What About Dinner? (#116)

July's film this year was the classic "What about Bob?" from 1991 featuring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss. I had not seen this film since I was a small child, but it was my Dad's favorite film when I was growing up so I was looking forward to it.

One of the few scenes that I remembered was the dinner scene where Bob is noisily enjoying a home cooked meal. The meal included fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, biscuits, and salad. Of course, I decided to base our meal on this scene.

For dessert, I had to get all little bit more creative. There is no dessert prevalent in this film, other than a birthday cake scene near the end. Instead of going that route, I decided to go more thematic.

One reoccurring theme from the film was "Baby Steps" which was the title of a book that Richard Dreyfuss had written. Bill Murray's character took the philosophy a little too literally, taking tiny steps from place to place. For this reason, I decided to make "baby food" the concept to inspire dessert.

Fried Chicken & Sides

I don't make much fried food, so the fried chicken was the thing that made me the most nervous. I read up quite a bit how to make good fried chicken so that I would feel prepared. The big decisions that I had to make was how to brine the chicken, what to bread it with, and what to fry it in.

Buttermilk Brine

I have never brined chicken before, but based on everything that I had read it is a important part of making a good fried chicken. There's different ways to brine chicken. Based on my research, buttermilk brines seemed like they would make the juiciest and most flavorful chicken, so that is what I went with.

This recipe makes is a pretty large batch, but I needed that as I was cooking 10 very large drumsticks.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups buttermilk
• 2 tbsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp paprika
• A couple splashs of hot sauce

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large sealable container.
2. Add in chicken and make sure it is all fully submerged. You may need to stir it up a little bit.
3. Refrigerate overnight.

Crispy Fried Breading

For the breading, I wanted it to be extra crispy and flavorful. I read up on a lot of tips to make this work, and it worked really well. The skin was super crispy, due largely to the cornstarch, and it was also very flavorful.

The only negative I would say is that the skin darkened when fried so the chicken looked a little burnt, when it really wasn't. I looked up why it darkened so much and it turns out that that is common when breading includes onion powder and paprika. If I was to make this again, I might remove or use less of those ingredients. The paprika and cayenne also added a bit of spice to the chicken, which wasn't bad, but did feel unnecessary and might not be to everyone's taste.

This recipe makes a pretty big batch. I prefer to have too much than not enough to make sure I get good evening coating. Plus, I was making a big batch of chicken. You may want to cut this recipe in half if only cooking a pound or two.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 2 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp onion powder
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. Take your chicken that is in the brine out of the fridge and let it rest for about a half hour to get closer to room temperature.
2. Heat up oil on stove. The goal is to reach about 350°F so use a thermometer if you have one. You can use lots of different frying oils for fried chicken. I chose melting Crisco vegetable shortening as my fry oil. This is a Southern trick that I read about that help keep your chicken crispy without changing the flavor of the chicken like some oils can. It took me about 6 lbs of Crisco in my 8qt pot to make it high enough to fully submerged my large drumsticks.
3. Thoroughly combine all breading ingredients in a large bowl with a fork.
4. Add 4 tablespoons of the chicken brine to the breading and stir thoroughly with the fork. This will create small clumps in the breading that will make it extra crispy bits.
   
   
   
5. One at a time, take a piece of chicken out of the brine, let the juices drip off, and then drop it into the breading bowl.
6. Spoon breading over it until it is completely covered.
7. Remove from breading, give it a little shake, and move it to a wire rack where it can dry before frying. Letting it sit out for 15 to 20 minutes helps make sure that the breading binds to the wet chicken before frying. Skipping this step can cause the breading to fall off when it hits the hot oil.
8. Repeat steps 5 thru 7 for each piece of chicken. I would suggest giving the breading a stir each time to ensure the little lumps are evenly distributed.
9. Next, drop a few pieces of chicken into your hot oil and let fry until fully cooked. Some tips to see if the chicken is cooked is to pay attention to the bubbles, which will decrease as it's closer to being done and also to pay attention to if the chicken is floating. For drumsticks, and chicken with bones in them, they won't float completely but they will start to float a bit as they finish cooking.
10. When you think the chicken may be cooked, carefully move with prongs to a wire rack and check the temperature. You want a temp of at least 165°F.
11. If it is cooked, sprinkle a little salt over it and let it cool. Then fry your next batch of chicken. If it is not cooked through, put back in the oil a little longer.

Butter Topping

For my sides, I kept it simple. I baked the ears of corn in their husks the oven at 350°F for 30 minutes, biscuits were from a Pillsbury can following instructions, and mashed potatoes were made from a box mix with a special modification (I use heavy cream instead of milk. Shh 🤫).

One thing I did make was some seasoned butter, which was a great addition to the corn, potatos, and biscuits. This was pretty tasty and I will probably make it more often  

Ingredients:

• 1 cup melted butter 
• 2 to 3 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 to 2 tsp chopped parsley

Directions:

1. Melt butter in microwave, 10 seconds at a time to keep it from spitting.
2. Stir in seasoning.
3. When corn comes out of the oven, let it cool a bit before you husk.
4. After husking, brush butter over corn to let it soak in. You can also brush it onto your finished biscuits.
5. Leave the remaining butter out to be used as a topping for mashed potatoes or to add extra butter to corn and biscuits.

"Baby Food" Dessert Topping

When I decided to make a baby food inspired dessert, I knew that I would have to be careful. I wanted it to look like baby food and have the texture of baby food, while not tasting like it.

I decided to make two flavors. The "applesauce" would be seasoned similar to apple pie and the "mushed bananas" would have a flavor profile similar to banana pudding. I also decided it would be weird to eat these by themselves, so I served them as ice cream topping to be eaten with vanilla ice cream and a caramel sauce.

Apple Pie "Baby Food"

This is essentially a spiced apple sauce recipe. I stored it in 4 oz mason jars to make it look like baby food. This recipe made 9 jars.

Ingredients:

• 6 medium Honeycrisp or Gala apples
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 cup apple cider (or 100% apple juice)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

1. Wash and peel apples. Then core and chop into large chunks.
2. Melt butter in large pan over medium heat and let brown lightly.
3. Stir in apple chunks and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to get good coverage of butter.
4. Stir in brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
5. Add cider and cover.
6. Let simmer for 20 minutes or until apple pieces are very soft. Stir occasionally.
7. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and lemon juice.
8. Move to a blender and blend until texture is that of applesauce or baby food.
9. Move to 4 oz mason jars and refrigerate. These will not be shelf stable.

Banana Pudding "Baby Food"

The goal of this dish was to make something that tasted like banana pudding while not actually being banana pudding. This was actually my favorite of the two. It was flavorful and would also make a great topping to toast or pancakes. This recipe made 12 4 oz jars for me.

Ingredients:

• 5 ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

1. If you do not have ripe bananas, bake bananas whole at 300°F for 15 to 20 minutes until peels are black.
2. Melt butter in large pan over medium heat and let brown lightly.
3. Dice bananas into chunks and add brown sugar.
4. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes until very soft.
5. Remove from heat and stir in cream, vanilla, and salt.
6. Move to blender and blend until smooth.
7. Stir in lemon juice and condensed milk.
8. Move to 4 oz mason jars and refrigerate. This is not shelf stable.

Caramel Sauce

After making the banana baby food, I still had a lot of sweetened condensed milk left over. I decided to make some caramel sauce to go with the "baby food" and ice cream.

It's pretty easy to make caramel sauce from sweetened condensed milk. All you really have to do is heat it up slowly. You can do this in a pot, in the microwave, or the method I used, heating in a pot of water.

Directions:

1. Pour condensed milk into mason jar or jars and close lightly so that air can still escape.
2. Put trivet or dish towel in the bottom of a pot and rest jar or jars of condensed milk on it.
3. Add water until just below the lid of the jar and bring to a light simmer.
4. Let simmer for 2 hours or more.
5. Milk will darken and thicken as it caramelizes. Cook until it reaches your preferred caramel color and thickness.
6. Refrigerate.
7. When ready to serve, remove lid and microwave inside the glass jar to soften.

Overall, this evening was a hit. Food was good and the dessert fit the theme well. Also, the movie was absolutely hilarious. Everyone seemed to have a good time.