Friday, August 12, 2016

President James Buchanan Baked Chicken

Tonight's chicken dinner is named in honor of President James Buchanan. While all signs indicate he was gay, history has painted him as just not a good president. Serving right before the Civil War, he tried to sympathize with the North AND the South thus drawing the hatred of both!



Here is a simple way to bake chicken thighs in a creamy mushroom sauce. Be sure to read the little write-up about the man who wanted to be President with his lover as vice-president back in the middle of the 1800's.




Ingredients
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 2 Tbs corn starch
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 4 - 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
  • 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 5 Yukon Gold potatoes
  • green beans

Instructions

Before heating the oven: check to see that the pans will fit with no problems!
  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  • In a small bowl, combine corn starch, paprika, garlic powder and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Season chicken thighs by rubbing this in thoroughly on all sides.
     

  • NOTE: do this before you start your cutting and cleaning. This powder needs to sit on the chicken for at least 5 minutes.


  • Scrub the potatoes, rinse the mushrooms. 

     
  • Chop ½ onion (save the other half in the freezer.) Mince the garlic.
  • Cut up the potatoes. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray. Place the potato pieces in a large bowl and add oil & salt, stir until well combined. Spread out on the foil.


  • Heat oil & butter in an oven proof skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken, skin-side down, and sear both sides until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side; Remove chicken pieces and cover with foil.


  • Add the mushrooms & onions to the pan and cook, stirring, until browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Add garlic during the last 1 minute.

Return the chicken to the skillet.


  • Slide the tray of potatoes on the bottom rack.
  • Place skillet on the middle rack and roast until completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 175 degrees F, about 25-30 minutes. (the potatoes will be done at the same time.)
  • Remove chicken and tent with foil. Place skillet on stove top over medium heat and stir in the heavy cream. Cook, stirring for about 5 minutes as it thickens.
Since the oven was to be set at 400 degrees, slave took advantage of this a roasted some Yukon gold potatoes as a side as well as a green vegetable.


For our music:

So happy to be a slave of Master Indy
socialslave

To satisfy and restore.
To nourish, support and maintain.
To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,
to nurture, assist, and sustain
..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White http://www.amazon.com

/dp/B00F315Y4I

/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via 

@amazon




=======================
President James Buchanan our 15th president


And His beloved William Rufus King


Historian Jim Loewen, wrote about both President Buchanan and King in his book Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong.

Loewen flatly states: “There’s no reasonable doubt that King and Buchanan were both homosexual, and that they were known to be by political leaders at the time.” Andrew Jackson referred them as “Aunt Fancy” and “Miss Nancy,” King was often referred to as Buchanan’s “wife” and “better half” The two men shared a room in a Washington boarding house for 15 years, while both men were members of Congress.

In a letter written by Buchanan after King was appointed as President Tyler’s Minister to France, and left for Paris:
I am now solitary and alone, having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a-wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection.”

Buchanan had adopted King's mannerisms and romanticized view of southern culture. Both had strong political ambitions, and in 1844 they planned to run as president and vice president. However that was never to happen.

In 1853 William Rufus King was elected Vice president to Franklin Pierce and died of tuberculosis just 45 days after his inauguration. That was four years before Buchanan would go on to be elected President.

James Buchanan had turned down an offer to sit on the Supreme Court.
He was nicknamed "Ten-Cent Jimmy" by the Republicans in the presidential campaign of 1856 after Buchanan said 10 cents was fair daily pay for manual laborers.

Our 15th President, Buchanan was elected in 1856 and served one term.  Upholding a promise he had made in his inaugural address, James Buchanan did not seek reelection in 1860.

He had aspired to be a president who would rank along with George Washington. However, he could never identify a basis for peace or handle the sharply divided pro-slavery and antislavery factions with a unifying principle. Buchanan's view of record was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal. This has caused him to be ranked as one of the worst presidents in American history.

The Confederate States of America were created while he was President after Abraham Lincoln was elected in November, 1860. He did not take an aggressive stance at all against the states that seceded and instead attempted reconciliation without war.

He is, to date, the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor. No Secretary of State has become President since Buchanan! He was the last president born in the 18th century.

The former president supported the Union and the new President Lincoln's policies.

In his retirement, Buchanan devoted much of his time to defending his handling of events leading to the Civil War. Most of his arguments were ignored. He wrote: "Whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country."

Our 15th president and perhaps our only gay president died in 1868, at the age of 78, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.


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