One of Paula Deen's recipes

Last night I used that last huge chicken breast half to make Paula Deen's Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps. They were very tasty and very easy. Here is the way it appears on the Food Network site.

Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (about 4 breasts) 1 (1-pound) package sliced bacon 2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar 2 tablespoons chili powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut chicken breasts into 1-inch cubes. Cut each bacon slice into thirds. Wrap each chicken cube with bacon and secure with a wooden pick. Stir together brown sugar and chili powder. Dredge wrapped chicken in mixture. Coat a rack and broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray. [I covered the pan with aluminum foil because I knew it would make a mess and it did.] Place chicken wrap on rack in broiler pan. Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes or until bacon is crisp.

Recipe Summary Difficulty: Easy Prep Time: 25 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 12 to 15 appetizer servings User Rating: 5 stars

I was able to de-bone the breast and cut it into 20 cubes. I had halved the sugar/chili mixture and that was about right - there was a little left over, but not much.

Tonight I made The Y chili, a relic from hubby and my past. The town we grew up in had a greasy spoon in the YMCA building, affectionately known to us as the Y. Their chili was a legend, and one of hubby's mom's friends asked the cook how he made it, and he told her. Here is my take, 50 years later. Hubby and I were talking at supper that the original was very salty, but no one eats as much salt today as they did back then. We're also a lot more aware of fat content too. So here's how I do it to get the taste and texture without so much salt and fat. The ground beef is not in chunks or hunks - it's in very fine "beads."

Y chili for hot dogs (hamburgers and fries)

2 lbs. ground beef, not round or sirloin
about 2 quarts cool tap water
16 oz. tomato sauce
2 tablespoons good quality chili powder
2 tablespoons dehydrated minced onion
1 tablespoon beef bouillon granules
1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
(I added no salt - the bouillon and tomato sauce have plenty.)

Put the water and ground beef in a large saucepan or dutch oven and use your hands to squeeze them together into a pudding-like mixture. Put on the burner on high to bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and cook until the meat is no longer pink. It will be sort of grayish-brown. Drain off the liquid and that will remove the fat also. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. You'll need to add some water to thin it down some. If you can avoid adding the fat back, you can use a little bit at a time of the water the meat was cooked in till you get the right consistency - not too thin, not too thick. Otherwise, just use fresh water. Simmer at least 30 minutes covered. Will be even better the next day. I always freeze and LABEL the leftover in 1 cup lots. That's enough for 6 to 8 hot dogs.

That's it for tonight.