Before going to the grocery store, however, I googled the recipe to see if other bloggers had made it. I found one of my favorite bloggers, Alexandra's Kitchen, had made it HERE, but she changed it up. After reading her recipe, I decided to follow her tweaks because she suggested using buttermilk! I absolutely adore using buttermilk in both cooking and baking, it makes everything so moist and tender. She also made homemade bread crumbs, and since I had some regular bread crumbs in the fridge I decided not to go out and buy panko like the original recipe called for.
I started making the bread crumbs, toasting them in olive oil and then putting them in the blender with fresh thyme, red pepper flakes, and a few cloves of garlic. I immediately realized I had to do my non-existent readers and call out the WORST BLENDER EVER.
Seriously do not ever buy this blender. If you can't read it, it says Hamilton Beach. I bought it to make individual smoothies rather than use (and clean) my huge Cuisinart blender. However it is literally worthless. I might as well have thrown my money down the toilet. It won't chop frozen berries or even spinach. It took me probably 15 minutes just to chop the garlic cloves. I can't understand how such a product is even on the market.
But the bread crumbs (eventually) turned out amazing. Spicy and crunchy and garlicky, so good.
I also made the white bean and arugula salad from Foolproof. I ended up not taking any pics because it wasn't photogenic. The white beans were from a can and so were kind of mushy. I also don't think I would use prosciutto again, not sure it was worth it in terms of flavor. I think in order to make it more rustic, I would maybe do chopped country ham? The recipe is HERE but you notice, no pictures. It's not the prettiest thing ever but I enjoyed it and ate it for several days.
I had planned to make this meal and take it over to my boyfriend's house, but got a late start, got emotionally exhausted by the breadcrumbs, and by the time it was almost done called to tell him I wasn't coming. I felt really bad since it was almost nine o'clock and he had been waiting, but also felt like if he really wanted chicken he could come get it. He declined but promised to come over the next night for leftovers.
Then, I actually took a bite of the chicken, and immediately called him back to say never mind, I was bringing him chicken. It was so flavorful and crisp outside but moist inside, I could barely handle it. I needed a witness. He said he had already made a sandwich. Letdown.
It was good the next day but not as good! The crust got soggy. The texture did not improve but the flavor remained delicious.
The grocery store only had a huge thing of buttermilk. Sometimes they have a little half carton, but not this time. I always feel under compulsion to use all my buttermilk. My go-to is THIS recipe, also by Alexandra's Kitchen. I adore it. I've made it probably five times, and I don't often remake recipes. It calls for basic ingredients you generally already have on hand - I only had to go pick up blueberries. I usually add two lemons worth of zest, and have found that it needs a bit more buttermilk than is called for in the recipe in order to bind the dough.
But even after that, I had extra buttermilk. Since St Paddy's Day is around the corner, I made THIS bacon cheddar Irish soda bread by Homesick Texan. This also was extremely easy, and I already had bacon, which I don't always. I splurged on really nice raw milk cheddar! This also was very easy, overbaked it a little because my smoke alarm started going off and wouldn't stop for twenty minutes. :( But, I have managed to gobble it down regardless!
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