squash. If your family is anything like mine, there is a number of people who do not care for squash. I love it...steamed, fried, grilled, in stews, soups, (I even sneek it into my spaghetti sauce and lasagna). It comes in in sroves, and I just can't eat it and share it fast enough. So the plan was to make relish before we headed off on our yearly camping trip.

Here's what we loaded the truck with to go spend the day canning at NanE's house.
12 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
4 cups chopped onion
5 tablespoons canning salt
1 red bell pepper, chopped 1 green/yellow bell pepper, chopped
6 cups white sugar
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
I also like to bring a jar of pickling spices the steep in the reducing pot
(This makes about 4-6 16ounce jars, we doubled everything)

It's best to prepare all your zucchini and your onion the night before. So, here's how to do that(Place the zucchini and onion in a large, non-metallic bowl, and sprinkle the salt overtop. Use your hands to evenly mix the salt throughout the zucchini. Cover, and refrigerate overnight. The following day, drain the zucchini in a colander, and rinse well with cool water. Squeeze out excess water and set aside.)
Place the red and green bell pepper, sugar, vinegar, and cornstarch into a large pot. Add the nutmeg, turmeric, celery seed and pepper. Stir to combine, then add the drained zucchini. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, sterilize 7 one-pint jars and lids to hold relish. Pack relish into sterilized jars, making sure there are no spaces or air pockets. Fill jars all the way to top. Screw on lids.
Place a rack in the bottom of a large stockpot and fill halfway with boiling water. Carefully lower jars into pot using a holder. Leave a 2 inch space between jars. Pour in more boiling water if necessary, until tops of jars are covered by 2 inches of water. Bring water to a full boil, then cover and process for 30 minutes.
Remove jars from pot and place on cloth-covered or wood surface, several inches apart, until cool. Once cool, press top of each lid with finger, ensuring that seal is tight (lid does not move up or down at all).

Now, onto my amazing sweet zucchini relish canning day at my Grandma "NanE's farm house kitchen.

We had been unusually busy in early July. Some of the zucchini had grown too large and over ripe. We did peel these to keep the relish from being chewy. The younger, more tender ones met the greater with the skin on. It's such a pretty color, and with the red peppers, it has a great contrast.

We peeled the older zucchini, and seeded it too. The seeds can become massive in the more mature or over ripe squash, and that just will not do for a good relish.

we split up the zucchini into 4 batches. I'd prep half of the first batch while NanE preped half. Here's my first half of zucchini...

...and here is my grandmother's. At 84, she is the wisest, most competent, amazing woman alive. I was setting the little ones up to color, and have a snack, while NanE got started on her half. Look at her hands. The years haven't always been easy on her, but this incredible woman is a pillar. Constantly moving, sewing, quilting, crochetting to keep her fingers agile. I see strength, commitment, and nurturing in these fingers. My grandma is a treasure!

my bowl! I am not getting off to a good start. My two youngest kept asking for things, running around, needed to make a Potty stop...NanE was shredding at 10 times my pace!

Ha ha!! NanE's turn to be distracted!! Kaylee ran in for a hug! Maybe I could have greated like a mad woman to try to catch up, but decided I needed to snap a few more pictures instead.

Oh well, she beat me by a mile! Here is all of her greated zucchini, wrung out and in the pot waiting to be pickled, and spiced up. She's already onto her second batch.

Here's my bowl. What a sad amount of zucchini I've shredded! Looks like we are going to be here a while. Who says slow and steady wins the race? Well, slow might, but too many interruptions made steady possible. It was taking me so long, NanE was teasing me about my greater starting to rust!

Well, pausing the zucchini shredding, yet again, I chopped the other veggies, added the rest of the relish ingredients to NanE's pot, and set it to boil. Back to my bowl, time to shred some more.

in the photo above, you see NanE's relish after simmering, steeping and softening for 3o minutes. Below, is my batch of relish, FINALLY ready to hit the stove top. The kitchen was HOT. My fingers were wrinkled up from being wet for so long. My feet hurt, my back ached, and the whole while NanE stood with me, shreddng, chopping, chatting, laughing, and sweating. It was so wonderful. Canning with my grandma, cooking, baking, playing in her flower garden, or her coming over to play in my vegetable garden, all of it a blessing I will cherish forever.

And here we have it. Cooked, sealed, and ready for your hotdogs, hambugers, and tuna salads. Yes, there's one can with way too much head space. I know, we didn't seal that one. My grandma wanted that jar for herself, and made tuna salad that night for dinner. It really is sweet, with a vinegar kick. Very tasty, and no zucchini wasted.

Whatever it is your doing in your kitchen, playing with new recipes, making breakfast, preparing a Holiday dinner or scrubbing the dishes, look around you. You're in the heart of your home. The food you fix, might feed your belly, but if you can bring your family into the cookin', you will be feeding your soul!!
So grab an apron, kick off your shoes, and come on in! You are always welcome in this "Fried Okie's Suburban Kitchen."