Hot Chocolate

I heart the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate Hot Chocolate" recipe...with a couple minor tweaks...

3 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp Hershey's DARK Cocoa
Dash salt
Splash vanilla
1 c milk

Combine dry ingredients in mug. Heat milk to HOT (not boiling). Pour into mug, add vanilla, whisk until mixed. MMMMM...if we had milk, I'd have a cup right now!

Edited to add: For a dry mix, replace 1 c milk with 1/3 c powdered milk and omit vanilla. When you're ready mix, add 1 c boiling water. If you make this in bulk, you'll use 1/2 c of mix for each cup of water.

Kris's Favorite Fried Chicken...with Fried Onions, Fried Potatoes & Gravy

I got this chicken recipe about 8 years ago from "One Million Recipes" - it's a recipe book on a disc. Since that time we have tried a few other recipes but always come back to this one...so, this has become our OFFICIAL Fried Chicken recipe and I am not "allowed" (lol) to try any other ever again. The other recipes are from my grandmother. :-)

• 2 large chicken breasts, cut in 4ths
• Enough Crisco for deep frying

Seasoned Flour

• 3 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. garlic salt
• 1 Tbsp. pepper
• 1 Tbsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning

CRISPY BATTER

• 1 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 beaten egg yolks
• 1 1/2 c. water

1. Heat Crisco to 365 degrees in deep saucepan or deep fryer to a depth of about 2 inches.
2. Combine ingredients for "seasoned flour" mix. Set aside.
3. Combine dry ingredients for "crispy batter" mix. Combine egg yolk and a little of water. Add egg/water mixture and remaining water to dry ingredients.
4. Dip chicken in seasoned flour, then batter, then back in seasoned flour.
5. Fry in hot Crisco for 12 to 15 minutes, or until well browned. (Throw in those clumps of mixture that are created by your coating - extra crispies are always yummy!) Drain on paper towels. If you are frying in batches, I recommend turning your oven to warm and placing the cooked chicken in the oven while the next batch is cooking.
6. When the chicken is done, do NOT throw away your batter - you'll need it. :-)

Fried Potatoes

• 5-6 potatoes, sliced about 1/4" thick
• oil for frying
• 1/4 of a medium-large sized onion, sliced or diced
• 2-3 garlic cloves, sliced
• salt & pepper

1. Heat oil on med to med-high heat. While oil is heating, line a colander (preferably metal) with paper towels.
2. Carefully put potatoes, onion, and garlic into pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Let cook for a minute or two, then stir and sprinkle again. If you have a lid, cover the potatoes. If not, it works but takes a little longer to cook through. Cook the potatoes stirring every 1-3 minutes until soft to touch. Place in lined colander. If the chicken is not done, the potatoes will also keep nicely in a warm oven.

Fried Onions

• 3/4 medium-large sized onion, cut into pieces (preferred size)
• leftover fried chicken batter mix

1. Rinse onion pieces. Shake off excess, but do not dry.
2. Dip in flour mix, then crispy mix, then flour mix.
3. Carefully place in deep fryer and cook for about 3 minutes.

Gravy

• 6 Tbsp oil from deep fryer
• 4 Tbsp flour mix from chicken/onions
• 3 c milk

1. Heat oil in pan on med-high until very hot (if you use it immediately after getting from fryer, this will take about 10 seconds).
2. Add flour mix and stir until well mixed and starting to brown.
3. Gradually add milk while stirring.
4. Continue stirring until gravy is completely mixed and has reached your preferred consistency.

Obviously, this meal is SOOOO not good for you...but tastes SOOOOOOOOO good! If you feel guilty, throw in some fresh green beans and corn on the cob. That's what we did! (BTW, the batter is fabulous for anything you have a mind to fry...my excess batter is usually used for experiments.)

Pancakes

Here's a recipe from my mom. She makes the best pancakes ever. Light and crisp at the edges, fluffy in the middle. Mmmmm. :)

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
heaping teaspoon baking powder
2 shakes salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon cooking oil
approx. 2/3 cup milk (soy milk may also be used)
Optional: capful of vanilla, a generous helping of cinnamon, chopped frozen or fresh fruit, ginger

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add egg, oil, and a little milk (1/3 cup or so), and any extras, and whisk together. Add milk until the batter is runny, but not too thin. (If you get it thin, you can use it that way, you'll just have thin pancakes.)

Heat about a tablespoon of cooking oil on the griddle over medium heat. When the oil is hot, pour pancakes onto griddle. (You can tell if the oil is ready by dripping a drop of batter onto the griddle -- if it instantly starts to sizzle at the edges, it's hot enough.) Make them whatever size you want. I like to make small-ish ones for the kids. When the edges start to brown and the middles are bubbly, flip the pancakes over to brown the other side. When that side is browned, remove them from the griddle, add a bit more oil to the griddle to heat, and make another pan full. You'll need to make sure you have a bit of oil on the pan, because that's what's going to give you the crispy edges. Serve with butter and warm syrup.

My new favorite pancakes are with vanilla and a bit of cinnamon. The kids like "purple pancakes," with frozen blueberries -- the juice makes the batter purple. Experiment!

Home Made Beefaroni

I have no idea what store bought beefaroni tastes like so I am not sure how well this compares.

1# ground beef

1onion

2-4 t garlic (depends on how much you like garlic)

1 can tomato soup

2-3 T yellow mustard

shredded cheddar cheese

1# macaroni cooked

I run the onion and garlic through the food processor to almost puree. Dump them in a skillet with the ground beef. Cook til beef is brown. Stir in soup and mustard. Pour over cooked pasta and top with cheese.

Pretty kid friendly, quick and yummy

Chicken fried steak with Milk Gravy

Cubed steak, also known as minute steak or chopped steak. We prefer pork to beef.

Milk

Couple eggs

flour

salt

paprika

Pepper

couple tbs of butter

couple cups of milk

Put milk in 1 pie plate, eggs (beaten) in another and flour with spices in another. Generally 1 t. of each spice per cup of flour. Heat veg oil in a large skillet. The oil ensures good contact with the skillet so don't skimp. Wet each steak in the milk, then dredge in flour, egg, and flour again. Put in skillet and cook 5 min on each side. If they are thick steaks, check for doneness. Remove to a plate covered with foil to keep warm until all are done. When all meat is cooked, melt 3 T of butter or marg. in skillet. This amount depends on how much gravy you want. I generally double it. When the butter is melted and done foaming, add an equal amount of flour and whisk together. Then slowly add milk while whisking. If going with the 3T of butter and flour, generally 2C of milk is right, but once you have made it you can just eyeball it. Heat to boiling and keep whicking until desired thickness is achieved. Serve steaks with an obscene amount of gravy. DH loved mashed potatoes with this, but I just wast twice as much meat. Very Very good with crescent rolls

French Snowflake's Crepes

mix together (using a mixer, or a blender, or a whip works fine, but not too fast, or you’ll get bubbles) :
1/2 liter of milk (2.1 US cup!)
3 eggs
240 g of flour (8.5 oz)
a little bit of salt
(3 tablespoons of oil, none if you add oil in your pan before each crêpe).

Warm your frying pan. Oil it with a piece of butter inside a tissue (this way, there is not much fat, but your crêpe isn’t glued to the pan). Pour a little quantity of dough. Turn your pan so that the dough is even on the pan. It must be rather thin (nothing like pancakes!). When the crêpes comes off (they say 2 min, I have the feeling it’s usually less), turn it to cook the other side. Use a spatula, or launch it in the air and catch it back on the right side, without folding it.

Let it slide on your plate, put sugar everywhere (not too much), roll, and eat while still warm.

Also try nutella, jam, or go more exotic (read "american"!) with vanilla ice and hot chocolate.

Awesome Baked Pork Chops

This recipe also comes from Recipezaar. I am using the exact title that it is listed there so you can check the source and give credit to the original poster.

6 pork chops

Italian bread crumbs

flour

Eggs

Veg. Oil

1 large can of Cream of mush soup

milk.

Heat a couple tbs of oil in a skillet. Dredge chops in flour, then egg, then crumbs. Brown in hot skillet on both sides. Place browned chops in a 9x13. Cover with foil and bake an hour @ 350. After an hour, mix soup with enough milk to make the consistency of gravy that you prefer. Pour it over the chops, recover with foil, and bake for another 20 min. Serve over jasmine rice.