The Week of Fried Chicken

Last Friday, I was at the grocery store, and it was 1:30 in the afternoon. I had been out all morning, and hadn't eaten lunch yet.

I walked past the deli counter and thought, "I'm really hungry." I looked over, saw some fried chicken, and decided to get some.

After purchasing my groceries, I sat in the car and ate my fried chicken, and all of a sudden I remembered the week of fried chicken.

I can't believe I haven't documented this story yet.

When my mom passed away, friends and neighbors bought my family food to eat. Well, I have four siblings, all of us are married, four of us have children, and we had other relatives in town too. Needless to say there was an army to feed. (Our driveway looked like a parking lot, we had a few neighbors who decided to stop in just because they saw all the cars, and figured something was wrong.) Anyway, what is the easiest thing to feed an army? You guessed it - fried chicken.

It seemed like on more than one day, a neighbor would drop by lunch (fried chicken), and another friend would drop by dinner and it would be fried chicken too! It was so sweet of everyone to help us, and want us not to have to worry about cooking, but it became kind of a joke in our family that week. A little comic relief during a sad time, I guess. I think we only got one meal that week that didn't consist of fried chicken. We probably even had every kind of fried chicken they sell in my home town. One night, we had to take a break from the chicken and ordered pizza.

To this day, I can not eat fried chicken without thinking about eating chicken for a week when my mom died. It's such a funny memory for me.

My sisters and I have decided to do a girl's trip every year around the same time my mom passed away. Just to get together and do at least one of her favorite things - shop! I think for the fun of it, we should throw in at least one commemorative meal of fried chicken too...

Valentine's Celebrations

My husband tries really hard. He does. You never know what he is going to come up with at any holiday. This year, he said he made plans for us to go out last Friday night to celebrate Valentine's Day. I tried to get information out of him, but he likes to keep things a surprise, but I know how his surprises usually end up, and was trying to help him out. You'll see...

THE GOOD:

My husband knows I don't want flowers or candy for Valentine's Day. I like thoughtful gifts, and being able to tell that a little thought was put into my gift. Well, in the middle of day on Friday, the doorbell rings, and the Fed Ex guy had dropped off a box on my door step:

That was a fun surprise!

Then, that night, John had gotten a baby sitter and we went to dinner at a very nice restaurant, that I'd never been to, which I always love. We had a great dinner, and were seated by a large window, and it started to snow while we were there, which was really pretty.

THE BAD (THE FUNNY):

Then, we head to the next part of the surprise. "Where are we going?" I would ask. "You'll just have to wait and see," John would say. We then pulled into a parking lot of a very large Methodist church. "Please tell me this isn't the surprise," I said. John just smiled. "No, seriously, I'm not going in there until you tell me what we are doing first." (I never claimed I wasn't stubborn) "It's a surprise," he said, "don't you trust me?" "No," I replied, "your track record says I shouldn't." (I brought up a few specifics to make my point... which he could only laugh at. Though to his credit there have been some good surprises too.)

I walk with him (I might add, unwillingly) into the church, trying to see what we were headed into. I saw a sign to celebrate the opening of a youth center, and another sign for a dance, and didn't know to which we were headed. Then, John goes to an old man sitting at a table covered in tickets. "Is this where the sex class is?" I thought I heard him say (mumble). "What?!?!" the voice in my head exclaimed. A second later, I figured out he'd said, saxaphone concert. "My husband brought me to a saxaphone concert to celebrate Valentine's Day??" the voice in my head spoke up again.

We walk into the concert, and I turned to John, "You bought me to a saxaphone concert????" I was not thrilled, to say the least. "There's going to be people dancing the tango," he replied, "you'll like that." I sat down, not very happy, and listened to the lady introduce the group. I then looked over at the program in John's hand, and a light went on. "John, they are going to be playing tango music, not dancing the tango." He didn't believe me. Then I saw that the name of one of the saxaphone quartets had the word, 'tango', in their name, and pointed that out to him as well. I slouched down in my seat, a little annoyed, as John searched the program to find out when the people dancing the tango were going to come on. One song ended, and I leaned over to him and said, "I'm around noise all day, and you bought me here to more noise?" He was just smiling into his program. I was getting more annoyed. "I'm ready to go," I said.

We left after the second piece was over. As we walked out of the church into the falling snow, I said to John, "I can't believe you brought me to a saxaphone concert. A billion things I would love to do tonight, and you bought me to a saxaphone concert." He replied, "I thought you would like a little culture." "Then you should have taken me to see Wicked." I'm sure I follwed that statement up with a good eye roll, and a classic Holly sigh/hiss. "I thought there were going to be people dancing, like Dancing with the Stars, and you would have liked that," he said. "Then, you need to read information more carefully," I said. And, I might have mentioned something about that the money he spent on the tickets I could have gone shopping with instead... I guess a saxaphone concert just wasn't what I expected.

That night when we got in bed, I couldn't stop laughing at the evening. "You took me to a saxaphone concert..." I kept repeating and laughing. Poor John.

BACK TO GOOD:

We continued our celebrations the next day with some car shopping, maternity shopping, and lunch out at a FABULOUS new restaurant. The restaurant is an hour away, and we will so make that drive again to go there. (unfortunately it is not a chain, or I would reccomend you go to one in your area) We had this brie, bacon, and apple dip with yogurt crackers for an appetizer, and it was so good, Mallary kept taking it away from us so she could eat it. The restaurant makes all of their food there, fresh, nothing made from frozen foods. Homemade pasta, delicious bread, knock your socks of desserts, and even truffles!!! Oh, it was so good. (Can you tell I have a thing for food?)

Then yesterday, we celebrated again with a home made Valentine's dinner. See what we made and get the recipes, HERE.

All in all, I think we got our fair share of celebrating in, and our fair share of laughs as well. Good times.

January Wrap Up

I've done pretty well this month keeping up with my blogging. This post will wrap up the rest of my January. The beginning of this month seems so long ago... We brought home a new member of the family this month. No, not a dog, but a new TV finally. Trevan was pretty funny. "Why do we need a new TV? The one we have is fine. I don't want a new TV." I've decided Trevan isn't big on change...

This is how we spent the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday:

Well, I should say, that is how they spent that day. We also cleaned out the garage. Then, that afternoon, I packed up my kids and drove to my sister's house because one of my old college roommates, Kerri, was visiting that area. So, I got to spend about 24 hours with her. We tried out a restaurant John saw on the food network, and that was spotlighted on some other show too, but it really wasn't all that exciting. It was fun to try it out though. I didn't take my camera, but here's some pictures of us from back in the day. After looking through some pictures I realized we really did a lot of fun things together!

We traveled with another friend to Idaho. The middle of nowhere, Idaho. That would be Malad, in case you were wondering.

We disco skated quite a few times!!

We went white water rafting. That was my other wonderful roommate, Caroline. Really, there was a drought, so there wasn't a whole lot of white water...

We went to Vegas. Us playing probably playing some nickel slots. The only time I have ever hitch hiked was with Kerri outside of Vegas. We had another roommate with us too. A lady picked us up, and then she started talking about strange things that could happen to hitch hikers, and made us all a little weirded out. That hitch hiking benefited us none. Kerri even flew out here and drove back to college with me at the end of one summer. Good times!


Then, that following weekend, we had a progressive dinner and poker night with our neighbor friends. It was a Mexican theme.

We started out with appetizers at Mark and Shirley's house; jalapeno poppers, and nachos. The stuffed jalapenos are Mark's specialty we enjoy in the summers, so this was a great treat for us.

See? We don't need a dog. Mallary gets her fill at the neighbor's houses!

We then moved to our house for the main course. We made chicken enchiladas.

I picked up some drinks made in Mexico for the fun of it. The fruit punch kind just tasted like dirty water.

We then went to Chris and Linda's house for dessert. Chris made some yummy empanadas! He made some cookies with the leftover dough, and I think Mallary ate them all...

I was organizing some recipes a few nights before this, and I came across a Tres Leches Cake recipe I had been wanting to try. (I tore it out of a magazine in 2006) So, I made that too for the fun of it.

Then, back to our house for poker (so we could put Mallary to bed). I can't get anyone to wager anything; candy, baked goods, services, nothing. Maybe next time...

We barely got Linda to participate, because I let her borrow a certain book series...

Trevan got to stay up really late that night too!

Then, this past Friday night it started snowing here!! So, Saturday was a fun snow day!

Mallary is wearing all of Trevan's snow gear from when he was little. I haven't even bothered buying her any because it snows so little here (and last year, I was traveling almost every time it did).

My kids love their neighbor friends too!

Mallary loved being outside. I thought she would want to come in pretty quick, but she stayed out there as long as everyone else did.

"Help me!" I thought it was pretty classic that I couldn't find matching mittens for Mallary to wear...

I said I wouldn't post pictures of poo or vomit, but I never said anything about snot... After everyone came in, I made hot chocolate, just like my mom did for us when we played outside as kids.

Obviously, Mallary has picked up some playing tips from her brother. She calls Bert, her 'bad guy.'

"Give me my bad guy!"

Some other highlights for January: The kitchen has stayed pretty clean most of the month!! Trust me, it's a big deal. Which as a result means, I've been cooking a lot. Nothing makes me happier than cooking in a clean kitchen. This month I have also successfully retrained my kids to wait to eat dinner until 6pm, so we can eat with John. I don't even know if he's noticed or not. But, I was proud of myself for having dinner on the table or almost on the table so we could all eat together with him when he got home.

Welcome, February.

New Year's Eve

We rang in the New Year at my sister's house, and like normal I got very few pictures of people, but plenty of food. My sisters and I mostly just chit chatted while everyone else was downstairs "wii-ing."

My little sister worked on a few backs. But, this picture was actually taken so you could see what my other sister was resting her head on. Her face fit nicely into a stuffed Spiderman toy's crotch. It was pretty funny.

Growing up, we always celebrated New Year's Eve with a party in my family. My mom always made party foods, and punch. We stayed up and watched movies, etc. My family still carries on that tradition, except, my oldest brother is a party pooper and doesn't participate anymore.

Here is a little sampling of some of our food fare:

Shrimp, of course, cranberry meatballs, fondue,


I made a lemon trifle (do you know about my love affair with trifles?),



I also made white chocolate truffles rolled in peppermint, and holy cow they were rich. I think everyone could only eat a small portion of their truffle.

Of course, I made chex mix (which by the next morning had only peanuts left in the bottom...). We had lots of food, and chocolate fondue. I also tried a new punch recipe which was yummy too.

For some of the recipes from my New Years see my other blog HERE.

Everyone, even the kids stayed awake to see J-lo's body suit and watch the ball drop. After that, John went to put the kids to bed, I laid my head down on the couch and was out in only a few seconds. They woke me up at 2 to go to bed, and then right when I fell back to sleep, Trevan woke up with his ear hurting really bad, and when we finally got him to go back to sleep, and I finally went back to sleep, Mallary woke up and spent the rest of the night, I mean, morning, in bed with us.

We spent New Years day in our pajamas (well, some of us did) eating, playing Blokus, and the Wii.

Happy New Year!

My poor hands

This past weekend, I had my first paying, catering job. I was in charge of doing the fruit and cheese arrangement that was also used as the centerpiece for the serving tables.

Let me tell you a few things I learned, okay maybe just one big one... When you cut fruit for SIX hours, you should wear gloves!!! My hands were raw, chapped, and burning (and swollen) from the acid of all that fruit!! It's not like you can put on lotion to help your hands until you are done - eight and a half hours later!!

It was so fun! I was telling the people throwing the anniversary party how excited I was to do it, and they just laughed because the whole thing was a bit stressful for them. But, I was excited, I love doing this stuff!

You can see pictures of my arrangement HERE.

Indian Food

If I had to choose a favorite food, I would probably choose Indian food. It is just sooo good. American food really is bland in comparison. Indian food just makes my taste buds sing.

Yesterday, I had Indian food for lunch. I filled my to go boxes from the lunch buffet. They had coconut soup on the menu. I'm not one for Oriental soups; egg drop soup is blah to me, so I wasn't going to get any of the coconut soup. I then decided to be adventurous and fill up a to go bowl (I also tried a new salad, chicken tikka salad, it was good).

I get home and eat my food. I opened the coconut soup, smelled it (I always do that, usually it has to pass the smell test before I'll taste something), and it smelled sweet, so I tentatively got a small spoonful. "Mmmm," good first bite. I got another spoonful, and then another. Then, I put down my spoon, and drank the rest of the soup in about two seconds.

It was so good. All I think the soup consisted of was coconut milk, sugar, and maybe some saffron. What's not to like?

If Indian food makes my taste buds sing, that coconut soup made my taste buds sing an opera!

Today I'm dreaming of coconut soup...

Egg Nog Update

I totally forgot to tell you.

Not long after my posts on one of my favorite holiday beverages - I found a new egg nog.

In the grocery store, a local farm sells their milk in the glass bottles. Well, they also sell egg nog! No high fructose corn syrup. I'm sure it's just as fattening, if not more - but, it's sooo good.

The cost is about the same as regular egg nog, and you get a refund when you bring the glass bottles back.

Check out your local grocery store for some. I am still wanting to see what Whole Foods sells, but if you get there before I do and try some out, let me know!

Help me please

I'm on the hunt for twin red and white polka dotted sheets. (I saw some last year and kick myself once a week for not buying them)

Also on the hunt for a good lemon chicken recipe. No lemon Pledge tasting things please. Or if you know a restaurant that serves good lemon chicken - all chicken breast, not fried mystery meat.

Find me these things and I will love you forever. Really I will.

My Egg Nog

is soo not healthy. I mean, I know it's egg nog, but...

I've been drinking this brand for a few years now, and I just read the label for the first time today. (I know. I know. My mom would so not approve. Sometimes reading the lables does take the fun out of eating...)

Over 200 calories in only a half a cup, not to mention sugar etc.

AND it has high fructose corn syrup. Of course it does! I mean I'm not totally opposed to high fructose corn syrup - not a fanatic by any means, but I do try not to put too many disgusting things in my body. (Did I ever tell you about the time I was at Target late at night and wanted a snack? I ended up buying some applesauce and almost ate the whole jar. I looked at the label afterwards and it had high fructose corn syrup! What??!! That must have been why it was so good...)

So, I'm on the hunt for some other Egg Nog.

I'll keep you posted...

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

Except for the brief standoff this morning with Trevan (John told him if he didn't eat his dinner last night, he'd have to eat it for breakfast. Then, this morning when he wasn't eating it, I told him if he didn't eat it for breakfast then he would eat it for lunch, and so on. We are so mean! We don't play along with the, "I'm full," but will eat junk five minutes later routine, or the "I don't like it" routine, because you can tell when he doesn't like something and when he just won't eat it in hopes for something better - I mean sweeter). Anyway, he finished eating his broccoli casserole in the car on the way to the gym.

This morning has been great! Mallary's mess to clean up after breakfast was very minimal, and I went to spin class in all my pregnant glory (I'm 16 weeks in case you are wondering).

We went to the grocery store and the kids were angels! Can you believe it? Mallary was an angel! Mallary even pushed the little kiddie cart until she found the Goldfish and carried those instead. I didn't even get a big cart. I even did self checkout and the kids had fun helping me do that too! I got way more stuff than expected, and the nice man at Harris Teeter went and got me a bigger buggy (cart, whatever).

A few of my favorite things I got at the store that really added a bounce to my step:

Different flavored Martinelli's and EGG NOG!!

I even found an expensive spice I use in the clearance basket on sale. I guess no one else uses Beau Monde - I bought three of them!

Mallary likes to help put away the groceries (and put the clothes in the dryer, but only after smelling them all first).

I love Southern Comfort Egg Nog - The Vanilla Spice flavor tastes really similar to my Grandma's custard! MMMMMmmmmm so good! Trevan calls Egg Nog, "Egg Milk." Doesn't that sound delish???

My big helpers

This is one of my favorite times of year because these products are now available!!!!!

Yes. I drink my calories, thank you very much.

And, that is why I go to spin class...

New favorite

One of my biggest weaknesses is food. I would love to be a food critic, and go around sampling foods. I think I'm going to look into that... Unfortunately, my husband shares this passion with me, so we LOVE trying new restaurants and new food. Which isn't so great on our waist lines or our wallets...

I am 30 years old, and I just had the best burger of my life on Monday at a restaurant we tried near John's work. We had tried a few of the bakery items there before, but had never eaten a meal there.

I. WAS. IN. HEAVEN.

This was my burger: Certified American KOBE 8 oz. burger with smoked cheddar cheese, caramelized red onions, apple wood smoked thick-sliced bacon, roasted garlic black truffle aioli & local lettuce on a (the restaurant's) bun. I think it had another sauce on it too, but not sure what it was.

Doesn't seem like anything too extraordinary, right?

My thing with burgers is I don't like pink, and most restaraunts can't cook that. This burger was juicy, and oh so flavorful, I ate and enjoyed every single bite. Honestly when I let John take a bite, I didn't say this out loud, but I thought, "that was a little too big." It was soooo goood! (That's the beauty of sharing this love with my husband we always sample each other's food. There are a lot of times we want to order the same things, but try not to so we can try different food.)

When John saw the word 'truffle' on the menu he said, "there's chocolate on the burger?" I like to think I've helped him be more cultured.

I've been dreaming of that burger since Monday...

In my kitchen

Yesterday, I had a billion things to do. Instead of doing them, I spent all day in the kitchen.

I've never canned my own jam/jelly, never even made it (not counting freezer jam), so I decided I wanted to try it out. I don't know if it has been the cold, rainy weather that is making me feel like a squirrel and want to store some nuts for the winter or what, but I have been wanting to do this!

So I made blackberry jam, raspberry jam, four berry jam, and 2 jars of apple butter. All the cans sealed and I was so proud of myself.

I did have a few mess ups. It was my first time, I don't use recipes, and mess ups are bound to happen. I called my Grandma seven times for tips (you would think that she would have a recipe she could give me after doing this all her life, but nooooo... so I'll write down my recipes for my posterity. My Grandma has also never made seedless jam, and she wasn't sure it would work very well, but that's what I did.) My blackberry jam was my first guinea pig, and I ended up making blackberry glue. My raspberry jam was next and it was a little less gluey. Luckily, I finally learned my lesson and my four berry jam turned out with a good consistency. I was really excited for my apple butter, and it turned out good, though not as dark as my Grandmas. But, it was fun to experiment and learn how to do it all by myself.

I also made some broccoli, potato, cheddar soup (I love soup, and I love fun soup bowls! These bowls have lids and look like mini pots, so cute.) and rolls for dinner. The soup was perfect, I was so excited to eat it, and when I went to reheat it for dinner, I forgot about it and burnt the bottom! The smell made me even more nauseous than I already was for the rest of the night. Blah! The reason I burnt the soup was because I was making apple dumplings for dessert and forgot about the soup. At the same moment the soup was burning, the almond sauce which was also cooking on the stove for the dumplings boiled over, making a huge mess. It was a fun moment for me...

My belly was full, the kitchen was a mess, and unfortunately I fell asleep watching The Office.

Also, being in my kitchen all day made me want to
run to Home Depot to put in some tile,
redo the floors, and paint the cabinets.
I better stay out of the kitchen for a while...

Check

I don't make New Year's Resolutions, I just make a type of 'To Do' list. Or 'want to do' list. Last year I tasted some grape juice someone canned, and I wanted to do it too; so I put it on my 'to do' list, and this past weekend I did it! Check!

My parents would can their own grape juice, but it was pure grape juice (no sugar, no water)where the grapes were strained, etc. But, this was much easier, and so pretty! I did make some without adding sugar to it, and that was not very tasty.

Next year, I want to make the pure stuff but add grapes to the jars to make it look pretty.

And now all these pretty jars are in my pantry. So fun!

My favorite 3 C's

Creating, Cooking, and Consuming FOOD!

So, last Friday I cleaned my kitchen (trust me it's a big deal, and of course you couldn't tell by the next day), and then I went to the grocery store and all of a sudden I had the urge to make a yummy meal. (My sister and her husband, and my dad were coming, but I was just going to do something simple because I was tired) While I was in the grocery store though, I decided I needed to cook, and I love cooking when my kitchen is clean, and that really does energize me. So, I tried these out for the first time... My yummy salad served in a pear.

I also made my own recipe for chicken cor don bleu, but forgot to take a picture until I almost finished mine. I pride myself on rolling it tight enough not to have to use toothpicks.

I also tried a new baked apple with candy bar dessert, which was all right, but I'll probably never make it again. It wasn't knock your socks off good enough, you know? I was also craving sweet potatoes and made some of those too, before I realized we didn't need to starches with dinner (rice and potatoes), oh well, I enjoyed it, starch and all.

So, on Wednesday of this week, I had no appointments, meetings, orders to fill, or anything. I even moved the couch to block off the kitchen from Mallary to help reduce Mallary induced stress. I was so excited!!! I decided I was going to do some cooking!!!!

I asked John a while ago to tell me what his favorite meals that I cook are. He gave me a few, and then said, "It's hard, because you make something good, and then don't make it again for two years." It's true. I like trying new recipes. For example this casserole, I haven't made since I lived in Utah, but I passed by the pumpkins in the grocery store and couldn't resist. So, I made this on Wednesday. A casserole baked in a pumpkin. Mallary ate most of it, she loves any casserole. You would think it would be weird to scrape the edge of the pumpkin to eat with beef and rice, but it's so good.

I've been wanting to make rolls for a while, and then found this recipe I had never tried in my collection. It turned out so yummy. That's all Trevan has wanted to eat since Wednesday for every meal. Home made bread is bad for me. I've already had four pieces of toast toasted in the oven with butter (the best way to make toast, and the only way I like toast, actually) today (and it's 11 am).


It was a white and wheat molasses swirl bread. (with my grandparents home made molasses)



Mmmm....

Okay, so yesterday I made chicken salad for dinner. For any dish I make where the chicken will be cut up or shred, I make my chicken in the crock pot. If you are still boiling your chicken, stop it! This is so much yummier, and you don't get the dry, chewy pieces of chicken. Yuck. You just put the chicken in the crock pot (cut the skin off with kitchen shears or not - the skin basically comes off anyway, depends on healthy you want to cook it) I don't even put any liquid in the crock pot, it just steams itself and creates all that yummy broth.

So easy. 4 hours in the crock pot, you know it's done when the little hole comes in the top (the breast bone breaking through, I guess), and when the legs fall away from the body and can be removed by barely touching them. Seriously, so moist and tender. I could eat the whole thing myself. Seriously.

So we had a summery dinner last night (the best chicken salad I've made in a while, I personally think) followed by a fall dessert.

I told you I was on a pumpkin kick. This was a baked custard. I had some leftovers that wouldn't fit in the pumpkin and I put them in ramekins and they made some very yummy souffles, but the custard inside the pumpkin turned out very differently.

Once you got past the top layer that was touching the top of the pumpkin it was a very smooth, creamy, flavorful flan-like dessert.

It doesn't look very yummy, but it was. You were supposed to serve it with pieces of pumpkin with it. Look how perfect the consistency was in the lower right hand corner? So good. I ate two souffles, I offered to eat Johns (he declined), and then I had two servings from the pumpkin. It was actually the first time I remember John ever commenting on me eating a lot. I think it was because he was being nice and being the one to get up and get me my second and third servings...

I love cooking, it is such a stress reliever for me (it also helps that John does the dishes), and I love seeing what I can create with my two little hands. Yay for food!!! Hope you eat some yummy food this weekend!

I'm going to go have some more custard...