Frying Chicken for two and what is going on here today...

My daughter bought me one of these nice little 2-quart Lodge Logic cast iron Dutch Ovens.  I also have a very large Lodge deep skillet that I use for frying chicken. Today though, just for the two of us, I wanted to fry just two chicken drumsticks.  If I use a regular skillet, then lard will get all over the stove because a regular skillet is too shallow.  But it occurred to me to use the 2-quart Dutch Oven, and that worked very well!  I always use kettle-rendered lard to fry our chicken.

About 3 years ago, I started a simple quilt and then life intervened and I didn't get to finish it.  Finally, I've been working on it again.  I am doing hand quilting, sitting here at our kitchen island.  Hopefully, I will complete it before too long.

We had a break in the weather and I actually found a few oyster mushrooms outside today!

Mystery soup.... ;)

Husband: "What are you making?"

Me: "I don't know."

Husband: "Sounds scary."

I agreed, but was on a mission to cook something nice with what I had that needed using up, like some leftover meatloaf.  I cut it into cubes.

On the left, you can see the meatloaf.  I scrubbed and cubed a nice potato.

...put some good extra-virgin olive oil in my cast iron Dutch oven and sauteed some cut-up red cabbage and a diced onion until the onion was starting to brown, stirring the whole time.

I had about 3 cups of leftover chicken bone broth/stock and poured that into the pan.

Last night I put 1/2 cup of lentils to soak in plenty of cold water.  Here they are, drained and rinsed.  These go into the pot next along with a minced clove of garlic and the potato chunks.

There it is all is together, and I will bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer it, covered, for 30 minutes:

While it was simmering, I cooked 1 cup of "bow-tie" pasta in water and drained it.  Why bow-tie?  Because it's pretty, of course!  :)

After the pasta was cooked and drained, I added it and the cubes of meatloaf to the soup, as well as 1 teaspoon sea salt and a few cranks of black pepper.

Here it is!  It is now in the fridge.  I will reheat if for dinner and serve it with some good homemade bread and butter.  

It tastes wonderful!  Hmmmm...  I just need a good name for it.  Any suggestions?

Two More Potholders... just had to show you. :)

A little gift for a special friend....

Our New Year's Day Dinner

The Garden Fairy and I decided to try to make a southern style meal for our New Year's Day feast.  It worked out well and was delicious.  I made this pot of black eyed peas in my 6-quart pressure cooker!

Black Eyed Peas

1 pound dried black eyed peas, sorted, rinsed and soaked in lots of cold water at least overnight, and drained.
1/2 pound bacon - fried and crumbled
1/2 pound ham - diced
1 medium onion, chopped, and sauteed in the bacon grease and butter until it is a little brown.
1/4 cup butter
6 cups chicken stock

Prepare all of these ingredients and combine them in a 6-quart pressure cooker.  Put on the lid and petcock and bring up to pressure over medium heat.  Reduce heat so the petcock is rocking gently and allow to cook for 40 minutes.  Remove from heat and let the pressure release naturally.

Here are the soaked and drained peas:

The onion cooking in the butter and bacon grease:

Diced ham:

Everything together in the pressure cooker:

Finished soup!

Along with this we had corn bread, collard greens sauteed with bacon, and a wonderful pork butt roast that I cooked in my big Crockpot.

Oh, it was all so good.  I am very grateful for all of the good food and the blessings of family.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!