500 times someone checked in on COOKED. Hopefully all saw something cool and some came back for seconds. Love you to pieces!
MJ
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The Naked Basics
Yumtastically Crunchy and Savory!
This chicken dish is, fried chicken simplified. The most important element to making any fried chicken, is your oil temperature. All of the secret batter and special seasonings in the world tastes the same when it's burnt! I am still perfecting my fried chicken recipe for our restaurant. It is a frustrating process. Therefore, I have decided to start over.
I found a recipe in a chicken cookbook for fried chicken and became dumb-founded when I saw that there was no call for seasonings, herbs, spices or coatings of any kind. The pic looked beautiful! I was moved to fry! Well my loves that chicken was juicy, crunchy on the outside yet surprisingly, flavorful.
While I have made naked fried chicken in the past, I did not pay as much attention to the details of this simplistic way of frying chicken as I have here. Please enjoy!
MJ's Naked Fried Chicken
8-12 small chicken legs (rinsed well and patted dry with a paper towel)
In a heavy bottomed frying skillet add enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least two inches.
Heat oil on a medium heat.
If oil begins to smoke, it is too high, remove it from the heat and let it cool down.
Place chicken in oil. The oil should have a nice medium level of sizzle. If it is roaring, popping spit-firing and splattering all over the place, there is probably water in your pan or your heat is still too high.
Continue to turn chicken every couple minutes so that it browns evenly. Watch your chicken! The entire frying time should be approximately 10-18 minutes depending upon:
Heat
Thickness of chicken
and your pan (skillet)
When chicken is done, remove with tongs shaking off excess oil. Feel free to drain on paper towel. Next choose one of three final steps (this is what makes it MJ's):
Idea #1 Sprinkle Lawry's Seasoned Salt (R) on chicken and serve hot.
Idea#2 melt a 1/2 stick of butter in a small bowl and add Old Bay to it and drizzle over chicken
Idea #3 Sprinkle chickenwith salt and pepper then use a sweet chili pepper dipping sauce to add a little zing!
Woo Hooo Little Dollies! Eat 'em up :-)
Toodles,
MJ
 |
| Fried Chicken no batter, 1 seasoning |
This chicken dish is, fried chicken simplified. The most important element to making any fried chicken, is your oil temperature. All of the secret batter and special seasonings in the world tastes the same when it's burnt! I am still perfecting my fried chicken recipe for our restaurant. It is a frustrating process. Therefore, I have decided to start over.
I found a recipe in a chicken cookbook for fried chicken and became dumb-founded when I saw that there was no call for seasonings, herbs, spices or coatings of any kind. The pic looked beautiful! I was moved to fry! Well my loves that chicken was juicy, crunchy on the outside yet surprisingly, flavorful.
While I have made naked fried chicken in the past, I did not pay as much attention to the details of this simplistic way of frying chicken as I have here. Please enjoy!
MJ's Naked Fried Chicken
8-12 small chicken legs (rinsed well and patted dry with a paper towel)
In a heavy bottomed frying skillet add enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least two inches.
Heat oil on a medium heat.
If oil begins to smoke, it is too high, remove it from the heat and let it cool down.
Place chicken in oil. The oil should have a nice medium level of sizzle. If it is roaring, popping spit-firing and splattering all over the place, there is probably water in your pan or your heat is still too high.
Continue to turn chicken every couple minutes so that it browns evenly. Watch your chicken! The entire frying time should be approximately 10-18 minutes depending upon:
Heat
Thickness of chicken
and your pan (skillet)
When chicken is done, remove with tongs shaking off excess oil. Feel free to drain on paper towel. Next choose one of three final steps (this is what makes it MJ's):
Idea #1 Sprinkle Lawry's Seasoned Salt (R) on chicken and serve hot.
Idea#2 melt a 1/2 stick of butter in a small bowl and add Old Bay to it and drizzle over chicken
Idea #3 Sprinkle chickenwith salt and pepper then use a sweet chili pepper dipping sauce to add a little zing!
Woo Hooo Little Dollies! Eat 'em up :-)
Toodles,
MJ
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Love Sweet Love!
My Sweet Heart Turtle Dove Dollies!!!!
Did I forget your Valentine sweets????? No just little technical difficulties that kept me away from you :-(
I hope that you can find it in your biggest hearts to forgive me. I love this day with all its splendor and pressure. Soooooo what did I make? Yes! chocolate covered strawberries with little gold sparkle!!! If you forgot your sweetie, (for whatever reason) There is still time to make up. It's never too late to make up baby! And the best is first ... Ice cream pie! Yep:-)
10 medium sized strwberries
10 wooden skewers
Melt your chocolate separately in zap safe bowls at 50-70% power for 20 second intervals, stirring in between. NOTE: You can use candy melts from the craft store which are more forgiving against burns. However, for first timers, you may not want to spend that moolah!
Stick the skewers through the strawberries and dip the fruit as soon as possible. This takes patience and time to master. If you give yourself a little time and mostly "drizzle" at first, you'll be a near "pro" status. I know that you can!
Do I have to say enjoy?
Toodles and smiles,
MJ
Did I forget your Valentine sweets????? No just little technical difficulties that kept me away from you :-(
I hope that you can find it in your biggest hearts to forgive me. I love this day with all its splendor and pressure. Soooooo what did I make? Yes! chocolate covered strawberries with little gold sparkle!!! If you forgot your sweetie, (for whatever reason) There is still time to make up. It's never too late to make up baby! And the best is first ... Ice cream pie! Yep:-)
 |
| The finished product sliced from each side |
Vanilla & Chocolate Ice Cream Cookie Pie
So easy and very good. The pics explain it all,
6-8 chocolate Oreo® cookies (save 1 tsp for garnish)
6-8 vanilla Oreo® cookies (save 1 tsp for garnish)
1 stick butter
1 small tub whipped topping
6-8 marachino cherries (for garnish)
6-8 chocolate Oreo® cookies or the like. Crumble in food processor. Set aside in bowl then clean food processor.
6-8 vanilla Oreo® cookies or the like. Crumble in food processor. Set aside in separate bowl
1/2 gallon vanilla & chocolate ice cream (slightly melted)
Add 1/2 stick melted butter to each cookie bowl. mix well. In a pie dish , press each flavor of cookie crumb mixture in 1/2 of the pie dish.
Separately blend both flavors of ice cream with a whisk. If you like, add a little bit of the crumbs to whisked ice cream. Spoon in vanilla ice cream over chocolate crumbs and chocolate ice cream over vanilla crumbs.
Spoon entire tub of whipped topping over the whole pie. Sprinkle 1 tsp of eah crumb flavor over the entire pie. Dry of 6-8 cherries and place on top of cake. Cover and freeze for 5 hours. When ready to eat, let the pie thaw. You can heat the bottom of dish in large warm water. (Do not let pie get wet.)
 |
| Press cookie mixture into pie dish |
 |
Whisk softened ice cream and add crumbs |
 |
| Freeze pie for several hours |
 |
| Whipped topping over ice cream |
Black and White Dipped Strawberries w/ Gold Sparkle
 |
| Stunning stripes drizzled and yummy! |
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk or dark chocolate chips10 medium sized strwberries
10 wooden skewers
Melt your chocolate separately in zap safe bowls at 50-70% power for 20 second intervals, stirring in between. NOTE: You can use candy melts from the craft store which are more forgiving against burns. However, for first timers, you may not want to spend that moolah!
Stick the skewers through the strawberries and dip the fruit as soon as possible. This takes patience and time to master. If you give yourself a little time and mostly "drizzle" at first, you'll be a near "pro" status. I know that you can!
Do I have to say enjoy?
Toodles and smiles,
MJ
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Valentine's Dish!
Hello My Love Puppets!
Our dinner is done.
The Merlot Marinade Sauce was by Tastefully Simple (R). Our friend Lisa Smith is a represenative of the company. I'm telling you it was a sweet and zesty sauce that brought out the natural flavors of the lamb. Give me a buzz if you are interested in some of her products.
Our dinner is done.
Very filling and savory scrumptiousness!!
Our winning dish is
Lamb Chop (shoulder) Marinated in Merlot Sauce
Sauteed Zesty Asparagus /with garlic, parmesan cheese
Stuffed Mancotti : Spinach, Ricotta Cheese, Mozarella, Eggs, Parmesan Cheese, Bacon and Crushed Garlic-Topped with Chopped Tomatoes, Carmelized Onion, Bacon and Melted Mozarella
The Merlot Marinade Sauce was by Tastefully Simple (R). Our friend Lisa Smith is a represenative of the company. I'm telling you it was a sweet and zesty sauce that brought out the natural flavors of the lamb. Give me a buzz if you are interested in some of her products.
This was very rich, many flavorful notes in the manacotti...just delicious, the bacon gives a smokiness to the filling that is simply mouth watering!
Check in on 2/14/11 for the Valentine's Day Dessert...
Love you all to a million pieces,
MJ
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Yummy Dinner Coming Up!
Dollies!!!!
I received a request for the...
Valentine's Day Dinner for Two.
***
You know me I'm putting my spin on it.
Valentine's Day Dinner for Two.
***
You know me I'm putting my spin on it.
If it's Mama Joy's it's got to be saucy, chewy, succulent, gooey and Dee-lish-eee-oh-SO!
I'll let you know...tomorrow. Check Back.
Love and Kisses!
MJ
Monday, February 7, 2011
Blast from the TV past!!!!
This is what I was doing around this time last year!!!! Click on the link below a little funny :-)
CLICK HERE for: Mama Joy 10! Show Game Day Eats
Love you Dollies!!!
MJ
CLICK HERE for: Mama Joy 10! Show Game Day Eats
Love you Dollies!!!
MJ
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Love, well wishes & contest dishes!
COOKING CONCEPT CONTEST chk it out below!!!!
Dollies, our daughter-in-law needs love today so please send your kind thoughts. She and our son are trying to hang in there! I have prayed and kept positive so this dish goes out to Joey, Raynie, Nelly Belly and soon to be Immy Joy-Joy (My love names of course)!
My people this was supposed to go out yesterday but our family had some little bumps but everything should be ok!
This weekend my crew wanted a quick and hearty, hunger fixer-upper. So it was nachos to the rescue! I made such a lovely dish the day prior that I wanted to share. But, my better half did not like part of the pic. Our rule is if the pic is not "yum" it does not publish... I worked hard on that thing Dollies! Oh well. We will revisit that little dish I call Latin Love again. I just have to get a better pic. :-)
Alrighty! This is a simply easy and delicious little tidbit that we make a few hundred times a year!
JONES FAMILY NACHOS
2 pounds ground beef
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp oil (your choice)
1 jar salsa
2 cups mexican shredded cheese
"enough" sliced jalepenos
1 packet sazon by Goya (r)
1 bag of Restaurant Style Tostitos (r) Torilla Chips
1/2 packet taco seasoning
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp seasoned salt
1 large onion (sliced)
Saute' the onion and cilantro set aside. Mix the ground beef with dry seasoning. Fry up ground beef in oil continuously chopping with spatula until coarse. Drain beef. In a large aluminum baking pan, layer chips, meat, salsa, onions & cilantro, cheese and jalepenos. Broil under the fire for just a moment. Let the cheese bubble and exposed chip corners toast just until brown. YUM-BO-LISH-A-DO-SHOUS!!!!!!!!!!!
Valentine's Day Contest!!!!
Ok If you are still reading, I am having a little contest! I want to make something great for my honey because Valentines Day is our "dating" anniversary. I always make us something special. I wanted to make an amazing dish so I am looking to the community!!!! If you have an idea...please tweet, message me on FB or send a comment here on the blog by 2/10/2011....I will feature the winner here with the dish on 2/14!!! Looking forward to hearing from you!
Love you to pieces,
MJ
Dollies, our daughter-in-law needs love today so please send your kind thoughts. She and our son are trying to hang in there! I have prayed and kept positive so this dish goes out to Joey, Raynie, Nelly Belly and soon to be Immy Joy-Joy (My love names of course)!
My people this was supposed to go out yesterday but our family had some little bumps but everything should be ok!
This weekend my crew wanted a quick and hearty, hunger fixer-upper. So it was nachos to the rescue! I made such a lovely dish the day prior that I wanted to share. But, my better half did not like part of the pic. Our rule is if the pic is not "yum" it does not publish... I worked hard on that thing Dollies! Oh well. We will revisit that little dish I call Latin Love again. I just have to get a better pic. :-)
Alrighty! This is a simply easy and delicious little tidbit that we make a few hundred times a year! You will have to do the proportions on this depending upon your party size however my rule of thumb is the following amount per 2 hungry people:
2 pounds ground beef
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp oil (your choice)
1 jar salsa
2 cups mexican shredded cheese
"enough" sliced jalepenos
1 packet sazon by Goya (r)
1 bag of Restaurant Style Tostitos (r) Torilla Chips
1/2 packet taco seasoning
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp seasoned salt
1 large onion (sliced)
Saute' the onion and cilantro set aside. Mix the ground beef with dry seasoning. Fry up ground beef in oil continuously chopping with spatula until coarse. Drain beef. In a large aluminum baking pan, layer chips, meat, salsa, onions & cilantro, cheese and jalepenos. Broil under the fire for just a moment. Let the cheese bubble and exposed chip corners toast just until brown. YUM-BO-LISH-A-DO-SHOUS!!!!!!!!!!!
Valentine's Day Contest!!!!
Ok If you are still reading, I am having a little contest! I want to make something great for my honey because Valentines Day is our "dating" anniversary. I always make us something special. I wanted to make an amazing dish so I am looking to the community!!!! If you have an idea...please tweet, message me on FB or send a comment here on the blog by 2/10/2011....I will feature the winner here with the dish on 2/14!!! Looking forward to hearing from you!
Love you to pieces,
MJ
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