A-Z Food Challenge: U is for the USA

I read a food blog on the Guardian a week or two ago that looked at making the best Southern Fried Chicken and I thought it did sound pretty tempting. It's not a dish I would make that often but I was curious how good home-cooked Southern Fried Chicken could be.

I already knew that I wanted to do the USA for 'U' as I wanted to recreate some of my childhood foodie memories, having grown up in Oklahoma, smack bang in the Bible Belt, until I was about 8.

Funnily, my Mum has always been a cook but I don't particularly remember eating all that well when we were little, with lots of meat and 2 veg type dishes, with the veg (corn, green beans, etc) often coming straight out of a can. (I'm sure it wasn't that inspiring coming home from a long day at work and having to feed two fussy lil' eaters!) However, when it came to Thanksgiving and Christmas, there was always a bit more of a spread, including some of the very iconic Southern sweet salad dishes, such as Carrot Jello Salad, Baked Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows, and Grape Salad with Cream Cheese (and sometimes with Crumbled Butterfinger candy bars on top!)

My fave dishes, however, were Fried Okra and Pumpkin Pie. Oh, how I love a good pumpkin pie - it could be the only dessert I ever eat again and I would die a happy woman.

So that's what I planned to make tonight along with the Southern Fried Chicken. Unfortunately, however, there wasn't any Okra at the store both times I shopped over the last week. I almost decided to make the Carrot Jello Salad instead but I knew I wouldn't really want to eat that much of it (and you really need a funky old retro Jello mould to do it justice!) That's when I remembered that the iconic Waldorf Salad was also a regular feature for our festive spreads and that was that.

The chicken turned out great, so if you fancy some fatty food, it's definitely a winner. And if you're a pumpkin pie fan, this is a great recipe with a little twist, using sour cream and egg whites to give the pie a slightly lighter custard filling. Yum. I have one fat, happy belly tonight.

Tomorrow is 'V' and we're having Vietnamese, one of my favourite cuisines to eat, though I don't think I've ever cooked Vietnamese before!