Beer Can Chicken

So the other night, I had a chicken I wanted to roast. It was too hot to do it in the house. I decided to try my hand at beer can chicken, though I used a Diet DP can filled half full with beer and spices. I rubbed the chicken with Penzey's Bicentennial Rub, minced garlic, and shoved half an onion in it's cavity. I also rubbed it with some olive oil. I cooked it on indirect heat (gas grill) for about 1 1/2 hours. I turned it 180 degrees once. I think this was by far the best 'roast' chicken I have ever made! I can't wait to do another....

So I had leftovers. Tonight I decided to make chicken enchiladas. I used the leftover chicken, a can of green chilies, some onion, jalapeno, chipotle powder, and shredded colby/jack cheese. I rolled them in flour tortillas, nested them in my big cast iron skillet, and put them on the grill-indirect heat. Meanwhile, I cooked some brown rice with green chilies, some black beans with salsa mixed in, and sour cream sauce. For the sauce, I used a carton of low fat sour cream, 1 cup of chicken broth, cumin, chipotle powder, salt and pepper. I heated it slowly, stirring with a whisk. I mixed some flour and water and added to thicken it up. Once it was the right consistency, I poured it over the enchiladas, topped with more cheese, and left until the cheese was melty.

I served it all with sliced avocados and salsa. Yum!

Both are sure to become staples in the coming months!

I'm back!

OK, so I think I may be ready to get back to this blogging business. I still have another blog for school related stuff--anonymous, so email me if you want the URL.
This blog will continue to be random musings--about life, love, the pursuit of happiness, and an occasional recipe or three. I still like to cook; it's just usually the sort of RANDOM throw something together with the ingredients I have on hand. See the random theme here?

So, my summer has flown by. I've volunteered at 3 camps--one for individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome, one for youth with disabilities, and one for kids with or in remission from cancer. The first two are at the same location here in OK. The last one is in TX (I've blogged about it previously). All were so much fun, but so different! I hope to continue to do all of them.

Let's see, in other news--I've moved schools. I'm going back to middle school and am SOOO excited. The people there have been so friendly and welcoming. I'll be the mild MR teacher. My caseload is about 10 students and I'll be teaching the four content areas--social studies, language arts, math, and science. I'll also have an advisory class full of typical 6th graders. I can't say how excited I am about my class!
To that end, I've spent several days cleaning out my classroom. I think I've eliminated enough stuff to fill a couple dumpsters. It seems like the wonderful teacher I am replacing (after 9 years!) was a pack rat. So, I've been unpacking. And unpacking. And so forth. Wow. I finally feel like I've made a dent in things. This evening, my roomie came up and helped me hang some fabric. It's a deep crimson color and looks great! I've taken some before pictures of the room; I'll take some more once it's all done.
I'm heading back up there tomorrow to continue going through all the books. I'm eliminating a lot of things. As a rule, anything that is older than me goes. Actually, anything from about when I graduated from HS and sooner goes. Anything that is redundant goes. Things that have yellowed paper are gone. Anything that has a substantial amount of missing parts-trash. I think I have all of my social studies/geography/map reading books in order. Tomorrow I'm going to work on the literature books.

That's all for now...it's been a long day.