My Mom's Chicken

I absolutely love this picture. This is my mom, my BABY brother Andrew and my Gram. Andrew looks so proud standing in the middle of these "little women"!

Ok so this isn't a "Gram" recipe, but it's from my mom. And this is something I find so amazing. My Gram passed her recipes down, my mom cooked a lot of those. But she also came up with a few signature recipes herself. My Gram loved this recipe too. This chicken also made it's appearance at Pa day. Whenever there was a large group of family coming over this chicken fits the bill...quite literally too because chicken legs are cheap and when they are on sale they are "wicked" cheap. So you can feed a lot of people. So this chicken with a side of Gram's potato salad and maybe some baked beans...SO GOOD! I make this chicken A LOT, at least once every two weeks. And tonight I am bringing it over to two different families because I made so much.


Every time I make this chicken I think of my mom. WOW I miss her. We always talk about what a dream it would be to live closer to each other. And although it would be awesome, I can't think about it too much. It makes me too sad. I am so thankful for an amazing mom with whom I am so close to, even 3000 miles away.

Recipe
Ingredients


Chicken Drumsticks REMOVE THE SKIN...do not skip this step. It's time consuming but it's worth it. My mom and I both use scissors.

Seasoned Bread Crumbs


Soul Seasoning (if you can't find it use Lawry's Season salt but the soul seasoning is best)


Cooking spray



Directions:


After you have taken all the skin off rinse with water.

Roll each drumstick in breadcrumbs, until they are coated completely and line a baking pan.

Sprinkle with Soul Seasoning

Liberally spray the chicken with the cooking spray (come on don't be shy

Bake low heat I usually do 250 degrees for 30 min then crank up the heat to 425,spray the chicken again with the cooking spray and bake for another 15-20 to get the outside super crispy

Let stand for a few min before serving on the tray (I use a stone, so it keeps the chicken nice and warm)

Your meat will just fall off the bone...way better than KFC in my opinion. OH PS if by any chance you have left overs it's so good the next day just cold out of the fridge.

Not to toot my own horn but this batch came out as close to mom's as I have ever gotten!!

Kind of a gross job but it's has to be done...no skin!

The Soul Seasoning!
Breaded, seasoned and sprayed...oven please!

The finished product...so good!

Tarts

This is a picture of my grandparents and all ten children. My mom is the hot little blond in the front! From Left to right back row: Pa, Uncle Pazu, Uncle Twee,Aunt Rose, Aunt Jack,Uncle Russel,Aunt Marlene From left to right front row Gram, Aunt Prissy, Mom (Paula) Uncle Mark, Aunt Janie
The amazing story here is that the 6 in the back row were not "technically" my Gram's. My Grandfather was married and his first wife passed away. When he met my Gram he had 6 kids! And she married him anyway. It makes me smile though because my Grandfather was an amazing man. He was so kind, and gentle, and he was funny. He was handsome, hardworking, and compassionate. My Gram must have fell head over heels for him. And knowing my Gram and her huge heart, he must have been smitten with her. I know she loved those kids as her own. I know this because I didn't know until I was an adult that they were not. My Grammie then had 4 of her own children. My mom being one of them.

So this recipe I remember from Thanksgiving dinners at my Aunt Prissy's. She owned her own "beauty shop" off of her house. We transformed it for thanksgiving and that's where we ate our feast, right there in the shop. I loved it! One of the things I remember are these tarts. I don't remember the apple ones like my mom does I remember the chocolate cream filled ones (hmmmm I wonder why) My sister Mary also reminded me of Gram's little jello cups. They are just that,jello with whipped cream but for a kid and individual jello cup is like a crisp $100 bill. So I added a few to go with the tarts. =)

From my Mom "One of my faves! We had at Christmas & Thanksgiving."

Tarts

Ingredients

Crust (Gram made her own from scratch) but pie crust in a box is good. Do not use the ready made pie crust.

Crust Recipe:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup chilled shortening ( Gram used lard back in the day)

3 TBS ice water

Mix into ball, handle as little as possible, roll out on floured surface

Apple Jelly

Whipped topping

Maraschino cherries

Directions (as told by my Mom)

Roll out pie crust very thin. The secret to a flaky crust is too use ice water, I put ice and the water. Put pie crust mix in a bowl and very sparingly add the ice water and mix with a fork. You want the dough moist enough to roll out on a floured counter. Cut out circles with the top of a large glass. Press each piece into an un greased cupcake tin pulling the dough up the sides.. It is ok if the do not all look the same that is part of the charm. Bake until golden brown and cool completely. Add a good rounded teaspoon of apple jelly to the bottom of each tart, top with whipped topping and chill right before serving top with half a maraschino cherry. These are so simple and very delicious. At Christmas we would also use the green cherries and put the tarts on a fancy serving tray very festive. As I child I loved these more than all the holiday pies.

Here are the crust inside the muffin pan. I was unsure how they would bake, if they would be like I remembered.

Modern baking tools....ha this glass worked perfect.

Exactly how I remembered them...golden and flakey. The crust recipe is simple but perfect.

These are the tarts filled with the apple jelly. About a teapoon for each tart. I also did chocolate just using a basic pudding filling.

We all ate one and said "YUM" They brought me back in time.

I am really enjoying gathering these recipes and making them. I thought it might be therapeutic for me to remember Gram this way. But can I be totally honest. It makes me miss her so much more. And my whole family for that matter. I am remembering all the fun times we have had over the years, celebrating holidays, birthdays, graduations, babies...it's hard being so far. I miss them so much.

Salmon Pie

Here's an early picture of Gram. My Gram was very French Canadian. She spoke French and had a few French phrases that I am most certain she would never say in English around us kids. She was born in Van Buren to Maxime and Helene Madore Grivios. You want to know where Van Buren Maine is? Way up North! Google map it! It's way up there right on the border.

This is another one of my favorites and I can not remember the last time I had it. I remember having it a lot as a child. I love the cream peas. I think I could eat a whole pie by myself. I know that it doesn't sound like salmon and cream peas would go together but THEY DO! My cousin Elisha wrote to me and said "one of my favorite things she made was her salmon pie with cream pea sauce. She made it every time we came to visit" I loved when my Uncle Mark and cousins Elisha and Melissa would come to visit. So many wonderful memories. I love that Gram made this when they would come to visit.

I got this recipe from my mom. ( I LOVE you MOM)

Salmon Pie

1 can RED salmon

5 large potatoes boiled and drained

1/4 c finely minced onions.

Pie crust (from scratch is best but from the box works awesome...not the refrigerated kind though)

Directions:

Boil and drain potatoes

Place salmon in a bowl (do not drain) remove any bones and flakes.

Mash potatoes with a masher and add salmon with the liquid.

Mash together completely with the potato masher not an electric mixer.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put in pie crust tin with bottom crust

Add top crust and crimp crust together using a fork.

cut 3 slits in middle of top crust and prick ares with a fork.

Use extra dough to shape pie crust hearts and add to top of pie.

Cook until pie crust is golden, may brush with a little milk to help brown crust

Cream Peas:
2 cans of peas

1 1/2 cups of milk

1 tsp butter
3 tsp cornstarch

1/4 cup cold water

Drain 2 cans of peas, add 1 and 1/2 cups of milk and 1 teas butter, bring to a slow boil. add 3 teas. cornstarch to 1/4 c. cold water mix well then slowly add the cornstarch mixture to the peas stirring until thickened and remove pan from heat. add salt and pepper and serve over the salmon pie. So yummy! This is a true Canadian French recipe passed down from generations.

Simple ingredients make it so good

It was a bit more work than I thought getting all the bones out, they are small. But I think I got them all.

When I mashed the salmon,potatoes and onion together the smell transported me back in time. I really didn't think I would be this emotional cooking but these aren't just any recipes. These are Gram's. All my memories of Gram are GOOD ones. This recipe is very close to our family. When I asked what recipes I should make, everyone mentioned this one. I miss my Gram. Have I said that yet. I mean I really miss her. I want to pick up the phone and call her and say "hey Gram I made THE salmon pie today" and she would say "Oh Beth that's great. I bet it came out great"



So cute with the little hearts. I actually have a little heart shaped cutter, this is the first time I used it for cooking.

The peas. So let them simmer and the sauce will thicken!

Just begging to be eaten....

So I did for lunch. It was so good. Again not as good as Gram's but I would say a respectable second.