Do-It-Yourself Day.

Sometimes, you just gotta leap before you look. You could land anywhere. A pit full of marshmallows, gummi bears, whip-cream. All great things. But then again, you could land in a pit of snakes. You just never know, unless you look before you leap. In the spirit of this post, let's just not do that. I tried things that I've never done before, nor really watched anyone do.

Today was Do-It-Yourself Day in the life of Liz McAllister. I think this should be a holiday (not celebrated in honor of me, of course). Wouldn't that be a fun little holiday to have for yourself once in awhile? Granted, I'd like to celebrate DIY Day every day, but that's just not always possible.

I'm very tired, but I'm very content. Today I made fried chicken, homemade laundry soap, and homemade instant chai tea. Only one of which I've tried out, and it tasted very good. Let's hope the rest of those endeavors were as successful. I'm going to test my soap escapade throughout the week. I've stained some clothing and will try regular soap versus my homemade soap and also some more natural stain remover versus oxi-clean.

That is an escapade to be shared later, upon completion. Tonight, it was fried chicken and boy was that hard. First, I didn't have a real fryer so we used an electric skillet. Have I mentioned that I'm afraid of boiling grease due to a very scarring incident where my sister burned the crap out of her hand with a pot of hot grease while I was a child? I still have a hard time cooking bacon without a pair of 2-foot long tongs. Oddly enough, my sister bakes her bacon now. Needless to say, neither of us came out on the good side of that experience.

Anyway, I'm new to cooking - so why not just jump in before I know how much skill it really takes to do things? I like a challenge. So, I made my way on over to allrecipes.com (my favorite recipe place thus far), and typed in chicken and father's day. Now, this probably won't work for most people, but allrecipes and I have a psychic link and it pulled up fried chicken recipes because it knew that Randy likes fried chicken. Great recipe with 11 spices, score! The more spices the better, I say! ...Sometimes.

Eh, gross.

It goes like this. Just put a cut up chicken into a bowl, and throw these spices over it. Then, cover with buttermilk. I actually have to share that sometimes I don't pay attention and therefore put a teaspoon of everything except for the two peppers. Yea, good thing I remembered to read before then. I ended up with about half a tsp. of cayenne anyway since I'd overdone the other ones and had a bit more chicken than the recipe called for.

Leave sit for 4-6 hours (they call for 6 in the recipe, I say do it if you have the time).

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3 1/2 lb. ish chicken
1 teaspoon black pepper

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary

• 1/4 teaspoon ground thyme

• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/4 teaspoon dried sage

• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Around 2 cups of buttermilk

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After the alotted period, where I chose to go for a run, make chai tea, and homemade soap, get ready to get real. You can just sit on the couch and read a book, it's probably more relaxing. No matter what you do, after the marinading is completed you must mix the following in a bowl and whisk up (I used the actual measurements this time! Go me!). Coat your chicken. You want to be sure to get it WELL covered because this will be the fried tasty nummy part. 

• 2 cups flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon paprika

• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

• 2 1/2 quarts peanut oil for frying

It's getting hot in here!

Throw 'em in the pan for frying. It says about 10-15 minutes to cook thoroughly, and it's much closer to 15 or 20 with an electric frying pan. However, your skin might get dark a little quicker than you like. I suggest turning them every 7 minutes or so to cook evenly and let the skin do a little cool and cook. I don't know if that's actually smart, but I'm guilty of messing too much with my food when I cook it. I say, don't be afraid to turn them often.

They'll look much darker than KFC chicken, but they were really good and the cayenne gives it a very nice flavor. The soak in the buttermilk spice mix was also good because it put flavor throughout the chicken too.

This is what was left!

I bet you all are wondering how I could eat such a calorie-laden meal. Or maybe not. But really, I enjoy knowing exactly what goes into my food and putting all of that work in to get it where it is. The fact that it's edible is a plus and the fact that other people liked it = awesome! The Real Recipe. But, pssshhhh, who needs that? ;)

This is another thing that makes me happy. Food.

Which reminds me, I still must try the chai before I bestow it's wonder upon you.