The Winter Bee

Here's the latest “Winter” bee update:   With the outside temperature this past week around 50° and above in Banner Elk, the bees have been outside the hive taking their cleansing flights. The “winter” bee is produced at the end of the summer with its sole purpose to make sure the colony survives until spring. Naturally they will have fatter bodies to hold more food to nourish them during the winter. Also brood productions stops when the winter bees have been hatched.  A “winter” bee will live much longer (4 to 6 months) than a summer bee (45 days) and just like human-bee-ins; I know they are ready for spring.

Oven Baked Fried Chicken

I have tried several oven baked fried chicken recipes hoping to find one that tastes similar to my Father's fried chicken but none have compared to this recipe. It's very close to fried chicken and I think it tastes like KFC chicken and the best part is that it's baked and not fried.  There isn't any skin so you get to enjoy the taste of the seasoning, instead of removing the skin! 

Place boneless chicken breasts in a bowl of buttermilk or milk. Cover and let soak in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or longer. I left mine in for about six hours.
Mix in a gallon size ziploc or large bowl:

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 T Season All
• 3/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoon paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 1/2 stick of butter into a few pieces and place in a 9 x 13 pan. I used aluminum foil to cover the pan and then added the butter or you could melt the butter and then spread around the bottom of the pan. 

Shake excess milk off of chicken and completely coat each piece with the seasoning mix. You can either shake the chicken in the bag, until coated, or dip each piece in the bowl until coated. Place each piece of chicken in the pan.

Cook for 20 minutes and turn each piece of chicken and continue cooking for 20 more minutes or until cooked through.

Seed Catalogs Promise Hope

The weather outside may be cold and snowy but nothing gives a gardener more of a sense of hope and anticipation in the middle of winter like those beautiful,  glossy seed catalogs arriving in the mailbox. I have received my first seed catalog from Burpee. Looking through the catalog,  I am reminded that spring can’t be too far off. What a wonderful way to escape the winter doldrums and  plan for this season’s garden!

Last year I ordered a package of basil seeds from the seed catalog along with lavender and lupines. I grew them inside in peat pots and then later transplanted them to larger pots outside on my deck and then up to the garden at the mountain house. I had really good luck growing basil. Its highly fragrant leaves are used as a seasoning herb for a variety of foods but  but I love to make tomato basil pie.