Who Said You Can't Make Air Fried Corn Muffins?!

Hello Darlings,

It is December 18, 2018 and this is a recipe update. As I stated when I posted this recipe I planned to eliminate the yoke of the egg because of it high cholesterol content. Well, I did. I made a 6 inch cake pan of corn bread, and the results were great. I added the two fresh egg whites, increased the sugar from 1/2 teaspoon to 3/4 teaspoon, and instead of spraying the pan I used, some Crisco shortening, which helped prevent sticking more than just spraying with cooking spray.

As great as I experience with air frying has been to date, I can truthfully say that  air frying is not 100% oil-free. However, there is a measurable decease in the amount of oil you do use, and for those foods that have high amounts oil in them already, unless you are breading them, such as with chicken, steak and other high fat meats, you do not need to apply oil at all. Therefore, I highly recommend air frying, and I am loving converting our favorites to air frying and finding recipes for some of the more common foods eaten regularly. 

I hope you enjoy this update.

Until next time,

Merry Christmas,

Darlings 

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Hello Darlings,

Today we are having my concoction of navy and black bean soup with white rice. However, today's recipe is about corn muffins. In my first post about air frying I mentioned that I would be converting as many of my regular and deep fried recipes into air fried. In addition, we are having muffins made with sweet rice milk instead of cow's milk.  This recipe also goes with my renal diet plan.  Well, I don’t really have a concrete plan, I just omit or limit the amounts of foods and meats that I know would in high quantities negatively  contributes to my high blood pressure and kidney function.  I am basely an on the fly cooker who uses some thought into what I am eating.

The recipe is for 6 muffins and in my Big Boss Air Fryer I have no problem baking these muffins.

Air Fried Corn Muffins

Makes 6 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 1 cup Martha White® Self-Rising Enriched White Corn Meal Mix
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 3/4 cup sweet rice milk
• 1 tablespoon Crisco® Pure Vegetable Oil

Instructions

1. Greased muffin pan well enough so that the muffins will not stick in it. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl whisk oil, rice milk and egg together until well blended
3. In a medium size bowl mix the corn meal mix with the sugar.
4. Then mixture all of the ingredients together in the medium bowl.
5. Then pour the muffin batter into the well greased muffin pan.
6. Air fry at 320 degrees for 12 minutes.

There you have it. If you are like me and have to be actively aware of what and how much you eat, try this recipe with some unsalted butter or margarine and your next pot of beans, greens and spring green beans. Your family will not believe that these muffins were air fried.

The next time that I make these muffins I will try baking them with 2 egg white instead of the one whole egg.  If doing this turns out well, then that will reduce the cholesterol contained in the muffins.

Why hesitate? Download the recipe.

 Until next time,

     Chow, Darlings!


Special Tip for Today!

When cooking very hard dry beans, instead of soaking for 8 hours or overnight, try this.  After cleaning the beans, microwave them in a medium size plastic mixing bowl for 30 to 40 minutes covered with a vented lid until the beans are partially soften. Then add the beans and four cups of the hot water from the microwave bowl to the pot with your other ingredients and cook as usual. 

This method also working with cooking fresh carrots for pot roast and stews. However for stews and soups, microwave the carrots for 25 minutes on high, then add the water from the bowl the carrots were cooked in to the pot. 

With squash microwave for 5 minutes, and then cut lengthwise to remove seeds and/or skin for further cooking. . 

  Chow, Darlings!

Adventures in Air Frying - Whole Fish

Hello Darlings,

Yes it's me again. Today I came up with a new recipe for whole fish. As you will remember I purchased an air fryer last month, and let me tell you. I am amorous with this machine. There are many brands on the market, but I chose the  Big Boss Oil-less Air Fryer, 16 Quart, 1300 watt simply because I like to watch my food as it cooks.  And so far, I have not been disappointed.

This Big Boss Air Fryer has really changed the way I prepare our meals, especially meats.  As we like the taste of the foods I cook, I opted to convert as many  of the recipes for meat, fish, and chicken as possible.  This being said  the recipe below is one I converted from  my deep fryer to my air fryer.

Air Fried Ocean Whiting

What you need:

• 2 whole ocean whiting fish, minus heads and tails
• A one  gallon size plastic bag
• Your favorite fish batter, homemade or store bought
• Cooking oil to spray
• 4 pieces of string or yarn
• Air fryer mesh basket
• Air fryer lower rack
• Large oven mitt
• Turning tongs

 Big Boss Oil-less Air Fryer, 16 Quart, 1300 watt at Amazon.com

What you need to do:

1. Place mesh basket and lower rack inside of the air fryer bowl, then stray each with cooking spray.
2. Remove mesh basket and lower rack and set aside
3. Preheat air fryer bowl at 400 degrees
4. While air fryer is heating, rinse fish and pat dry.
5. Then in the plastic bag add your favorite batter.
6. Add one fish at a time to bag and cover thoroughly
7. Place the battered fish in the mesh basket,  and then place the lower rack on top. Use the four strings to tie four bows to join basket and the lower rack together. This keeps the fish in place and prevents them from breaking when turning during the cooking cycle.
8. Now, place the bound fish in the preheated air fryer bowl and spray the top of the fish with cooking oil.
9. Place the lid on the air fryer and set time to 9 minutes.
10. After the 9 minutes is up use the tongs and the oven mitt to prevent burning yourself,  then turn over the basket with the lower rack in place. Spray this side of the fish with cooking oil as well. Replace the air fryer lid and cook for 9 minutes.
11. When the timer stops set the cooking time for an additional 5 minutes, then repeat on the other side.

When the fish is done untie or cut off  the strings  from the basket and the rack to get the your prize of golden brown and crispy yet moist inside ocean whiting.  If you love fried fish and have a Big Boss air fryer give this recipe a try. It can be adjusted to many types of whole or thick fish fillet.

Download the recipe.

Until next time,

           Chow Darlings

Making a healthy choice: from deep fried to air fried

Hello Darlings,

Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with renal disease. Fortunately, in my case, it is in the early stages, and can be managed with proper diet and exercise for weight lost.

As I was reading through the pamphlets about renal disease, treatments and recipe books, the thought cross my mind that since I am already on a low sodium diet and many of the recipes that I use for controlling it are similar to those use for  renal management. Why not eliminate the use of deep fried food, and try air frying instead.

In my  previous low sodium diet I could only eat 4 ounces of red meat, fish, and chicken. With my renal diet recipes I am limited to three ounces of the same, and the recipes all called for low sodium intake.

Therefore after purchasing my very first air fryer, I started testing it to see which of my favorite foods I can cook in it as appose to cooking in the deep fryer.  One of my first choices of foods was to air fry a batch of chicken wings and below is the results.  Using my favorite wing recipe I lightly strayed them with cooking oil but eliminated the flour and added some honey. What I got was a batch of delicious sweet and spicy wings that rival my breaded ones.

However, what I found surprising was what was  left behind in the bottom of the air fryer. As you can see from the photo below.  That is a 1/4 cup of chicken fat and blood from only eight chicken wing sections. I was horrified at this discovery. This discovery also made it clear that air frying is superior over deep frying.

The next time I air fry a batch of wings I will add the breading and lightly stray them to help brown the wings.

Until next time,

Chow Darlings

Apple Butter Pork Loin With Pumpkin Pie Spices

Hello Darlings,

I know this has happened to you. You got this fabulous piece of meat (from the food market) and after getting it home you discover that you don't have all the ingredients to cook it. So, what do you do? Run back to the store and get the missing ingredients? Or, if you are done hunting and forging in the greater outdoors for the day, you just improvise.  The latter is the choice I made for roasting my pork loin.

I was out of yams, and we love pork loin with yams or sweet potatoes. However, all I had today were two medium size apples.  At first I turned to the web for a pork loin recipe that did not call for yams. I found a few, but I wanted the sweet taste that the yams, brown sugar and apples gave the roasted pork loin.

After looking at these wonderful recipes, I decided to wing it. Below is my pork loin alternative recipe for when the yams are missing.

Apple Butter Pork Loin With Pumpkin Pie Spices

Ingredients

One 4 lbs boneless pork loin roast
Salt
Butcher Ground Black Pepper
1/2 Cup Apple Butter
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 - 3 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Pumpkin Pie Seasoning
2 medium apples,  sliced
Sunny D Original Fruit Juice


Directions

Preheat the roaster oven to 350 degrees F.

1.    Clean and slice the apples, then in a bowl mix them with a little olive oil
2.    Sprinkle apples with pumpkin pie seasoning, set bowl aside
3.    In another bowl spread olive oil all over the pork loin
4.    Next, season it with salt, butcher ground black pepper, pumpkin pie seasoning, and brown sugar.   Don’t be afraid to be a little heavy handed with the pumpkin pie seasoning.
5.    Spread apple butter over pork, and mix well with the other seasonings.
6.    Top with some more pumpkin pie seasoning, and black pepper
7.     Place pork on rack and surround with the prepared apples slices
8.    Also add the liquid from the pork and apple bowls.
9.    Bake for 1 hour in the preheated roaster oven. Check for desired doneness.
10.    Add a couple of small splashes of Sunny D to pork dripping and bask pork loin, once.
11.    Roast another 30 minutes or until pork loin is tender.
12.    Remove pork and apples from roaster oven
13.    Place them in a casserole dish; pour juice from roasting pan over them and cover.

Talk about a fabulous tasting piece of meat. This pork loin recipe did the job.  The apples were caramelized; the pork tender and juicy. The pumpkin pie seasoning with the brown sugar and juice made this recipe a favorable keeper.

I hope you enjoy it!

Chow, Darlings!


Download recipe here.

Granny's Fade

Hello Darlings,

For the past seven months I have been sporting the popular (mostly male) haircut called the fade. I really like this haircut because normally my hair when fully grown comes down to my shoulders and is very thick and heavy. Therefore, in this very hot Florida weather, my head sweats, and keeping a regular hairdo is difficult and costly.

The first time I saw the fade I knew I could wear it.  Normally a cut for men, I didn't think twice about getting it. At first, there was a little problem convincing my stylists that the fade was the haircut that I really wanted. Their main concern was that I would not like the sides cut down to hairlessness. However, once I showed the pictures of the style of fade that I wanted (there are many levels and styles), they were at ease in doing it for me.  Below are pictures of my most recent haircut.

I love it because it beats the heat and still looks stylish. Move over guys, Granny is here!

Chow, Darlings

Distressing The Cross

Hello Darlings,

I hope this early warm and breezes Saturday morning finds you either all shopped out from last night, or ready to grab up today's specials.

As for me I am relaxing today, but I wanted to share with you my completed makeover of the box crosses I found early this week while browsing one of our local thrift shops. Since they appear to have been molded with some type of acrylic and painted to look like wood carvings, I decided against re-staining and went with distressing instead.

BEFORE

To distress the box crosses I used the same color scheme of the lamps I repaired earlier this year, which is black and copper. I began by covering a portion of the inner frame, the leaves and the crosses with painter's tape.  Once that was done, I sprayed everything with a black satin paint and let them dry for a day.

After the black paint was dried, I removed the painter's tape, and hand painted the leaves, the inner frame, and the crosses with the metallic copper paint. Once the copper paint had dried about eight hours, I added a thin layer of the black paint, and let them set a half an hour. I then gently wiped away some of the black paint with paper towels to expose the copper paint beneath giving the frames their distressed look. 

AFTER

Again, I let the paint dry for a day, then brushed on some fast drying clear satin polyurethane to finish and set them aside for 18 hours.  Below is the finish project all nicely hung.

Although the satin finish looks more glossier than I intended, still I like the result. 

Until next time,

Chow, Darlings