Plants, Silver Cleaning, Castle Howard,

Meant to mention, a few weeks ago, before I was forbidden to leave home, ladydog and I went to Victoria St. Market and we both bought a Basil plant which had roots but no pot. When I got it home I shoved it in a glass of water and it has been thriving ever since. It drinsk a heck of a lot of water though.

Then a week or so later, ladydog got some groceries for me and dropped them off at the door including a Begonia which also seems to be doing pretty well. I love Begonias.

Ladydog doesn't like this picture, but I do. Of course, I took it with my new phone which I don't really know how to use properly yet. Oh well.

This afternoon I did my Spanish, did some work on the computer and then got to the "I've gotta do something" stage so I cleaned some silver and got Matt to dry/polish it once I had done. He does a much better job of drying things than I do. I have a candelabra which was looking disgusting so I finally got it cleaned. I like the candelabra but I do not like cleaning it. It needs new candles but I can't seem to find any at a reasonable price. I found some nice 10" tapered red dinner candles for $60. Sorry, no. I prefer the red although I did find some in silver, but the delivery charge on those was going to be pricey. Most of the candles I found on line were either too expensive, wrong colour, or not dinner candles at all. So, it's back to the old, faded, candles. Still got some more cleaning to do but won't be tomorrow.

Why does everything happen at once? Our friends will be picking up the shopping, the Alzheimer Society is running a phone in programme and the cardiologist is giving me a phone appointment. I think I may have to forgo the Alzheimer session. Pity, especially as some of my coffee group will be taking part.

This evening we watched another programme on the Stately Homes of England. This time it was Castle Howard in Yorkshire. Another magnificent residence. It is fascinating to see the estimations of the cost of building the place at today's rates. Unbelievable that they could build such places. They figure that to build Castle Howard would cost the same as Wembley Stadium, a major English sports venue. Once again the grounds were superb and one of the previous earls had built an incredible mausoleum on the grounds. The current owner is not an earl, I am assuming the title (Lord Carlisle) died out with the young man who died in World War II. I am surprised the Queen didn't award the current owner with the title. Maybe he didn't want it.

I thought these looked pretty tasty and certainly easy enough to do. As I am not worried about gluten or dairy, I would use regular flour and milk  It is suggested you make your favourite dipping sauce for these nuggets.

Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets (Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free)

1 lb chicken breasts (2 breasts)
2/3 cup almond milk
2/3 cup gluten-free flour (I use Better Batter Gluten-Free Flour)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper

1. Start with a pound of chicken breast and cut into long strips around an inch wide. Then cut each strip into 1-inch pieces.

2. In a medium-size bowl mix together the gluten-free flour, nutritional yeast, paprika, garlic powder and onion powder. Whisk until combined.

3. Use an oil sprayer to spray the basket of the air fryer with avocado or olive oil.

4. Set up a little assembly line to dip your chicken pieces in. Begin by dipping each piece of chicken into a bowl of almond milk and then into the gluten-free flour mixture. Make sure to completely coat the chicken in the flour mixture.

5. Then place in the air fryer in a single layer with some space between each piece so that the air will flow easily around them. You’ll probably need to cook them in two different batches.

6. Use an oil sprayer to spritz as much of the top of the chicken with the oil as you can. You don’t want a heavy coating but enough to dampen the flour mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

7. Bake at 400° for 4 minutes. Pull out the air fryer basket and turn each piece of chicken over and spritz with oil again. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 4 more minutes at 400°.

8. When both of batches are done you can add the first batch to the basket and cook for 1 minute so they are all hot when you’re ready to serve.

Servings: 3

Author: MamaShire

Author Notes
Depending on the size of your air fryer basket you may need to cook these in 2-3 batches. Total cooking time for each batch is 8 minutes.

Have a great day - stay well, stay safe, stay home.