When you get ready to eat a piece of fried chicken; which part do you like best? There are 4 main parts to the chicken most of us eat. You have the drumstick, chicken breast, thigh, and the full chicken wing. Between those 4 parts; which piece would you grab first?

It seems there is some debate to which part of the bird is best. Most seem to agree what part out of those four is the their least favorite. If you could rank the pieces in order from your most favorite to your least favorite, do you know which one you would choose last on the list? I want to see if your taste buds are in-line with others and see if you pick a certain part last on your list. The battle for the best part on the chicken is still up in the air. I hope to clear up some of those choices; by seeing which part of the chicken my blog readers like the most. Please leave your reply to which piece of chicken you like the best and which one is the worse. It would really be good if you would just rank all 4 pieces in order from 1 to 4; with one (1) being your most-liked piece of chicken, two (2) being your 2nd most-desired piece of chicken, three (3) the third best piece of the bird, and finishing it off with four (4) being the piece you would always select to eat last. Thanks in advance for your replies and thank you for stopping by today and checking out my blog Creating a Simple Life.

Hooters Famous Hot Wings

You can’t go wrong with placing your order for hot wings at Hooters Restaurant. This family restaurant and yes, I did say “family” offers up some of the best hot wings you can find. You can order them mild, medium, hot, extra hot (9-1-1 hot), or for the really brave (or stupid) you can get them 3 Mile Island (nuclear hot). Hooters also offers other styles like BBQ, Cajun, Spicy Garlic, or Teriyaki hot wings. I haven’t tried their new flavors, so we will stay with the hot sauce prepared wings for now.

To me, I believe this is the restaurant that serves the best hot wings. I like the fact, Hooters offers bigger wings than most other places. I don’t like the fact, they charge extra for blue cheese and celery. All orders of hot wings should include blue cheese dressing (or ranch) and a few pieces of celery. Paying extra for this, kinda paints Hooters as a cheap company and choosing costs over their customers. The hot wing restaurants that serve celery and carrots with each order; really score some points with their customers. Even with the selfish and expensive prices, I will still give Hooters the nod as the best place to order hotwings.

Who else do you turn to for hot wings? Well the list is very long and depending on where you live, you probably have a few one-of-a-kind bars, taverns, and restaurants that serve hot wings. I will list some of the restaurants in my area; which you may or may not have in your hometown.

*Buffalos Cafe

*Pizza Hut

*Taco Mac

*Dominos Pizza

*Johnny’s NY Style Pizza

*Zaxbys

*Checkers

*Outback Steakhouse

*Sidelines Restaurant

*Sidelines Pool Hall

*Beef O Bradys

*Kaysons Grill

*Longhorns Steakhouse

*Kentucky Fried Chicken

These are a few places in my area to get a order of hot wings. I have tried them all and each one is a little different from the rest of the hot wing restaurants. It really depends on what you’re looking for in a order of hot wings. Do you just order them as an appetizer or snack? Or do your plans include a long-term relationship, where you plan to make this the meal and you want a non-stop supply of hot wings? The size, price, and taste will always be factors. Let’s go ahead and rule out the size and price and just stick to the flavor of the hot wings. From a flavor standpoint; which restaurant would you go to right now for the best-tasting hot wings?

You already know Hooters is first on my list. You may not know which restaurant is a close 2nd and they offer a nice taste and size to their hot wings. The price isn’t cheap, but for another great place to get hot wings, you have to try the hot wings at Taco Mac. It may not be their main gig, but they do a really good job with preparing the bird just right for hot wing lovers. Their flavor choices are Lemon Pepper, Mild, Medium, Hot, Three Mile Island, Habanero BBQ, and Death. You will get blue cheese or ranch dressing, along with your celery. For those that don’t like celery, they will allow french fries as a substitution (Hooters could learn some customer service skills at Taco Mac). The only mystery that remains is which restaurant came up with the name “Three Mile Island” for their hot wings first? Taco Mac or Hooters?

If you ever get a chance to go to Marietta, Georgia; you might want to stop-in at a place on Old Highway 5 in Marietta called Sidelines Pool Hall. They just serve your typical bar-style hot wings. It’s those small wings you will find at most places, much like the ones Buffalo Cafe or Buffalo Wild Wings will serve up. Nothing fancy about their hot wings, but I give them the “Coca Cola” award for their wings. It’s like the standard in hot wings to me. We compare soft drinks by using Coke as the standard, you can do this with hot wings, if you try the ones at Sidelines Pool Hall in Marietta; which is right next door to a big thrift store.

How hot do you want your wings? No one should ever order mild wings. You have to start at medium and go up or your just eating fried chicken. If I order the wings at Pizza Hut Wing Street, I will choose the medium flavor. Their hot is a little too hot and isn’t a good tasting hot, if you ask me. Most restaurants I will go with the normal hot flavor of hot wings. Over at Zaxbys Restaurant, I usually go with their extra hot; which they refer to as “nuclear“. Kinda funny how Zaxbys, Taco Mac, and Hooters refer to their food as nuclear and makes you wonder how healthy these hot wings really are? The nuclear hot wings at Zaxbys is at the top of the charts for me and is the hottest wings I order with it still being a good hot taste. Zaxby’s does offer another level higher for those that get the 3 mile island wings at Hooters; you can go with the “insane” hot wings at Zaxbys.

I will give Beef O Bradys an honorable mention; when it comes to a good order of hot wings. They give huge stalks of celery with their orders and I would like to see them offer slimmer stalks of celery. Just too much chomping into their tree-trunk-size celery they provide with each order of hot wings.

So which place on my list do you like best for hot wings? Is there a place that I didn’t mention and you feel they offer better hot wings than most of the places I named? The Wing Factory has been voted the best restaurant to eat hot wings in Atlanta, Georgia. I do think they offer good wings, but I wouldn’t vote them above Hooters or Taco Mac. Lots of peoole like the Buffalo Cafe wings and especially when you can get all-you-can-eat wings for about 10 bucks. I like their wings at Buffalos, but do think they’re some better places.

Now a whole new taste of rice has hit my local hometown and it’s been the rice from Japan. These guys know how to cook rice! It is a lot more expensive to eat at a Japanese restaurant; when comparing them to Chinese food prices. If you can eat at lunch time or find a good sale on Japanese food, you may be able to eat some of this great food at a price you can afford. I mean the fried rice at Japanese restaurants is a meal in itself. I certainly prefer the fried rice over the typical steamed rice that gets cooked at most Chinese restaurants.

Over at Buy.com, they have a Black and Decker rice cooker and I would like to order this product. See if I could cook my own rice at home that tasted as great as the rice served in Asian restaurants. I didn’t even know these rice cookers existed. I have did the 5 minute rice at home; which you pretty much just boil and eat. I think one of these specially prepared cookers is the way to go, if you want to save money and prepare your own rice at home.

Do you share my same love for Japanese food over Chinese food? To me the biggest difference comes down to the rice. Even the fried rice in Chinese restaurants don’t serve up the flavor you can get with the Japanese rice. It’s a big difference and one that will wake up the taste buds. Rice is not just rice and if you believe this; you really need to find a place that serves Hibachi dinners or a Japanese restaurant.

Remember the days of putting our fresh seafood on a jk adams cutting board? We was always told to not use the counter tops and put our seafood and meats on a cutting board, so we wouldn’t contaminate the meat. It looks like the British Petroleum group beat us to it. All jokes aside, many of the fishermen in this region of the world, will struggle this year; but everyone knows it and they will get help. The Government or BP will help these fishermen and their families. At least I would hope they do. I’m sure there will be some relief help for the restaurants that serve up this seafood from the Gulf. The concerns for these people are widely recognized in the media and they’re getting attention for their causes. I think the people who may suffer the most, are the ones that don’t have a direct link to the Gulf seafood, but still rely on it to provide business for them.

Let’s take a company like J.K. Adams, who sells these cutting boards which are great for families that like to cook up big seafood meals. If these families stop cooking at home, they won’t need a cutting board anymore. A company like this could see a decrease in sales for their boards used to cut meats, seafood, and fresh vegetables on. I know I am reaching a bit here with this example, but they are hundreds of other companies that it wouldn’t be reaching to use them as an example. It’s a good thing JK Adams Direct sells more than just cutting boards. They do sell beautiful jk adams spice racks, jk adams pot racks, and jk adams wine racks. Other companies may depend more on the seafood from the Gulf and I wonder who will look out for these businesses, who may not have a direct link to the Gulf crisis.

One of my favorite things to watch on TV is cooking shows. But I’m a terrible cook. I burn muffins made from store mixes and my omelets always end up sticking to the pan.

So many nights when I come home from work I flip on the TV and watch cooks like Paula Deen and Rachel Ray cook these mouth-watering meals that make my already hungry stomach start to rumble

Sometimes I just end up browsing the Internet with my Clear TV Bundle for recipes for a little while and then fix a bowl of cereal and continue looking at more recipes. Maybe I’m lazy, or just know my own abilities.

But last Friday night I thought I’d test my capabilities and decided to tackle a chicken pot pie recipe. The recipe seemed simple enough and I had the ingredients, which I had bought on a grocery store trip that I was feeling pretty ambitious.

It called for cooked chicken. But I forgot to defrost the chicken and ended up having to cook it in a pan for so long and still managed to burn it! Oh well, I just cut off the burnt parts and prepared the recipe the rest of the way as directed. I somehow managed to pull off the rest of the recipe and ended up with an edible, half-decent chicken pot pie! Maybe I’ll start cooking more often. Just maybe.

1 – Hamburgers

2 – Hot Dogs

3 – Steaks

4 – Ribs

5 – Pork Chops

6 – Chicken

7 – Only Vegetables (no meats)

I know that is a tough question, but usually most families would only cook one of these items. The most popular combination would be hamburgers and hot dogs. All the other items usually have a place of their own for the grill. I believe I would go with a nice, juicy steak. Several different steaks to choose from and I probably like New York Strip or T-Bone steaks the best. Either one of those would do and I would cook it medium on the grill. You don’t want to over cook a steak anytime and especially on the grill. A well-done steak prepared on the grill can taste like your eating charcoal. You can prevent this taste, by cooking the steak slow and maybe putting a little tin foil under it, to help preserve the juices. You can wrap it up in tin foil to cook for the majority of the time and this helps to save the juices. Then you can remove the foil and cook it on each side for about 3 minutes. This gives you the great grill taste; while saving the juices you will want with your steak.

No matter which food you choose to throw over the fire, it always taste better from the grill. I guess our taste buds don’t get to eat it enough, so we like the chance to get a new flavor in our mouth. A nice T Bone steak, NY strip, or even a filet Mignon is perfect for a summer time grill. In addition to my steak, I would like to cook a few mushrooms to go with it. I would probably also choose the popular bake potato with butter for another side item. As for the bread, you could cook a nice piece of Texas Toast on the grill and put a little garlic on it. My favorite foods for this year would include a T Bone steak with mushrooms and bake potato and a nice piece of garlic bread. For the dessert, just give me a piece of strawberry shortcake or some banana pudding. What items would you put on your grill for a favorite summer time meal?

There is just something magical about a food place that stays open after midnight. A lot of restaurants today are trending to the “open late” campaign, in which they will stay open longer than usual. This usually occurs in the summer months and some places may only offer a drive-thru service for their open late hours.

I’m a night owl, so I have eaten a lot of my meals after midnight. I have also had my share of 3rd shift jobs, so trying to find a hot lunch at these hours have always been a challenge. I love the night and sleeping through it seems like a waste. I hate to sleep through all of the daylight hours too, so the less sleep the better. Even though sleep is one of my favorite things to do. Makes a lot of sense, huh?

I even like watching the big Hollywood movies that will take place all night long or end up in a late night diner. I recently saw a movie called Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and this is a good example of an all night movie. The Dazed and Confused movie is also another good example and they recreated this late night fun in a 2nd movie they did on top of this one.

The hard part can be finding friends to share these late night hours with you. I know for teens and people in their early twenties, this might not be too challenging. As you get into your 30′s, you will find there are less and less friends you can go out and have an all-nighter with. I still have 1 or 2 people I can count on for the 2 to 3 a.m. hours of the night. If I want to see the sun rise the next morning, I will probably be alone for that to happen now. It’s just one of the parts of growing up and how people get married, have families, and then have to wake up early for a job the next day. I have not did the marriage or family part yet, but I have had a little taste of the 9 to 5 job, where you have to be in bed at 10 or 11 p.m. each night. It’s a little depressing to call it a night at those hours and I will stay up past 2 a.m. on most nights.

A night on the town that takes all night to do, is still a winning formula in my book. The 24 hour restaurants are one of the fun things to do in these hours, when most people are dreaming away in their beds. If you can find the bowling alley or pool hall that stays open 24 hours a day, then you really have some all night fun you can get into.

Well I went to look for “chow chow” online, so I could show a picture to those that are not familiar with it. As you can see, I found the wrong chow chow in my hunt for the food chow chow. You can eat your soup beans and have your dog watching you eat if you want, but this is not what I had in mind.

Chow Chow Food

Ok, here we go. This is the right chow chow! If you ever see a jar of this in the store, you should buy it. This is great with your homemade cooked soup beans. You know, the soup beans that come in a pack and are hard. You put them on in the morning hours to cook for about 4 hours, so you can eat them for a late lunch or for your supper. I love eating soup beans, with homemade biscuits, and give me a big tablespoon or two of chow chow. This is better than pepper or an onion that you might normally eat with your soup beans.

If you ever wanted to make your own chow chow, I did see there were a lot of online recipes for chow chow. Do you have a chow chow recipe? Please feel free to share it with me and my readers. I may just give your chow recipe a try! I have never attempted to make home made chow chow, but it seems like it would be pretty easy. I would imagine you need to leave it canned or on the shelf awhile; before you actually ate it.

The store-bought jars of chow chow come in a variety of flavors and they can taste quiet differently too. If you don’t like the first brand you try, don’t give up on chow chow yet. There are some companies or types of chow chow I really don’t like. Some companies may even list their chow chow as a form of relish. It’s a little different from relish and chow chow is its own unique food. Be sure to try a little chow chow the next time you put on a pot of soup beans to cook during the afternoon. Once you try it, you won’t ever eat beans by their self no more. You can eat chow chow with black-eyed peas, great northern beans, pinto beans, or mixed beans that come from the can. The best way is to cook a pot of soup beans and then you really get the best of both worlds!

Coffee drinkers back in the day probably never knew where this addictive drink would lead in 2010. I don’t think anyone sipping on a cup of coffe in 1960 could have ever imagined the way coffee would be made 50 years later. Someone obviously had an idea along the way; for us to see a coffee machine like the Caffe Espresso Makers we see selling online today.

What ever did happen to the regular cups of coffe everyone would drink? I guess the sweet taste of some of the newer coffees have people switching from regular coffee to the espressos and lattes we see folks drinking today. I never developed the taste for the regular cups of coffee, but I sure like walking into the doughnut shops that have the aroma of coffee in the air. Smelling a fresh pot of coffee brewing, makes me want to drink some.

You don’t have to look hard these days to see restaurants selling coffee. I have recently been watching some TV commercials that is advertising a special sale on mocca and latte coffees. These coffees have a little whip cream on the top of them with a few stripes of carmel you can see. It looks like it would be good, but not sure if I would like it or not. It is still coffee and I know for a fact, I don’t like plain coffee. An espresso coffee might be something I would actually like. I would prefer to try it at a coffee house that sold it, before I went to Buy.com to buy an espresso maker.

Hot Coffee Turns to Ice

I’m not sure how long the list is today for all the different types of coffees that are available. I find one of the most interesting choices is the ice coffee. We normally think of coffee as hot and something we have to sip slowly due to the heat. Now in 2010 we have coffe that is probably so cold, you would have to sip it for the coldness it brings. I believe this is another one of those new coffees that I might actually enjoy (if I ever tried it). Have you ever tried the ice coffee? Or better yet, what is your favorite kind of coffee that you enjoy drinking the most? I guess the serious coffee drinkers would have several coffees they could list for their favorite style of coffee. The old timers wouldn’t have any part of the coffee world in 2010. I can just hear them now, “bring it to me black and hot“. They would just want a few coffee grinds in their cup with some hot boiling water poured over it. No cream or sugar for them! I don’t think you would even get an answer; if you asked them if they wanted whip cream or carmel in it.

You can never go wrong when you serve up tacos for dinner. This is one of my favorite foods and I love making tacos. I like eating them even better. There is a few basic ingredients that all tacos should have. A good tasting ground beef that is lightly seasoned is where I like to start first. The taco packets you buy at the grocery store contain too much seasoning for my taste buds. I will usually put in half of the pack of taco seasoning and that gets me started with a good tasting meat source for my taco. Then I will toast the shell about 5 to 7 minutes in the oven around 300 to 350 degrees. I will use the basic toppings to put on my taco. I like a little lettuce, shredded cheese (will usually go with the pack already grated and is a mixture of different cheeses), and some fresh tomatoes. These are the 3 things every taco should have. Some people will choose to add a piece of lime or some steamed rice on their tacos. Or they will pick other toppings that are not on your common taco. Just give me the 3 basics like cheese, lettuce, and tomato and this makes a perfect taco for me. What unusual toppings have you seen or used on a taco before?