KFC

 (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

12961 State Highway 21

Desoto, Mo.

http://www.kfc.com

I don’t know how you celebrate  Mother’s Day in your household, but we keep it simple. I could ignore it altogether, aside from the card and call to my own mother, since Angel is not my mother. She’s got several adult-like kids that call, send cards, so I really don’t feel the need to do anything special for her. Lucky for me she’s not big into silly, saccharine traditions and contrived holidays. I did make her a card this year, yeah, I made her a card, pretending it was from the dogs. The card-stock cover had pictures of our current five dogs and the comic-sans font message: “Happy Mommy's Day!” with paw-print stickers stuck on it. Inside were individual pages, one for each dog, with three pictures each. Paw-prints added there too. The back, also card-stock had cartoon dog stickers, food dishes, bones, etc. with the message “We love you!”

Yeah, cheesy, but she liked it, even though she suspected that it was me, rather than the dogs that made the thing. I’m hopelessly romantic that way.Sorry again ladies, I'm spoken for.

When asked earlier in the week if she wanted anything special for the day, she blurted out “KFC!”

So Saturday afternoon, rather than go out and sit down somewhere, we picked up a couple of buckets and some sides. Bonus: Free cake!

The Place:

It’s a KFC, what else do you need to know? If you’ve never seen or been to a KFC, you probably can’t read this either being as must be from Neptune, or maybe Fiji.

Weekly Factoid: There are no KFC’s in Fiji due to the fact that the eleven herbs and spices contain something (yummy goodness?) that Fiji doesn’t allow to be imported, and KFC refuses to alter the recipe to meet their restrictions, thus, no KFC’s in Fiji.

Our nearest bucket-o-poultry outlet is in Desoto.

The Food:

Seriously? I have to lay this out for you?

We grabbed two buckets, one original recipe, the other, extra crispy. Added, two pints each of coleslaw and mashed potatoes and a half-dozen biscuits. Included were two tub-lets of brown gravy and a chocolate chip cake, the cake is part of some promotion.

I know that sounds like a lot of food, it is certainly more than our small (in number) family can finish in one sitting. But then again, that’s the point. We learned a long time ago that a couple of buckets and a couple of sides can easily get us through a weekend or holiday. Holidays and weekends without cooking, genius!  The last time we did this was New Year’s. Of course, by the end of the KFC fest, we’re pretty much burnt out on it for a few months. My last meal this weekend was one cold breast, torn up and thrown on top of a nice healthy salad.

I love KFC’s biscuits, plain, with a little margarine. They reheat nicely in about 30 seconds wrapped in a paper towel. The chicken, my choice is original recipe, I tend to like it tepid. Just warm enough to not be cold.

The mashed potatoes, I’m not a huge fan of. They seem boxed and starchy. The brown gravy is good, though not all that much better than canned.

It is Angel’s opinion, and I’m pretty much with her on this, that the coleslaw is the gold standard for which all other coleslaw's are compared. She’s been trying off and on for over a year to try to come up with a home-made version.

She also seems to prefer the extra-crispy version of the chicken, though this time she complained that it is actually only crispy when it is very fresh. The extra crispy is double floured, and the steam in the bucket quickly moistens the flour and makes it a little doughy. It tastes very good though.

Summary:

KFC is not the healthiest choice for chicken, But who cares?  Like I said, it’s a once every few months thing in our household. It’s pretty cheap considering it spans several meals, it refrigerates nicely, reheats nicely. It’s a great quick snack too, just grab a cold piece right out of the fridge and wolf it down.

What else can I say about KFC? It’s simply good, it is from Kentucky after all.