Nekid Chicken Dance

And what a treat is was. Last night after dinner, my four year-old son busted out of his room wearing nary a thing, 'cept his Elmo socks, yelling, "Nekid party!" He then proceeded to dance around the living room, making sure to do lots of high-kicks and rump shaking. Seconds later, his cousin busted out the room, not even bothering to wear socks. Then, as if they had rehearsed it, they tucked their hands in their armpits and began jumping up and down, flapping their "wings" and things yelling, "Nekid party!" all the while. Dinner and a show, folks. I'll not be including pictures from the "party" for this one.

Yeah, he's a loon. In the best way possible! 

Baked Brined Chicken

Baked Brined Chicken

1 whole chicken

4 T olive oil

4 T butter

2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped

2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped

Brine

1 gal water

1 c salt

½ c sugar

1 T fennel seeds

1 T pepper corns

1 T coriander seeds

10 sprigs fresh thyme

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

5 garlic cloves, smashed

Add the “Brine” ingredients to the water and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool completely.

Meanwhile:

Butchering the chicken – remove the back bone. Leaving the skin on and the meat attached to the bones cut away both breasts, wings and leaving the leg and thigh connected cut those away as well. You should have six pieces total. Discard the wings.

Once the brine is completely cooled, place the chicken pieces into the brine, cover and refrigerate for at least four hours. Eight would be better!

After four to eight hours have passed remove the chicken pieces from the brine and pat dry. (Discard the brine.) Liberally season both sides of each piece of chicken with salt and pepper. In two separate skillets (so as not to crowd the chicken causing it to boil) add half of the olive oil and half of the butter. Set stove to medium-high. When the butter is melted place the chicken skin side down into the skillet. Let the chicken cook for 4-5 minutes then flip it over allowing it to cook on the second side for an additional 4-5 minutes. Spray a sheet pan with nonstick spray and scatter celery and carrots evenly around the pan. Place the chicken pieces skin side up on top of the celery and carrots. Poor the pan drippings over the top of the chicken pieces. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. During the last five minutes, remove the aluminum foil for crispier skin. Remove chicken from oven. Leave it covered and let stand for 5-10 minutes.  Serve with my Brussels Sprouts as a healthy side. Enjoy!

Yields 4-6 servings!   

Change it up:

-          After brining but before putting then chicken in the pan to sear, remove the skin.  Dredge the chicken pieces in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Then follow the rest of the directions as written.

-          If you like spice, add one tablespoon of red pepper flakes to the brine and hot sauce to the olive oil and butter.

-          Pour only half of the pan drippings over the chicken. Heat up the other half and add two tablespoons of flour and combine thoroughly  Then add one cup of milk and one cup of chicken stock making sure to whisk quickly and continually to prevent lumps. Add salt and pepper to taste, and you have the perfect gravy!   

No Good at Being Bad

I've always suspected this about myself, that I'm no good at being bad. Bad as in unskilled. I don't like being bad at things. I don't have to be the best, but it really grates on me to be bad at something. This hit home when I went quilting last week. I haven't quilted anything by hand since I was probably six or seven, and I'm sure my participation in that particular project was much less than what it seemed to me at the time. But last week, I was invited to join in a hand-stitched quilting extravaganza, and I was beside myself happy about it. I couldn't wait! I had this beautiful picture in mind of walking in and sitting down, chatting merrily whilst I stitched contentedly with my fellow quilters.

Well, I got schooled. Big time. By the prettiest, sweetest little white haired lady you've ever met. I was really, really terrible. Like, had-to-take-my-stitches-out-five-or-six-times-terrible. My stitches were uneven, too wide, too loose, too wide and uneven again. I stunk it up. No two ways about it, and for someone who tends to be a bit of a perfectionist, that's a tough pill to swallow. I told the lady who invited me I would not be at all offended if she took out my stitches when I left and never invited me back. But she was precious and gracious and told me she thought I had done a good job, which was just an outright lie. I hadn't. But I appreciated her southern manners that required her to try to make me, as her guest, feel good about myself in spite of my failure.

And I am going back. I'm going to persevere and let my elders guide me and teach me and mold me into a quilting maniac. I'm going to tough it out and get over myself and learn how to be at peace with being bad so I can become great. One stitch at time.

The Quilt: Grandma's Flower Garden

Me messing up her beautiful quilt.

She will teach me to quilt, and I will teach her how to keep her

fingers out of the picture when using a smartphone. 

Foul-mouthed Four-year-old

He said a cuss-word, a highly inappropriate word, and a derogatory word, all innocently, unknowingly and in the course of about 60 seconds. It's that silly rhyming game every kid plays! They just sit in the back seat of the car and start, "Itch! Mitch! Kitch! Litch! B#&ch! Rich! Nitch! Ditch!" Etc. And they wonder why mommy is sitting in the front seat red-faced, snorting, and shaking, with tears rolling down her cheeks. Well, mommy is trying desperately not to pee a little, and she thought she was doing a good job of not drawing attention to the situation by not laughing aloud. Apparently, she should have kept her hysterical convulsions under wraps, as well. Oh, and earlier in the day, he also told me, none too softly, "He has buck-teeth, mommy!" Referring to the kindly gentleman who had just been smiling at and teasing him and his cousin in passing. That wasn't foul-mouthed, exactly, but it was certainly rude, and embarrassing to boot. I just pray that sweet old man didn't hear him.  

Do you kiss him or pinch him?

Don't Knock It 'til You Try It!

Raw Brussels Sprouts. Yep, that's what I'm suggesting you eat. Believe it or not, they're delicious! I normally half them, throw them in a pan with salt, pepper, olive oil, onions, garlic and some good ol' bacon. Then I bake them high and fast, finish them with a squeeze of lemon juice, and they're great! Well, one day I had them in a pan with just olive oil, salt and pepper, getting ready to add the other ingredients and thought, "What the heck?" And I ate one raw, and couldn't believe how good they were! So here's my new recipe for Raw Brussels Sprouts.

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh Brussels Sprouts, quartered (trim the ends first)
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
Juice from one large lemon
1/2 t. Sriracha (any pepper sauce you like will do)
1 t. salt (better make it a rounded teaspoon)
1/2 t. ground black pepper

Directions:

- In a bowl with a lid, combine all of the ingredients, except the sprouts. Whisk them until they become a homogeneous mixture. 

- Throw in the sprouts, put on the lid and shake it like a Polaroid picture. (The container, I mean. Or whatever you feel like shaking.)

- Serve 'em up! Couldn't be easier! (The longer they sit in the dressing, the better they taste!)

Raw Brussels Sprouts

Now, if you still can't get past the fact that they're raw, cook them! I actually ate them both ways with the same dressing. After I cooked a chicken breast for dinner, I left the drippings in the pan and tossed in the remaining Brussels Sprouts. Holy mackerel, they were delicious. I ate the leftovers for lunch today, and I think they were even better the second day! Just try them. You'll like them.

  

Pan-seared Brussels Sprouts

Mean Girls

Well, apparently, I'm one of them. I'm a mean girl. At least that's what my four-year-old son tells me. If you have children, I'm sure you've dealt with something similar happening. At least I hope I'm not alone here. He was boundary-pushing, really testing the limits. Therefore, as a responsible parent, I put my foot down. Got stern with him. Shut-him-down. And he didn't like it. He crossed his arms, poked out his lips, tucked his chin and said, "Mommy, you're being mean! Hmph." He may have alluded to it before, but he had never out-right called me mean! Blessedly, my self-worth is not dependent upon the opinion of a four-year-old boy. I just laughed (quietly to myself, of course) and continued what we were doing. 

Then it made me think: I bet that was the toddler version of the teenage "I hate you!" Our children don't really, truly mean it, right? They are, after all, terrible communicators, and they don't exactly enjoy taking responsibility for their actions. In turn, they blame us (their loving parents) for being mean to them. Instead of simply saying, "Mother dear, you are unequivocally spot-on. I was being defiant and testing you. That was rude and irresponsible, and I'm deeply sorry for disobeying you 47 times in a row. I will shamefacedly take myself to my room now," they decide to tell us we're mean or they hate us. As though we didn't say it nicely 47 times before we were cross. 

So, fellow mean parents, let us unite. Let us stand together, sigh loudly and long and look ahead to the days when we can smilingly watch our precious grandchildren return the favor. 

               

Start Early: Saving for Christmas!

A friend of mine sent me this chart, and I can't NOT share it. It's a simple and doable plan for saving money, a little at the time, and having enough at the end of the year to take the financial strain off of Christmas. I should have posted this the second I received it, but just go ahead and put $10 in a piggy bank (I made one out of an empty oatmeal container and hot-glued the lid on), then start saving at "week five." Even print a copy of the chart and adhere it to your bank, checking off the weeks as you save. And you certainly don't have to save in the order listed. If it's easier to start with the $50 weeks and work your way down, or skip around according to your paychecks, or add up the total and divide it by 52 weeks and save the same amount every week - whatever works for you. Just save something, and don't touch it! I'm really gonna try to do this!