Dinner party success

My book club pals came over yesterday. As usual, I stressed about what to serve weeks ago, but I was completely calm about it this weekend. I kept it all at a very leisurely pace and enjoyed every minute of the cooking. Cooking is therapy for me. I turn on the music or TV for some white noise and I just go to town.

I decided oven-fried chicken was more work than it was worth. Afterall, I've never made an oven-fried anything that actually had much crunch on all sides, which is the whole point. Instead, I made three drunken chickens (there are ten of us in the group). My Chickcans made life a whole lot easier. Just wash off the birds, rub 'em down with a little olive oil, season them inside and out, put goodies such as lemon, onion, garlic cloves and rosemary in the 2/3 full cans (you can decide what to do with the 1/3), and your on your way to some of the best chicken of your life. I also served crudités, fried green tomatoes (I made those when everyone arrived so the would be crisp), green beans with bacon and onion, and Sister Schubert's rolls. (They are so good yet so bad.) For dessert, I made these red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. (Note: I never use the entire package of powdered sugar in the frosting. You can get away with 1/2 to 3/4 of package. Any more and it just tastes like sugar to me, not cream cheese.)

Good stuff...