Although I have never walked Park Avenue, tonight I will be the guest of a Park Avenue hostess. We will be dining virtually with fellow foodies across the globe. I know. It sounds so Jetsons, but I am really excited to join the party. When I “overheard” The Naptime Chef’s conversation on Twitter, I had to know more. So, I invited myself to my first virtual dinner party. Not very classy, is it? But Kelsey was gracious enough to send me an invitation after my curiosity got the best of me. Kelsey is hosting the virtual dinner party to celebrate the publication of Park Avenue Potluck CELEBRATIONS (Rizzoli).

I was nervous about the recipe selection. Because I hail from the Deep South, I was concerned I might not be able to locate ingredients for my dish. Imagine my surprise when Kelsey e-mailed a recipe for fried chicken?! Really? Done. This recipe takes me to picnics in the country under expansive live oak trees sipping on ice-cold iced tea. While this chicken would be wonderful straight from the skillet, this Louisiana girl will take hers cold alongside homemade fried sweet potato chips and coleslaw for a Southern picnic feast.

Bobby’s Crisp Chicken Cutlets

Makes 8 servings
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts,
pounded to ½ inch thick
¾ cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour, or a mixture
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
2 cups bread crumbs made from 10 ounces country bread,
crusts removed
2 teaspoons minced dill or other herb
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter
Lemon wedges

Cut the chicken into strips about 1 inch by 2 inches. Season the flour with salt and pepper to taste and spread over a dinner plate. Beat the eggs with 2 tablespoons water in a shallow bowl. Place the bread crumbs on another plate and mix with the dill.

Dust the chicken strips with flour, dip in the egg, then coat with the bread crumbs. Arrange them on a platter, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.
Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the butter is melted. Fry the chicken strips, turning each once, until lightly browned. Transfer to a serving platter and serve, either warm or at room temperature, with lemon wedges.

Football season marks the beginning of a whole new type of cuisine in our house. Long gone are the care-free summer days when supper might be freshly picked blueberries from Pop’s Blueberry Patch spun into a nutritious smoothie that the kids think is a milkshake. When supper might be an afterthought squeezed into the brackets of time between riding bicycles around the block drinking in the soundtrack of chirping crickets then piling into bed to watch a new animated movie without regard to school night bedtimes. Fall becomes the routine of after school homework, bath time and bedtime. Fall also strikes chords in the hearts of comfort food-seeking parents that have lain fallow since the tiniest green buds on trees began to appear.

This Louisiana girl thinks of Red Beans and Rice for a quick and easy football season meal that warms the soul as much as the tummy. Nothing says LSU tailgating like Red Beans and Rice, either. Some of the best by Billy LeBlanc. I met Mr. Billy while on a work-study scholarship at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Mrs. Marlene, Mr. Billy’s wife, was my supervisor at The Graduate School. Mrs. Marlene took her student workers under her wing like a mother hen. For a north Louisiana student, a Yankee of sorts, Mrs. Marlene became my second mom. I enjoyed visiting with her son, Greg, when he stopped by to visit between classes. I had the pleasure of hearing stories about Mr. Billy and frequently spotted him around campus, as he was a university employee as well. When Donnie came to Baton Rouge for a football game, Mrs. Marlene invited us to their tailgating shindig. I had never been to a more lively tailgating function before! And the food…yum. The biggest pot of Red Beans and Rice I had ever seen!

This is not Mr. Billy’s recipe. In fact Mom clipped this recipe from Southern Living and made a few brilliant substitutions for an easy version of a classic Louisiana tradition.

1 lb. dried red beans

5 c water

1 onion, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1 1/2 T ground cumin

1 T chili powder

1/2 t Tabasco sauce

1 1/2 t salt

1 t pepper

1 (1 lb.) link andouille sausage

Wash and sort beans. Cover with water and soak overnight. Drain and place beans in Dutch oven. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour or until beans are tender. Serve over rice.

I can never get enough of that pop followed by the tiny sizzle when biting into a crispy egg roll. But why must the filling consist of ground pork and shredded carrots and cabbage? I adore pigs…baby back ribs, shredded pork sandwiches, pork chops, pork rinds. I love cabbage. I even like shredded cabbage–steam-sauteed with a little red wine vinegar for a quick veggie side to accompany weeknight meals. Unwrap and separate traditional egg rolls for me, please. I’ll take this new spin any day.

I saw a “recipe”, if you can even classify it as a recipe, for fried mozzarella sticks. The author wrapped string cheese in an egg roll wrapper blanket and gave them a dip in hot oil. Why would one spend that much time on a recipe that includes rubbery string cheese? My version sports the pungent bite of garlic woven into a creamy cloud of cream cheese and tangy goat cheese. For color and subtle heat, minced scallions. If you’re using the avocado creme to dip, tuck chopped cilantro into the rolls for continuity. A perfectly decadent little pick-up for any get-together.

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, room temperature

1 (3 oz.) package goat cheese, room temperature

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 c scallions, minced

1/4 c cilantro, minced

1 package egg roll wrappers

vegetable oil for frying

Mix together cream cheese, goat cheese, garlic, scallions and cilantro. Spoon 1 T onto one corner of each egg roll wrapper. Moisten edges of wrapper with water. Roll, tucking in ends, to form a cigar. Moisten last edge with water and press against cigar to seal. Fry until golden brown and crispy. Serve with avocado creme for dipping.

Avocado Creme

2 ripe avocadoes, peeled pitted and roughly chopped

2 limes

1 c sour cream

1/4 c chopped cilantro

2 T water

1/2 t salt

Toss avocadoes with juice of two limes. Combine avocadoes, sour cream and cilantro in a blender or mini food processor. Pulse until pureed, adding 1 t water at a time until desired consistency is reached. Season with salt.

It wouldn’t matter if Mom and I used the same recipe, same cooking utensils and same baking dishes…hers will always taste better. Is it a secret potion moms know how to sneak in whatever it is they are serving up? I hope at some point that transformation occurs for me. You know how boys love their mothers’ home-cooked meals!

My mom cooked breakfast and supper every day for our family. Even when we were all busy with work, piano lessons, dance class, church, cheerleading, softball and basketball, she made sure we ate those two meals together as a family sitting at our round wooden table. We lived in an old Victorian with creaky floors and drafty windows and doors. The central heat never seemed to keep up in the winter. Dad would build a fire in the evenings, but we relied on trusty space heaters in the mornings. Katie and I would argue over who sat in the ladder-back chair closest to the kitchen heater in the winter. Mom and Dad eventually solved that dilemma by rotating our seats each winter. Sibling rivalry was ferocious in our household. Yes, even with seating assignments at the dinner table.

I don’t remember when Mom first began the tradition of cheese biscuits on Saturdays. My sister was a cheese-aholic. She primarily dined on a diet of cheddar cheese, baked potatoes, chicken cutlets sauteed in soy sauce and hamburger patties for several years during childhood. She has since branched out, but Mom might have added cheese to her biscuits to coax Katie into trying anything new.

When all the cousins would travel to the beach for our annual vacation, Mom and Aunt Zanne would take turns cooking breakfast with Aunt Gee for all the kids. Mom never forgot her box of Pioneer biscuit mix for her morning. The biscuits have garnered a following over the years. Donnie looks forward to weekend get-togethers at Mom and Dad’s for Mom’s breakfast as much as the fellowship. Even my picky little eater, Jack, loves Dodie’s cheese biscuits.

Light and fluffy inside with a little crunch on the outside…best enjoyed right from the oven. The shredded cheddar makes little pockets of oozing cheese inside the biscuits. Donnie and Jack eat theirs with fruit preserves, but I like mine plain.

Dodie’s Cheese Biscuits

3 cups Pioneer Biscuit Mix

1 cup milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

vegetable oil

Stir together biscuit mix and milk until combined. Gently mix in cheese. Sprinkle counter with 1/4 cup baking mix. Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead a few times. Roll 1/2-inch thick. Cut biscuits with a 2-inch cutter. Pour 2 T vegetable oil in 9 x 13 baking dish. Place biscuits in dish, turning each biscuit over once coating both sides with vegetable oil in baking dish. (This is her secret for perfectly crisp outside and fluffy inside!) Bake at 450 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.