Fried Pickles!

Ever have a craving for a certain item from a restaurant but you don't want to go anywhere? This is me most of the time...except for tonight! I decided to attempt my own fried pickles...they were great! Messy to make but really easy! I love fried pickles any way, spears, chips, whatever! I decided to make the chip version tonight but we have a new deep fryer so I will try spears later this summer.

It looks like there are two different types of fried pickles, and that's because as I started doing the milk-flour-egg-cornmeal, they were a lot thicker than I like, so I tried just milk and flour, and I liked those mucho better!

To make them I got hamburger dill chips, 2 for 1, who's the lucky girl?!..Whole milk, all purpose flour, 2 eggs and cornmeal. Again, I preferred the milk and flour dusted more so than what is traditionally done. I also have a strong preference when it comes to ranch dressing. I love the thinner kind, Majestic Grill in Charleston had the absolute best ranch dressing, but sadly they closed the year after I moved from Chucktown....second place goes to Naturally Fresh Ranch, it's really good!

Hope everyone is having a good Tuesday so far!

In your kitchen...

What can you NOT live without? A specific tool? You're favorite cooking dish?

I always find myself staring in the cooking tools aisle (especially in Marshalls) thinking, I know I NEED something, but what was it!? For my birthday last year, I got a Williams Sonoma gift card, and went nuts in the cooking accessory section...and still, I feel like I need more! If I had all the money to spend on things like this, I would get these knives..

However, I stick more to buying the cheaper things like a garlic press, which is still on my wishlist, and new measuring cups and spoons, and a mortar and pestle. Unfortunately, and luckily for my bank account, we don't have a store in Spartanburg, so Greenville is where I have to venture. I just love that store! And they give you samples! Sur la Table is equally awesome, and a tad cheaper, but the closest one of those is in Charlotte, boooo!

And speaking of Sur la Table, a few years ago, I bought this little lovely in the impulse section they so cleverly place beside the registers...

...it's primary purpose is to prevent pots from boiling over, but then I was looking online and saw something that looked identical that you put inside the brown sugar bags to prevent it from hardening...and decided to stick the pot minder into my own brown sugar supply...and let me tell you, it works like a charm! I have not had one ball of rock hard sugar since! I think it must soak up the moisture that seeps out of the brown sugar, but whatever it does, I love it! This is the actual brown sugar ceramic stone

In my kitchen I cannot live without my nesting bowls, whisk, cheap bamboo spoon set, silicon baster, spatula, potato masher/tomato masher, and micro grater, just to name a few :)

What are your favorite things in your kitchen?

In my fridge right now, I'm loving a new flavor of Naked juice I hadn't tried yet, it's reduced calorie tropical, it tastes so refreshing and isn't as thick as the others, which I like

...I also picked up some of the best pickles I have ever had this weekend at Lake Jocassee, they are from a little gas station/grocery store right near the lake...SO GOOD!

Happy Eating!!!