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Cooking With Christie: Hoisin & Honey Slow-Cooker Drumsticks

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Inspiration: Whilst wandering through my local grocer, I discovered a $5 tray of chicken drumsticks in the meat section. After checking with the meat counter worker to ensure I wasn’t misreading something (as I couldn’t believe my eyes, 14 drumsticks for such a low price seemed too good to be true), I snapped up a pack. Knowing I’d need to peruse my cookbook arsenal to figure out what to do with them.

Then we ran into a traffic jam. (Thankfully, not literally.)

As I wasn’t driving, I started poking around the interwebs for chicken drumstick based recipes….and found this one on the Food Network site. Like most crockpot recipes, Hoison & Honey Drumsticks is dead easy to make.

And tasty!

Even better, it gave me a method (which, frankly, I should’ve cottoned on to sooner) of making sure the spices flavor the meat — by rubbing them directly on the meat’s surface and then cooking it. Simple, but effective!

Advise From Me to You: This recipe calls for Chinese Five Spice, which not everyone might have on their spice rack. However, you might have all the components — star anise, fennel seeds, Sichuan pepper (corns), Chinese cinnamon, and cloves. I found this recipe for it, as well as a substitution guide (should you need it), on the Red House Spice blog.

Christie: I’d like to think Miss Marple might use a crockpot (or its vintage equivalent) from time to time. However, outside a village picnic or fete, I can’t see her picking up a drumstick (of any variety) and chowing down. Though I think this could’ve been a family fave with the Beresford children — as the drumsticks are sticky, kinda messy, and fun to gnaw on!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2023

Cooking With Christie! Bread Pudding

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Inspiration: In a fit of ‘waste not want not’ my husband and I decided to make bread pudding after a loaf of bread I’d baked turned out utterly wonky. And by wonky, I mean the seam split from the main body of the bread loaf, and one side was substantially larger than the other…However, when cut into small one-inch cubes, the bread’s lop-sidedness disappeared!

(Who would’ve thunk it….)

Ree Drummond on the Food Network site wrote the base recipe we used. Though, predictably, we made a couple of changes….

The problem with Bread Pudding, for me, is the texture — or the lack thereof — so my husband had the idea of putting a crumble on top made with cinnamon (1tsp.), butter (2Tsp.), flour (1/4c), and brown sugar (1/4c). And when all I wanted to do was eat the sweet, crunchy topping? Well, we sliced the remaining pan full into one-inch thick strips, turned them onto their sides, made more streusel topping, coated the lot, and baked it again until golden brown.

The concoction was terrific! Even better? With the topping, it actually had texture!

Christie: Honestly, I can see Miss Marple making this for the same reason, especially during WWII (or after, as the habits formed during this period still inform decisions today), as the dessert is a tasty and economical one!