Tasty Tuesday & A Teaser ~ Cheryl Norman

Every Tuesday we'll welcome an Author who will share a foodie type post

with a recipe or two and some book promo !

 

Today please help me welcome Cheryl Norman...

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The Colonel’s Chicken

By Cheryl Norman

 

I announced my retirement four years ago. Silly me. Writers don’t retire. We write until we die. It isn’t a career; it’s a calling. So right before my sixty-fifth birthday (yes, that’s 65), I rejoined Romance Writers of America, sold a Christmas short story to one publisher, and pitched a category romance series to another. I participated in (and actually completed) the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge, completing the first novel in my Drake Springs series. By my birthday, I had signed my first ever multi-book contract.

At an age when most people retire from jobs, I jumped back in with both feet. Reminds me of the true story of Harland Sanders. You may know him as Colonel Sanders. He was a genuine Kentucky colonel and dressed the part. His delicious fried chicken is legendary. But did you know he held many jobs, was fired from a few, and didn’t settle in a career until he was . . . (ta da) sixty-five? That’s right. In 1955, he sold his restaurant in Corbin and hit the road selling franchises of his secret recipe fried chicken, dubbed “Kentucky Fried Chicken” by his first franchisee in Utah, in 1952. The moniker stuck and now the chain is known globally as KFC.

Today, Yum! owns KFC and offers a number of dishes unrelated to Colonel Sanders’s recipes, but always his trademark chicken anchors their KFC menus.

The colonel made his fortune after he reached the age when most apply for Social Security and Medicare. His success story inspires me to continue writing, but it also inspires me to cook up a batch of his chicken recipe. This is no easy task since his herbs and spices are a secret. But using his method (pressure frying) and a knock off product called Kentucky Kernel Seasoned Flour, I come close enough.
 

 

 

 

 

If you don’t have a commercial pressure cooker (I confess. I do. I’m a kitchen nerd.), you can deep fry or skillet fry. It just takes more time. You’ll need the following ingredients:

 

1 2½-3 lb. fryer chicken, cut up

1 egg beaten in one cup buttermilk

1 box Kentucky Kernel Seasoned Flour (Available at most groceries and online)

½ cup corn starch

1 quart peanut oil

 

Soak the chicken in the egg/buttermilk mixture for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oil in the pressure cooker to 350°F. Use a candy thermometer because accuracy is crucial.

Combine cornstarch with the seasoned flour. Coat individual pieces of chicken in the flour until thoroughly covered.

Using tongs, carefully add each piece to the oil to brown. After 30 seconds, turn each piece. Don’t crowd your cooker. If necessary, cook the chicken in two batches.

Place lid on the pressure cooker, bring to pressure, and then time for six minutes (or 3 minutes per pound of chicken).

Quick-release pressure according to your manufacturer’s guidelines. Carefully remove cooker lid away from your face to avoid injury.

Remove each piece of chicken using the tongs and place on a platter. Serve immediately.

 

Every time you enjoy a piece of KFC,
think of Colonel Sanders and how he proved that success knows no age limit.


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Rebuild My World
(set in Drake Springs)

by
Cheryl Norman

Danger has followed Taylor Drake back to her small hometown, and it's up to Chief Deputy Adam Gillespie to protect her.

 

Both are unprepared for their intense attraction to ach other.

 

Will secrets from the old feud between their families threaten their future happiness?  Or will the killer?

Available from Turquoise Morning Press


Book 1 of Cheryl's new category romance series Drake Springs,
Return to Drake Springs,  
 will be available from the Turquoise Morning Press
Boutique collection/Next Door line October 2014


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Meet Cheryl:

Cheryl Norman wrote her first mystery at the age of 13.  After a career I telecommunications, she returned to fiction writing and won the 2003 EPPIE award for her contemporary romance, Last Resort. Her debut with Medallion Press, Restore My Heart, led to a mention in Publisher's Weekly as on of ten new romance authors to watch. 

Running Scared, a romantic suspense set in Jacksonville, Florida and Washington D.C., received a Perfect 10 from Romance Reviews Today.  Reviewer Harriet Klausner calls her writing, "Mindful of Linda Howard..."  Rebuild My World, is the sequel to Reclaim My Life.  www.cherylnorman.com