Chicken in One

While I was in Charlotte visiting a friend, we paid a visit to Price's world famous Chicken Coop.

As we drove up, I ask myself, "Why are all the great places 'hole-in-the-walls'?" I believe this probably boils down to the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)theory. Something my 8th grade math teacher told me way back when.

Well Price's Chicken Coop keeps it real and simple. The building isn't much to look at but they know how to sell chicken and they sell a lot of it.

Their menu is simple, chicken, chicken and more chicken...and some burgers, shrimp and BBQ pork...but if your restaurant is known as the Chicken Coop why would you get anything else but chicken? As we arrived around 1:30PM we could tell there was still a crowd of people inside. Luckily we arrived after the College Football game had started. Otherwise, I'm told, there would have been a line around the block.

The chicken comes in a cardboard box...yes almost like the Korean Fried Chicken, but this one has a menu on it. The standard meal comes with flattened tater tots or should I say tater pucks? coleslaw, hush puppies and a dinner roll, along with which ever parts of the chicken you had ordered. I had ordered 2 pieces of white since this is typically the hardest part of the chicken to cook correctly.

The side offerings are typical tater pucks and slaw, were nothing too extraordinary. But the chicken was something else. The chicken was still crispy even after we had gotten it home (the Chicken Coop is take-out only) and juicy on the inside. Some of the best fried chicken I've tasted. Definitely a must visit if you ever pass through Charlotte!

Price's Chicken Coop

1614 Camden Road

Charlotte, NC 28203

http://www.priceschickencoop.com/

Paizanos

Tucked away in quaint Old Norcross you'll find Paizanos, a neighborhood Italian restaurant, serving up a slice of New York City. The atmosphere here is friendly and calm. The interior of the restaurant was a little dark, making the restaurant suitable for a nice romantic dinner rather than just a slice of pizza.

Paizanos also had numerous beers on tap, which helps since there's nothing quite like a cold beer with hot pizza.

The specialty pies are each named after a region in NYC. With names like "Bronx Bomber" and the "Park Avenue", it's hard not to miss home.

The calamari appetizer, usually a crowd pleaser, was light and fresh. Small circlets of calamari was breaded and lightly fried so it didn't have that heavy or greasy feel. Served with a marinara and a smokey pepper sauce, the fried calamari is a must try.

Three pies were ordered to benchmark this establishment. Firstly the classic Pizza Margarita is, secondly, a Park Avenue pizza which is a white pizza with spinach, garlic and Romano cheese, and lastly the Staten Island Ferry pizza which had Genoa salami, cappicola and proscuitto because someone wanted meat :).

The pizzas overall were fairly good. Fresh ingredients and made to order. I really enjoyed the garlic and spinach of the Park Avenue. The Staten Island Ferry was very salty as can be expected from its toppings. One complaint is that the crust is not as crispy as a good NY pizza, it was chewy, not in a bad way...but the crust can use some improvement.










Dessert consisted of the classic cannoli, this one was made with ricotta and marscapone. Sprinkled with chocolate chips, I did miss the pistachio variety.

Fage. No it's not pronounced F-A-G. It is Fa-yeh!

On with the Yogurt making!

I took all the equipment I would be using and I boiled it to sanitize the material.

I decided to try for a small batch of yogurt, 3 cups to be exact, and poured this amount of milk into a pot and started it on the stove.

Once the milk came to a gentle boil, I shut off the heat, removed it from the stove and spooned a few tablespoons of it into a sanitized bowl. To the bowl, I added a couple of tablespoons of room temperature Fage yogurt that I bought from Publix. I waited until the boiled milk got to 115 degrees and added the milk/yogurt slurry.


Now the hardest part...I just had to cover, set some where warm and wait!

I set the yogurt on my computer to keep it warm...like I said, I'm not putting anything in that oven!

I checked it in the morning about 14 hours into the process and the milk had not set. I got a little worried but I let it sit some more and went to work. When I got back around 7:30 PM the milk had set beautifully! All that's left to do is to strain the yogurt overnight and turn it into Greek style yogurt.

I've had enough yogurt...lets try making some!

If you've read my previous post, you know I had all 4 wisdom teeth removed and have been living with the misery these past few days. I had done ample preparation prior to my operation.
I had bought:

• Apple sauce
• Pudding snack packs (chocolate and vanilla swirl and vanilla)
• Ice Cream (Double Vanilla)
• Yogurt
• Eggs (for scrambled eggs)
• Milk (which I thought was Soy Milk at the time...OK so I don't always read carefully :))
• Odwalla Superfood (Jug size)

Every thing that was mushy and easy to eat...I even considered baby food! OK so maybe I did freak out about it too much...I almost felt that I could eat a burger on Friday (more on this later).

I actually got sucked into Kitchen Nightmares on Hulu. After not watching TV for 3 years I guess I've been sort of living under a rock. That Gordon Ramsay huh? Sure can yell. Anyway I looked up some of his recipes on Youtube and tried his recipe for scrambled eggs. His recipe called for beating the eggs in the pan with some butter and constant stirring, almost like a risotto. It was quite nice...the eggs turned out really fluffy, perfect for a person in my condition.

Other than that, my sustenance came from pudding snacks (healthy I know) and ice cream (even healthier!) and apple sauce. I did attempt to eat some ramen which turned out alright but I digress.

The main reason for this post is that I'm trying to figure out what to do with the half-gallon of whole milk I bought by accident. Being unfamiliar with the Kroger I grabbed the milk next to the vanilla soy milk (I hate flavored soy milk!) and thought it was just plain soy milk! I am lactose intolerant so I'm not crazy about the thought of having to drink it. I thought about baking something with it...but the oven in the house I'm renting is kinda groady...very groady! The owners melted aluminum foil! How do you melt aluminum foil in an oven???!

So I've decided to try my hand at making yogurt! Its healthy and the bacteria produces lactase so I won't have any lactose intolerance issues...hopefully.

I did some research online and found a great many sites detailing how to make yogurt, which doesn't seem that difficult at all!

The first site I checked out was MakeYourOwnYogurt. It provides all the necessary steps for making your own yogurt...but like the good little researcher, I never stop at the first one. Other sites used were wikiHow and BeanSprouts although I'm wondering about the thermos. It sounds like a great idea but from everything I've read, the bacteria need to breathe...isn't a thermos airtight? I'm going to be attempting to make a Greek style yogurt where a lot of the liquid is drained off. I'm planning on using this in cooking to substitute for sour cream and creme fraiche.

More on this process in the next post!

Where's the Wisdom in Teeth?

I just had my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday. I'm currently considering changing my pseudo name to include "Starving"...Starving Stickman...how's that? I did attempt to eat a can of Progresso Chicken Noodle soup yesterday, about 6 hours after my surgery and that took me almost 2 hours to finish. I decided to have a glass of Odwalla Superfood for dinner...."filling!"

It is quite nutritious though.

I've been prone to cravings...actually, I am prone to cravings, I'm just MORE prone to cravings now since I haven't really had any substantial sustenance in the past 22 hours. All I've had was some water...pills and more pills, can o soup and some Odwalla. Hmm what I wouldn't give to be able to eat a Chipotle burrito right now...or maybe some Steak n Shake! I know... no straws!

I am optimistically hopeful I will be able to eat solid foods by the end of the weekend, but for today I think I will have to stick with scrambled eggs.

I typically like my scrambled eggs made with butter. I know...not the most healthy, but you just can't top the flavor of butter.

Easy Scrambled Eggs:
Ingredients:

• 2-3 eggs
• 1/2 tbsp of butter (unsalted)
• 2 tsp of white wine / sake / cooking wine
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Add the butter to an omelette pan and let the butter brown a little
• In the meantime, beat the eggs with the wine and a little salt to taste
  
• Add the eggs to the browned butter and over medium low heat, stir so little curds form
• remove from heat before all liquid is evaporated and continue stirring

If you like your scrambled eggs a little softer, dish sooner, otherwise stir a little longer and the residual heat from the pan will cook the eggs after you remove it from the heat.