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.

Hello!

Hi there. It's been a while...I've been deciding where to take this blog. I've actually been considering going 'undercover' and writing a 'tales from the classroom' blog. If I do anything in more detail than what I've done, I'd prefer to do it much more anonymously. So, I'm pondering. If I do that, I'll post as much here and ask anyone interested to email me for the blog address.

In the meantime, life is busy and pretty good.
I went to Florida on Spring Break--I needed it!
Here are some pics from Florida and a few others.

Salty Sweet Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was craving something a little bit sweet today, and these cookies really fed that craving!
These combine saltiness with the crunch of peanuts and a bit of chocolate. They are a crisp cookie. It was hard for me to just eat one! This is definitely a recipe I will turn to again. I might try to use more brown and less white sugar next time to try and get a chewier cookie. Either way, they taste really good!



Salty Sweet Chocolate Chip Cookies

March 2007 Cooking Light

Wow, so it's been almost a month. February flew by--I have a lot of trainings/conferences, had to scramble to get some meetings done around my schedule, and have been sick on top of that. I'm actually home from school for the 2nd day today.

March 2007 Cooking Light has some good sounding recipes. I made about 5 or 6 from the Jan/Feb issue. I hope to do better this month.
Here is the list of what I hope to make. There are more that sound good, but that I know I won't make because of the ingredient list.

Desserts
Piña Colada Cheesecake Bars
Sweet and Salty Peanut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Chai Latte Brownies

Main Courses
Penne with Pancetta, Spinach, and Buttery Crumb Topping
Thai Chicken Sauté
Superfast Kofte
Sesame-Crusted Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Pineapple, Mango, and Red Pepper Relish
Chicken and Potatoes over Sautéed Spinach
Stir-Fried Szechuan Steak on Rice
Flank Steak with Chunky Mojo Relish
Open-Faced Jerk Vegetable Sandwiches
Cuban Black Bean Patties with Pineapple Rice
Zesty Citrus Chicken
Parmesan Chicken Paillards with Cherry Tomato Sauce
Grilled Chicken, Mango, and Jicama Salad with Tequila-Lime Vinaigrette
Gulf Fish en Papillote

Salads
Chicken, Carrot, and Cucumber Salad
Carrot-Pineapple Slaw
Carrot and Cucumber Salad
Kisir
BLT Bread Salad

Breads
Mummy's Brown Soda Bread
Souther Corn Bread with Molasses-Bourbon Butter
Sesame-Sea Salt Breadsticks

Soups
Sausage and Spinach Soup
Theresa's Double-Tomato Soup
Irish Colcannon and Thyme Leaf Soup
Sweet Corn Chowder with Hot-Smoked Salmon

Other
Mango Salsa
Dal with Cucumber Cream and Pita Chips

Things I Learned

I had quite a weekend!
Here are some highlights.

1-It was easier to get into bunk beds when I was 11 or 12 than it is now.

2-It's really quite hilarious to be having a conversation with a young adult (23 years old) with exceptional needs about pooing. It is somewhat refreshing about how open and earnest she could be--"Oh no. I have the runnies. Ohhhh no."

3-Roasted marshmallows are as good as they were when I was 10.

4-When I get down from a bunk bed (record 8 times in a 15 minute span last night), it's kind of scary. And I almost hurt myself.
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I went to a camp up near Guthrie, OK called Making Promises Happen. I've been there briefly before, but this was my first time to be a counselor there. It was the young adult weekend--those from 17-25 or so with disabilities. I was paired with a 23 year old girl with cerebral palsy. She was a hoot! She kept me laughing most of the weekend. She had such a happy disposition most of the time. We had tough time after she almost fell going from the toilet to her wheelchair. She got really worked up and I had to put on my 'mean face' and tell her to get a grip and get back into her chair already! This was over a 15 minute span, and we were missing the dance! Once we got to the dance, she kept telling me, "Jennifer. I'm a little bit upset." She never said it was at me, but I still kept my distance for a while. Later she danced with me so it was all good!
I got yelled at pretty good (and hit some too) by a girl with some behavioral issues. I heard she was wishing death on me last night because I told her it was time to go to bed. Those are the people that I just want to crack--I want to figure her out so I don't spend 5 minutes or so trying to reason with someone you just can't reason with! I think she was OK with me today when I left because I let her have my chair at the talent show, and I smiled and said bye to her.
Oh, the talent show! It was something else. The kids loved it, and it was fun to see them all get up and strut their stuff. No shame in this bunch!

A New Leaf

I'm embarking on a new career. Well, OK it's not what you think. It's not a career at all, it's just something else to take up my time when I'm not working. I'm excited as it's something different for me. Last week I was voted (unanimously) to the Board of Directors for a local non-profit agency. It's a different type of agency than most in that it serves as a landlord to 19 other agencies, most of which are United Way agencies. It's called Community Services Building, Inc. We maintain and take care of the OLD state owned building. In turn, our clients pay about 50% market value for rent, get free internet and utilities, and are housed in a centralized complex. They are then able to put more of their budget towards serving their clientèle. Some of the agencies in our building are CrossRoads Headstart (benefits some of my students), Compassionate Friends, Full Circle Adult Day Care, Among Friends--for adults with developmental disabilities, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Meals on Wheels. All of these are the types of non-profits I like to support, and have been involved with many of them or similar type agencies in past years. I'm excited, if a bit anxious. I'm used to the hands-on type service-like I show up at the hospital, wash up, and then play with kids in the emergency room for a few hours. This will involve PR, budgeting, board meetings, and some Saturdays spent doing whatever needs to be done. It's different, but an experience I'm looking forward to!

Things have been wicked busy lately, so I've pretty much fell off the cooking bandwagon. I'm all about convenience lately. I hope once I get through the next week or 2, things will settle down. Until then...

History

I grew up about 10 minutes from my great-grandparents' homestead. I have many fond memories of riding horses, exploring, playing with my cousins, 2nd cousins, and 3rd cousins, mischief, and good home cooking. One of the things my cousins and I did was play in our great-grandparents' old house. At that point, it was dilapidated--no windows, mice, probably snakes, and so forth. I think we tried to sleep it one night, but got scared and went in to the house my great aunt and uncle then occupied.
Anyhow, all of this background is intended to show the house my grandpa grew up in. It was his parents, at one time his grandparents, his 2 sisters, and 1 brother. So, at the most there were 8 people living in this house.

Wow.

My freezer is getting stocked!

We were supposed to have a work potluck on Wednesday. As school was canceled, it was moved to Thursday. I really thought we'd end up back in school this week, so I defrosted my hamburger meat with plans to make Sweetnicks Cheeseburger Soup. Well, school is out again tomorrow. So, I had all this hamburger meat. I knew that whatever I made would need to be frozen, as it was 2 lbs. of meat. So, I set out to make some beef, bean and barley soup. No recipe, of course. Basically, it went something like this:
Brown meat, drain.
Saute finely chopped onion, garlic, celery, and carrots until tender.
Add 6 cups of water+ 6 tsp. of Beef Better Than Bouillon, 1 large can of pureed Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme to taste. Bring to boil.
Add browned meat and 1 1/2 cups of quick cooking barley.
Cook 10 minutes. Add 1 cup of thinly sliced mushrooms and 1 can of drained and rinsed kidney beans. Cook for 5 more minutes.
And here is a blurry picture. I think the steam was messing with my camera!

Now I need to go portion it up and put in the freezer, along with the chili I made earlier this week.

Earlier today, I was craving something fried (I blame the weather). So, I cooked up some corn fritters from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, which is my favorite go to cookbook for basic recipes that I don't make everyday (pancakes, biscuits, scones, etc.) I read this cookbook almost cover to cover when I got it--it's a great kitchen resource for the beginning and experienced cook alike. The fritters are made from flour, cornmeal (I used coarse ground cornmeal that I make polenta with in place of some of the cornmeal because I wanted more crunch), baking powder, salt, sugar, milk, egg, and of course corn. I also add a few dashes of cayenne, because I like the kick of spice with the sweet corn and maple syrup that I dip them in. Yeah, so much for my eating healthy this year. Again, I blame the weather! I make these about 2x a year and never tire of them. Crunchy, spicy, sweet...they are a tasty treat.

Enough already!

Last Friday, we had freezing rain/ice pellets that lasted off and on through Sunday. Monday we were out of school for MLK day. It's now Wednesday night and we haven't been back to school. The soonest we'll go back is Friday, but then we could get 5-10 inches of snow this weekend and be out of school on Monday.
This is crazy-I don't remember having this many snow days in a row when I was a kid, and we lived out in the country. I recall a huge snowstorm when I was in kindergarten. I think they let us out early (being a stand alone school district--K-12, they could do that). Anyhow, my school bus got stuck in a big drift about a mile from our house (near where I would run the Scout into a ditch about 12 years later). This was before the time of cell phones! So, an area farmer (Mr. Standridge) brought his big John Deere to the bus and the remaining 3 or 4 students got to ride a tractor the rest of the way home. I would imagine today that there would be way too many liability concerns for us to have even looked at that tractor. Besides, with every kid having a cell phone (so it seems), we would have just called our parents and had them come get us.