Easter: The Last Day of Vacation

Ah, yes, all good things must come to an end. I must say it's been a really nice vacation even if it wasn't as productive as I'd first hoped. I never did organize my linen closet or clean out my car (still a faint hope that I'll accomplish that today).

On the bright side, I did:

-Shoe shop

-Go Antiqueing

-Save the lives of my plants by moving them indoors

-Lollygag

-Visit with my Dad

-Blog nearly every day

-Dine with Wisconsin peoples

-Spend some time at the Library

-Sleep in every day

-Cook a few dishes fancier than usual

Last night I attempted Coconut Chicken for the first time which is a favorite dish of mine and Satan's when we eat out. I was surprised to find the recipe was a little harder to locate than I would have thought (read: It didn't come up immediately on a search of allrecipes.com). I ended up going off of this recipe which sounded the closest to how I think the dish should taste:

COCONUT CHICKEN
Printed from COOKS.COM

6 skinned & boned chicken breasts

1/3 c. lemon juice

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. curry powder

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 c. milk

3/4 lb. coconut

3 c. vegetable oil

Cut each chicken breast half into 6 pieces. Mix lemon juice, salt, curry and ginger. Add chicken; stir to coat and marinate 30 minutes.
Make a batter with flour, baking powder and milk.
Drain marinade from chicken, stirring marinade into batter. Dredge chicken in flour. Dip in batter and roll in coconut. Heat oil in skillet to 355 degrees. Fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side. Remove to paper towel as they brown.

Make ahead and freeze in a single layer and defrost in single layer on cookie sheet. Heat in moderate oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

For a first attempt, it turned out fairly well. Although, somehow, pretty much the whole kitchen including both the dog and I ended up covered in flour. I didn't buy whole chicken breasts, but rather used a packet of chicken breast tenders which I halved and it worked perfectly (and is a whole lot cheaper).

Once you get passed the mess, the tricky part, as with any fried chicken, is getting the grease to the right temperature. Especially if you're like me and don't own a thermometer. The grease needs to be hot enough to cook the chicken quickly, but not so hot that it sticks (disastrous when you've got this much breading).

In the end, what worked for me was pre-heating the grease to about medium/high. I had the grease on 'high' for my first batch, and I burnt some coconut and ended up with some naked chicken when the breading stuck. I'd recommend halving this receipe if you're cooking for two; this makes A WHOLE LOT of chicken.

I caught the premiere of Stacy London's (of "What Not to Wear" fame) new show, "Shut Up! It's Stacy London" yesterday. I can't help but like Stacy and LOVE her talent for snarky comments on WNTW, however, I must report that Stacy's new show just seems like a platform to push products. This became even more evident when I visited the website which includes, right up front, a list of the items they had on the show and where to buy them.

Now, granted, if you're watching this show, you may want to buy the stuff they feature, but I do think there's a better way. Stacy could easily showcase styles and fashion without being so specific as to brand (like on WNTW) and include product information on the website without having it ON THE FIRST PAGE. Just seems a little name brand conscious (whorey) to me. Is all I'm saying.

One other thing, at one point, Stacy featered Lisa Rinna, wife of Harry Hamlin and evidently a winner on "Dancing w/the Stars" (I didn't watch that season). Lisa has a line of clothing that looked super cute and Lisa herself, while clearly fortysomething, has a smokin' hot body and looks fantastic...except. Except! Girlfriend has the worst, WORST case of trout pout I've ever seen in my life.

And, friends, I've seen some trout pout (Meg Ryan anyone?).

I just did a quick web search, and I'm not the first to comment on the phenom. Here's a photo from "The Bastardly Smile" website:

Seriously! And that photo does not even do justice to just how bad it is when the woman actually SPEAKS. Ew! It looks positively indecent. Like maybe part of her front butt migrated to her upper lip somehow.

Ahem. Okay, enough of that. And on Easter too! I am so very bad.

Have a wonderful day.