Dry Brined Fried Chicken Wings On pushing through

Because of my work with young writers for nearly 20 years, I know how hard it can be for some students to write.  Sometimes the thought of writing overwhelms, intimidates, or causes such stress that students act out in ways that are less than attractive.  However, Im ready for such behaviors and attitudes and more often than not, I expect them.

Today I walked into another hour of volunteering with a group of 3rd graders.  The teacher is a wonderful writing instructor and appreciates that I can help students focus on their writing and she pretty much allows me to wander and help as I see fit.  Today I walked around for a bit offering some advice, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a student whose head was buried under his hands on his desk and clearly was off task.  I walked over and sat down next to him.  He moved away.  I waited patiently for him to lift his head, and when he finally did (about 3 minutes later) he said, "Go away."

     "But Im here to help you.  Let me see what you have so far," I said gently.
     "Go away.  I dont like this."
     "Come on.  At least show me what youve got," I cajoled.  I waited a bit longer and he finally sat up and glared at me.
     "Sit up straight and show me what you have," I told him.
     "Im tooooo tired!" and he proceeded to yawn like a lion ready to settle down for a long nap.

I waited some more.  After a long few minutes of struggle and cajoling and working with him, we had a basic plan for his writing.  I asked him to start.  He once again put his head under his desk.  I asked him to start again.  His body slumped more and I kept on waiting.

     "Why wont you go away?" he asked, voice muffled, from his face down position.
     "Because Im here to help you and I want to see you get your thoughts on paper," I reminded him.
     "But I dont WANT your help," he said.
     "I know.  But Im here anyways."
     "Can you PLEASE just go away?" he begged.
      "Not until youre sitting straight at your desk and you try to do what weve planned out."
      Across the desk, his classmate kept muttering under her breath, "You should give up.  Hes not going to do it. Youre making him do something he cant do.  Youre being mean to him.  Hes always like this."

Some stubborn teacher gene in me kept at the activity, despite the peanut gallery commentary across the desk.  I spent more than 20 minutes with him, and finally at the end of the 20 minutes, he began to write.  He even wrote on the three things that we had agreed upon.  He even asked me how to spell "ferris" (as in wheel) which he had misspelled "ferres."  He even managed to put in his periods and capitalize the beginning of every sentence.

Was it the worlds most deep and profound piece of writing?  Or course not.  Not in 20 minutes from a 3rd grader.  But I felt good afterwards because he finally pushed through to the end, albeit with the most protracted protests ever.  I learned a lot from my 20 minutes with him that sometimes you just have to push through.  He had to push through, if only to get rid of my annoying presence.  I had to push through to just finish something that I had started.  And sometimes, just pushing through means you get to the other side and you can look back upon what youve accomplished.

When I think about cooking chicken wings, I often find myself daunted.  There is the oil, the flour, all the dredging, the mess, the smells, the overwhelming extra of all that STUFF.  This means I dont fry often and if I do choose to fry, I like to fry for many people if Im going through the motions anyways.  I had these dry brined chicken wings in my head, ever since I saw a recipe in my BonApetit magazine that talked about dry brining fried chicken.  I finally decided to push through and go ahead and make the recipe that was sitting in my head in hopes of something great.  I was not disappointed.  The chicken was juicy, flavorful with the lightest flour coating to make things a little bit crispy.  If youre looking for a wing with a thick, super crunchy coating, this is not the wing for you.  But if you like the light, crispy, golden taste of fried chicken - well then - push on through and make these.

Dry-Brined Fried Chicken Wings
Ingredients
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3 to 4 lbs chicken wings, wing tips removed, drummettes and wings separated

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

Method 
Whisk 1 Tbsp. salt, 2 tsp. black pepper, paprika, cayenne, and garlic powder in a small bowl. Sprinkle all over chicken wings and mix well, making sure all chicken receives some of the spicy mixture.  Place chicken in a medium bowl, cover, and chill overnight.

When ready to fry, let chicken stand covered at room temperature for 1 hour before frying.. Whisk flour, salt, pepper in a bowl.

Heat oil in a large heavy pan (or cast iron skillet if youre lucky to have one.)   Heat over medium-high heat until thermometer registers 350°. Meanwhile, set a wire rack inside a large rimmed baking sheet to allow chicken wings to drain after frying.

Dip chicken, one at a time into flour mixture, lightly coating the entire wing in flour.  Carefully add 10 to 12 wings into the hot oil and cook for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Using tongs, remove chicken from skillet/pot, allowing excess oil to drip back into pan; transfer chicken to prepared rack.

Repeat with remaining chicken pieces; let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Printable recipe

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Japanese Curried Fried Rice The Bookfair COMETH!!!

The other day,  Daughter #1 came home and said, "Hey mom.  The school librarian asked me if I was ready for you to be cranky because of the book fair."

I asked, "How did you respond?"

#1 replied, "I told her you were always cranky anyways, and that the book fair didnt make much difference."

And there you have it. The ever wise and ever candid daughter described her mother succinctly. Cranky.

Truth be told, the bookfair really does make me crazy and cranky. The combination of those two things cant be easy on the family, but they have to put up with me and my insanity for a week.  During those times Im looking for meals that I have stored up in the fridge as well as quick to make dishes.  This my friends, is that quick to make dish.  As my family are curry fiends, this dish comes together way faster than curry rice, satisfying them quickly and with minimal effort from me. It goes great with kimchi and the first three times I made it, my kids went nuts, begging for more and for more.

Curry.  No stress.  No sweat.  No problem.

Japanese Curried Fried Rice
Serves 6

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter (or some sort of butter substitute, like Earth Balance)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
½ onion, peeled and chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
¼ cup sake
4 tablespoons curry powder
6 cups cooked rice
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

Method
Heat butter and olive oil in a wok over high heat.  When butter has melted, add chicken, a dash of salt and pepper, and cook until chicken is opaque.

Add onion, celery, carrot, garlic, another pinch of salt and pepper, and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes, until vegetables are softer.

Add sake, and cook stirring constantly for 2 minutes.  Add curry powder, and keep stirring because curry can burn.

Add a bit of oil if desired.  Add rice, and work quickly, incorporating vegetables and chicken throughout rice.  Sprinkle soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper and cook for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Printable recipe

So yummy, sometimes you need to put a guard in front of it.

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Indian Spiced Fried Rice Kindergarten ups and downs

For JD - your effort is beyond measure and perfection isnt necessary.

Son started his kindergarten a few weeks back, and its been a whirl of fun and excitement for him on his own.  Hes socially blossoming, making new friends, and learning new routines, and in his class just thriving in ways I never imagined.  Hes writing stories (with tons of crazy spelling, but a great plot) and for the most part, his kindergarten experience is the stuff of his dreams.  He cant wait to go back the next day, and every day he comes home from school with something wonderful that happened.  A lot of it has to do around "recess" when hes playing with his friends, but often he mentions curriculum and content that excites him.  The author Mo Willems.  The sounds that the letter A makes.  Writing a story all on his own.  Figuring out how to properly write the number 4, using a rhyme learned in class.  (Incidentally, if you dont know Mo Willems yet, youre missing out.  Sons obsession with Mo is definitely preferable to the one he has for Ninjago.)

I have a slightly different role to play in kindergarten as I am a classroom volunteer.  I spend most of my time in class trying to figure out how to help those students who are struggling.  Im in there as an educator, a re-mediator, an extra set of hands, and an additional set of eyes on the kids who share the same space as Son.  I love teaching, I love students so its a natural fit for me, but its also a huge weight on my shoulders, because there are so many needs in the classroom.

Today, after feeling pretty daunted with a series of students that have caused me some alarm, I really did, just want to give up.  After all, Im not paid.  The job is too big and pretty hard to imagine success on the other side.  But I found some words of strength from the unconventional but brilliant Elon Musk.  On perseverance he says, "If something is important enough, even if the odds are still against you, you should still do it."

And it reminded me - learning is that important.  Getting kids to read is just that important.  Helping a child figure out how to spell their name, learn how to add, figure out how to behave, manage to stay still are all important tasks, often times with the odds against me.  And I was cheered.  I only have to try my best.  I trust that God will do the rest.

I made this Indian spiced rice for myself, since making Indian food these days seems near impossible as I dont have the time and energy to invest into it.  I was surprised how my desperate need for Indian collaborated so wonderfully into this dish.  It comes together super quickly because thats the nature of fried rice, but has enough richness of flavor and complexity of textures to make it a lot more interesting than just regular fried rice.  Its the reminder that when you want something enough, you can come up with some pretty interesting ways to get it.  Im going to apply that to the teaching I do tomorrow - to push myself to work harder, to think out of the box, to reach more students, and try greater things for the achievement of that thing that is against the odds.

Indian Spiced Fried Rice
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients 
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons garam masala or you can use curry powder
½ cup onions, chopped fine
1 cup carrots, chopped fine
1 cup cooked chicken or leftover protein of your choice
4 to 5 cups cooked basmati, jasmine, or other long grain “fluffy” rice style (do not use short grain rice or sushi rice)
½ cup chopped scallions
1 cup chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Heat, over medium high heat, a heavy fry pan large enough to accommodate all the rice, and add two tablespoons of oil.  All at once add garam masala, onions, and carrots.  Cook until the vegetables are tender and the onions are translucent, about 4 minutes.  Season with salt.  Add chicken and toss until chicken is also coated with garam masala and oil.  Once chicken is fully coated, add a bit more oil if necessary, and add cooked rice all at once, tossing to incorporate the flavors all together.   Once rice is fully coated and vegetables and chicken are evenly distributed, add chopped scallions and chopped cilantro.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve hot!

Printable recipe

Quick satisfaction.  If only life were as easy.

And in case you arent familiar with Mo Willems, this title is pretty funny.  Throws the idea of the fox eating all the animals for a loop.

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