**Child Psychology Background**

Many people may not know that I have a deep passion for working with children. In fact, I pursued a degree in child psychology and spent many years working with kids before I discovered my love for cooking as a full-time career. There's just something about the innocence, energy, and joy of childhood that brings me so much happiness. I believe that this experience has rubbed off on me and given me a unique perspective on creating recipes that are not only delicious but also kid-friendly.

**Chicken Finger Recipe**

To make my famous chicken fingers, I preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. After 10 minutes, I check on them and flip them over to ensure even cooking. Once they're done, I take a look at how crispy and golden they are - it's truly amazing! These chicken fingers are perfect for kids (and adults!) of all ages.

**Bacon Jam Recipe**

One of my favorite condiments is homemade bacon jam. To make this delicious spread, I start by cooking about a pound of bacon in the oven until it's crispy. Then, I crumble the cooked bacon and chop some shallots, garlic, and molasses to add depth to the jam. Next, I combine these ingredients with honey, brown sugar, salt, and a little apple cider vinegar. The result is a sweet and smoky spread that's perfect for topping sandwiches or using as a dip.

**Chicken Salad Sandwich Recipe**

Another one of my favorite recipes is a chicken salad sandwich made with homemade bacon jam. To make this delicious sandwich, I start by shredding cooked chicken and mixing it with mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Then, I chop up some celery, red bell pepper, and add in the chicken mixture to create a tasty filling. Finally, I assemble the sandwiches by placing the chicken salad on top of croissant bread that's been sliced and buttered.

**Finishing Touches**

Once my chicken fingers, bacon jam, and chicken salad sandwiches are prepared, it's time to finish them off with some flair. For the kids (and adults!), I'll be serving these dishes at a park picnic, where they can assemble their own sandwiches and add as much bacon jam as they like. To take it up a notch, I'll also be using homemade bacon fat in the bacon jam to give it an extra boost of flavor.

**A Recipe for Joy**

Cooking with children is not just about creating delicious meals - it's also about bringing joy and happiness into their lives. Whether it's making a simple chicken finger recipe or assembling a tasty sandwich, every dish has the potential to bring a smile to someone's face. And that's exactly what I'm counting on when I serve these recipes at our next family gathering. So, come on over, and let's cook up some fun together!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ennow I'm going to get started on my spatcock chicken to this food processor I'm going to add 1 and 1/2 sticks of salted butter parsley Thyme and some oregano I'm going to also use the juice of two lemons four cloves of garlic freshly cracked black pepper 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and a teaspoon of salt 2 tbspoon of cherry give this a zap and I'm just mixing it until it becomes very cohesive this is great so I have two whole rasers here what I'm going to do now is called spatchcocking it's basically taking out the backbone and laying the chicken down flat it cuts the cooking time nearly in half and every piece of this chicken will be nice and crispy put that backbone to the side you better keep that backbone make some good stock two hands press down the breast is flat so now I'm sticking my fingers through the skin to create some Pockets where I can put this glorious butter all right grab my butter and the juice that's in the bowl M as soon as it hit the pot woo got a whiff of that herb got a whiff of that cherry and that garlic all right that's melted and just brush it directly on top wow look at that you already see the seasoning in that it is going to be beautiful I'm going to cover it I have the oven preheated so 450 I'm going to bake it cover it for 20 minutes and then uncover for 40 minutes M oh my goodness it smells amazing the chicken is starting to cook just going to use some of the juices that are at the bottom of the pan to base o my goodness so it's nice and basted I'm going to pop it back in the oven it's still at 450 I'm going to let it bake for an additional 40 minutes or until this skin gets really nice and brown and crispy now we're cooking that is beautiful so I'm just going to base it one more time a southern classic I have a cup and a quar of allpurpose flour here in my food processor I'm going to add in a half a teaspoon of kosher salt give it a pulse okay now I'm going to add in one stick of cold unsalted butter that I've cubed want to give it a pulse until I see the butter turn into P sizes all right that's good I have A3 cup of cold water here I'm just going to pulse this and the water just helps that flour come together and form a dough okay after it pulses up with the water it's going to look like this a ball you can't roll it out in the form that is in right now because it's really sticky so it has to chill set up and then I'll be able to roll it out to form my P dough have some plastic wrap here just going to seal it up and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour now I'm going to make my lemon buttermilk filling in this bowl I have 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar I'm going to add in 1 and 1/4 cup of Buttermilk one stick of melted unsalted butter 1/4 cup of lemon juice the great thing about buttermilk pie is that it's a blank canvas you can add any flavors you want give to mix add in four eggs in a yolk of an extra egg now let me tell you about buttermilk pie and where it came from buttermilk pie is a pie that was used they call it a desperation pie like basically getting your sweets and your desserts without having to buy expensive ingredients and these are normal things that you would have around the house the eggs the buttermilk my grandmother would always tell me stories of making sweet dough like a sweet bread that was their dessert you know so something as simple as this like having the eggs and the buttermilk around and making a Delicious Pie basically out of nothing and I'm adding an extra yolk because this is more of a custard pie I'm also zesting a lemon to add little extra of that lemon flavor all right so I've zested one lemon now I'm going to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a half a teaspoon of salt give it a mix I'm just breaking up the yolks in here and now I'm going to sift in then fold in 1/4 cup of allpurpose flour I'm sifting it because if you just dump the flour in here you'll have big lumps the flour helps thicken up the custard now I'm whisking in the sifted flour all right my filling is done let me grab my pie crust my pie crust is ready I'm going to put some binge flour here on my work surface it's important to put beninge flour down so your dough doesn't stick to your surface I have a 9 in pie dish here I want to roll it out till it's a little bigger than the pie dish about 10 to 11 in all right let me see if that's good yep it goes a little further out than the pie dish so that's a great size for me and if you notice the sides go out just a little and that's okay you just tuck it and I actually like tucking because it makes it a little thicker and I'm just going to do a simple crimp just taking your thumb and pressing it in my pie crust is done I'm going to add in the custard this is the first of many pies I'll be making today so I'm getting down and dirty and some flour my oven is preheated to 3 50 I'm going to bit this for about an hour or until the center is a little Jiggly but the sides are set all right my final pie is done this is my last and final pie and it's perfect look how pretty that is golden brown on the outside it's nice and set in the center the crust smells and looks amazing so I have six ears of corn here to the corn I'm going to make my cream BAS 1 and 1/2 cups Mayo just eyeballing this add in 1 teaspoon garlic powder 2 tpoon of chili powder half a teaspoon of cumin and a half a teaspoon of salt make sure that it's nice and fully Incorporated so I'm going to use this in multiple ways I'm going to brush it on the corn ooh it smells so good I smell the smokiness the corn are nice and covered I got my grill hot going to put them right on the grill get that Sizzle going oh yeah I love grilled corn so this is going to take about five or 6 minutes per side I'm going to add a few more ingredients to that bowl to get my salad going this cream is great as it is but I'm going to add some green onions some cilantro and the juice of two limes the juice of these limes are going to loosen up that cream mixture all right so that corn is popping that means you need to turn it it looks kind of burp but it's not you want that Char cuz it's going to be so beautiful in that salad that needs 5 to six more minutes while that's going I'm going to finish up on my dressing I'm making a grilled corn salad I like something spicy and I mean I'm from the south I got to use hot sauce and I've got some CA cheese you can also use fresa cheese Which is less sharp and less salty mhm that red color the pop of Green from the green onions and the cilantro smells amazing my corn is definitely done got some nice Char on both sides I can eat it right off the cob just as is and I'm going to show you an easier way to get the corn off the cup I got two bowls turn the smaller bowl over place the corn on top look at that see how easy that is that's my last ear of corn so I'm adding the corn where I have the Mayo the hot sauce and chili powder the cumin the garlic cilantro the green onions it's a fiesta in a bowl mhm I'm making black Perry hand pies they're simple and they're very easy to transport so I'm cooking down about 2 cups of blackberries adding in 2/3 cups of sugar I'm using a potato Smasher just just to smash up the blackberries going to use a little bit of zest and I'm not going to discard the lemon cuz I'm going to actually use it in my slurry slurry is simply some type of liquid and corn starch or flour I'm going to use corn starch and I'm using one tablespoon of cornstarch as a thickening agent now it's gotten nice and thick let me show you see how thick that is you got yourself a jam right so I've got two store-bought pie crust I've let them sit out for a little bit because if you don't they'll be really hard and you can't move around they won't be flexible and I'm just going to cut rounds I'm want to transfer to a sheet pan I've lined my sheet pans with parchment paper one tablespoon of the blackberry jam added with a little bit of cream cheese and I'm using the egg wash only on the edges I'm just going to fold over the side that I did not put the compost and Cheese close it up just like that and add little crimps I'm going to put a little egg wash on top and now I'm going to vent the pie three little slits in the center little sprinkle of raw sugar on top I got the oven preheated to 375 I'm going to let them bake for 20 to 25 minutes those pies are beautiful beautiful I'm going to go ahead and let you start cutting the potatoes okay okay I can do that in the meantime I'm going to go ahead and cut the bell pepper and the onions so I've cooked 10 lbs of red potatoes and I let it cool I am cutting up these bell peppers I like to dice them um kind of small you know so every little bite of potato salad you can actually have some peppers in there m you got some little nice uniform pieces okay actually what I'm going to do I'm going to put those peppers in here okay keep cutting that okay I've never had potato salad that tastes as good as hers I mean she is the like the salad Queen she can cook her behind off Okay now what's the secret and your potato salad why can't my potato salad taste like this well cardier you know at my age I I got what you call old love that means that there is no recipe for this stuff you just make up what you do and you go along with it and you know you know even when my grandmother used to make the um potato salad it was just the potato minions and the eggs little salt and pepper but as as the years go by you know we start adding different things in there you know what you have to learn how to make mistakes m in order to get what you really want to do right mhm how many eggs you got I have a dozen of eggs oh okay and you leave the yolk in right I sure do you leave you want to leave the yolk in oh is that the secret ingredient card keep cutting all righty now that you got those potatoes cut here's what we're going to do oh I got look at my grandmother she is ready for the reun yes she is Joe is bringing the fashion oh my goodness everybody is so excited oh my gosh they're showing me their outfit can't wait and it's going to look like I'm adding like a lot of mayonnaise but the reason why I'm adding so much mayonnaise is because we have a lot of potatoes looks about like three cups mhm a little bit of garlic in here mm this is some onion powder don't need a whole lot and I love smoked papera so now and here's some salt don't want to add too much salt let's put some pepper in going to stir all this up here I like the way atisi uses another Bowl to mix ingredients to make sure that it comes together equally until so it's evenly distributed throughout the potatoes is there anything I can help you with me I can sit back and watch know you know what I want you to do I want you to grab the mustard up this mustard cuz we're going to in just a minute we're going to squirt some of that mustard in here all right so in southern potato salad we like to use uh mustard now there's variations of of potato salad you can do a red potato salad with just sour cream a little bit of chives but in the South we are known for using mustard in our potato salad mhm am I right yes okay and what we're going to do we're going to dump all this stuff in the potato M that's going to taste real good what I'mma do because you know you know everybody's a little greedy when they come I'mma put a little can I put a little bowl to the side for myself you know you know it always tastes you know we do have a lot of people coming now and they won't know what's missing so I'm going to add this um I'll give it about maybe three three spoons okay and that is sweet I love I love the sweet the sweet taste I love it so we got to get in a decorative Bowl even though this potato pot is cute ooh good good to me and here's the little bit that we left behind for you a scrape now here's what I like to do mold that really good together right there and plump that and we're looking at serving this thing right here isn't that pretty M so we're going to just sprinkle a little Pappa on top the cake cake spoon I'm ready to part starting off with one large white onion that I've diced I'm dicing one bell pepper typically red rice is cooked with some type of smoked meat I like to use a popular smoked sausage that we use here in Charleston this smoked sausage is like a kasasa it's fully cooked so it's just going to add that nice Smoky flavor right so I'm going to add a/4 cup of vegetable oil going to add my sausage and bell pepper get that nice and hot and sauteed let that cook cook up a little bit going to get my tomato paste started tomato paste is a concentrated form of tomatoes so it really makes the rice red and you get that big burst of tomato flavor the color the smell the smoked sausage oh my goodness want to sprinkle in some sugar garlic powder 2 cups of par boiled rice that I've rinsed got some of that starch off give it a mix going to add a little water on top CU as the rice Cooks in the oven it does start to absorb some of that tomato paste so I want to make sure that none of the rice on top gets crispy oven preheated to 350 want to let it cook for about 35 to 40 minutes all right I'm just fluffing it at this point it's still a little bit on the wet side and that's okay that's what fluffing is for and you know it's basically done so it wouldn't hurt The Taste Lord have mercy this tastes like my grandma's house that is red rice for you an apple cake is perfect on a day like this it's nice and chilly I'm peeling one pink lady and I have two green apples the pink lady is nice and sweet The Granny Smith is a little tart it just works perfectly in this recipe but any apples you have will work all right so I've got my apples peeled now I'm going to cor them then dice during my professional career in cooking I have not always enjoyed baking kind of shied away from baking early on I just thought it was a little intimidating but I found that there were a lot of baking recipes that weren't as intimidating as I thought this is one of those recipes after I get these apples in a bowl going to get started on my dry and my wet I'm using 3 cups of flour 1 teaspoon of baking soda a half a teaspoon of salt 2 tpoon of cinnamon apple and cinnamon go hand in hand i'm grating up some nutmeg give you that intense nutmeg flavor mhm I can already smell it put that to the side get started on my wet a half a cup of dark brown sugar I want more of a molasses flavor so I'm using dark two cups of white sugar granulated sugar 1 and 1/2 cups of canola oil or vegetable as long as it's a neutral oil now this is a very dense and heavy cake so that's why I'm using oil instead of using like room temp or whipped butter so next I'm going to add some vanilla two teaspoons or two capfuls three eggs into this bowl first because I don't want any shells in that cake mix that in there get my hand mixer on I like baking oilbased cakes because if you let it sit out at room tip it lasts for days and days that cake stays moist forever I'm going to put the flour in a little bit out of time and give it a mix give it a mix all right that looks good fold in the apples these are really big chunks you're going to get a big bite of Apple in every slice I have a bunp pan that I've buttered and flowed this is going to help the cake come right on out once it cools now I'm just going to evenly distribute the batter directly into this pan of course bang it on a table because I want to make sure there are no pockets of air I want the cake to bake nice and evenly so I have my oven preheated to 325 I'm going to bake this for 60 to 75 minutes it depends on your oven I know this cake will be ready when I insert a little toothpick comes out clean oo that cinnamon that Apple oh my goodness oh is so pretty I'm going to get started on melting my caramel for the cake so this pot I have 11 oz of caramel going to add about 1/4 cup of whole milk that is definitely cool enough now pour it directly on my cake it is gorgeous my mom used to make some really good smother chicken growing up so I'm making my version of a Carolina smother chicken can you season the chicken with my house seasoning what's in here onion powder garlic powder salt paprika and pepper and while you do that just season you know you know how to season chicken yes after my mom Seasons the chicken she's going to dredge it with a little flour in the same house seasoning fry it not all the way through you want to smother and cook the chicken in the sauce mhm but you want it to get nice and crispy that looks good that's pretty that is very pretty to make this pant sace I'm going to add some butter I've left a little bit of the oil from the fried chicken onions going sauté this down garlic some minced garlic salt pepper M that smell good huh yes and now I'm going to add my spices some dried mustard about a teas spoon of that a half a teaspoon dried rosemary I'm only using a half a teaspoon because it's much more pungent than using fresh herbs okay mhm I'm using a half a teaspoon of dried thyme chicken stock now I'm going to use a third cup of stock and I'm just going to let some of that stock evaporate as it cooks and boils up then it's it's reducing yeah I'm going to add 2 tbspoon of Dijon mustard it's going to give it that tang and that pale yellow color now I'm going to whisk in about 1 and 1/2 cups of heavy cream slowly wow it's thickening up soon as it hit the heat mhm oh it smells so good mhm what I like to do now is add the chicken back in for a color I'm just adding a little bit of fresh parsley kind of like that contrast between dried and fresh herbs how pretty is that okay all right so I'm going to let this go for another 25 to 30 minutes with the top on oh that's pretty you ready to eat yes all right let's get this plated I've cut up four chicken breasts into strips before I dredge it want of course Salt the chicken and some pepper one cup of flour into this this baking dish I'm going to crack three eggs in the bowl right here give this a whisk so I've crushed these chips right in the bag so I'm going to season the flour as well 2 tpoon of salt about a teaspoon of pepper 2 tpoon of onion powder 2 tpoon of garlic powder one teaspoon of ground mustard I decided to use ground mustard because I'm making a honey mustard sauce so I kind of want that flavor in both the chicken and the dip and one teaspoon of paprika let's get started take a strip mix it around the flour dip it in the egg and directly into the chips that flour and egg is going to make sure that everything sticks so when it bakes it's going to be super crunchy and it's going to taste like I fried them being a auntie is really really cool especially like the aunties that don't have any children it's like you get to have all the fun and then send them back home I really do love kids a lot of people don't know but I went to college for child psychology and I work with children for many many years before cooking became a full-time thing and I just I don't know what it is just something about kids just really brings it brings joy to my heart I love their innocence I love their energy and honestly I'm a big kid parents this is not just for kids aunties uncles you can make this for yourself kids will really enjoy it but adults will really enjoy it too all right oven set to 450 I'm going to check it after 10 minutes then flip it now I'm going to make the dip lots of honey I'm going to use some yellow mustard that yellow mustard is going to give you that Tangy classic mustard flavor going to use some Dijon I'm also using stone ground Dijon and that's going to give it a little texture little whole grain seeds I would say about 5 tablespoons of mayo that's going to make it creamy garlic powder cuz I love garlic salt and pepper you can use this on anything you can use it on your sandwiches you can use it on a burger you can dip some french fries in this let me check on those chicken strips they are ready to be flipped mm look how pretty those are I can tell it's nice and crispy I can hear it so I'm flipping it to make sure that both sides get crispy these look amazing and they smell even better all right my chicken strips are done ooh they are gorgeous they're nice and brown and golden wait till the kids get their hands on these what you guys think I love it thumbs up on a scale of 1 to 100 what do you give those chicken fingers 100 yay a chicken salad sandwich with with my bacon jam oh yeah I'm taking chicken salad to another level so I picked up a rooster from the supermarket super cheap so easy to do instead of you having to go through the fuss of baking a a a small chicken yourself you can just pick it up from your grocery and all I'm doing is taking off the skin and just handpicking it there's no special technique in doing this just pick it till you pick it dry so I'm pulling the chicken a little bit more with my hand you can keep this simple and just hand shredd it or if you want it a little smaller you and chop it up got a Celery Stock going to use a few sticks I'm just going to give this a rough chop one red bell pepper I want it to have a little sweeter flavor and red pepper is just prettier gives it that pop of color got a little bit of garlic powder this is to taste if you feel like you need to add a little bit more by all means add more but this is definitely just from the heart teaspoon of paprika I eyeball my Mayo so it's about a cup total to take it up a notch I add a Dijon mustard because it just gives it that that Tangy bite salt a little bit of cracked blacked pepper the chicken salad itself is just so beautiful and you just want a bread that's going to complement the texture of the chicken salad and the taste of it croissant does that it's buttery it's flaky it's just right I'm going to slice all my bread first and then add in the chicken salad got yourself a cute little chicken salad sandwich I'm going to add homemade bacon Jam to these chicken salad sandwiches so I'm going to assemble the sandwiches now and I'm going to let my girls put the bacon jam on it themselves when we get to the park all righty so I'm finishing up wrapping these I'm going to pop them in the fridge I cooked about a pound of bacon and I'm not discarding all of my Bacon Fat going to use about 2 tablespoons of the Bacon fat in the jam I've already started chopping some shallot and I'm using three giving it a rough chop I'm going to chop up some garlic I love garlic and everything add it to the pot going to grab my cooked bacon crumble that right in there and if you want finer pieces just throw it in the food processor got some good old local molasses half a cup or so I'm using some honey I'm getting variations of sweetness here brown sugar combine those sugars with that saltiness and smokiness from the bacon nothing like it lifechanging a little bit of cherry so I want that punch of wine flavor apple cider vinegar it balances out all of the flavors that I'm using ground mustard got my garlic powder in there little salt a little pepper give it a little stir that looks great I'm going to take it back to the stove get this thing heated up right so I've brought it to a boil going to reduce the heat now and let it simmer until it gets nice and thick\n"