Home from Camp!

Ohhhhh my goodness...was getting packed and off to camp ever an ordeal! It was great though, a fabulous time was had by all. The services were great, the activities were a blast, and the friendships that were made are priceless.

Here is Elyse with her friends Chelsea and Natalie!

Ava was able to go with me and stay in the girls dorm as well as her BFF Bethany who went with her Aunt Lynette who was also a counselor.

Can you tell they adore each other?

Chandler and Caeden stayed in the same area in their dorm, which I was really glad about.

They made lots of friends too. They both really enjoyed the sports activities.

Here is a photo of Chandler's team.

Here is Caeden waiting to "steal the bacon" or something like that...

Here's Chandler and Caeden in the cafeteria...aren't they so handsome?

When we were shopping for our camp necessities, Caeden spotted a box of cliff bars and made it clear he needed to have some for "extra energy". So of course we bought him a box! Crunchy Peanut Butter!

There were classes every morning for all the kids...

here's Chandler and Caeden being best buds during their class.

Elyse with more of her friends...

Chandler playing flag football...

Ava enjoyed visiting the snack bar...

Here are my buddies in their dorm...ummmmm....I must interject that I was a bit surprised when I went to pick their things up on the last day...they informed me they hadnt needed their towels at all. Nor their extra pairs of undies. I guess it's nothing to worry about, every time I hugged them during the week I wasn't blown over by poochie smells so I suppose I can't gripe at them too much!!!

The best part of camp was when the kids all prayed together. This melted my heart when Ava put her hands around Bethany's shoulders to pray for her.

My sweet girl was so very sincere in her worship to God.

After camp was over, we stopped at Pismo Beach for some sand castle fun. We had a blast!

Ava buried alive!!!

When I asked the kids what time we should leave Pismo, one said "TOMORROW!" and the other said, "NEVER!". We ended up staying about 3 hours longer than I'd planned and I nearly fell asleep on the drive home but it was worth it!!!

Now, we are debating whether to go back this week as a family and do some camping out...

will update soon!!!

The FOOD Thing (((sigh))) Rosemary Lemon Chicken and Yemeni Rice

Ok. I am here. I am here to post my promised food thing. I am going to be very frank and say that I can honestly admit that I don't see myself sticking to something like this on a regular basis. At all. Unless I carefully schedule it into my life and prepare very very carefully. Maybe I will get better at it but I am such a retard when it comes to to doing something, I want to do it RIGHT and I had my daughter take the photos and my lord we had SEVENTY THREE pictures of ME COOKING A STINKIN CHICKEN!!! Needless to say I am one week and one day late and it's been weighing so heavily on my mind to GET IT DONE it's making me crazy. So here goes...and from here on out, no promises. You get what you get. So be happy. ;)

First of all let me explain that I have 2 gadgets in my kitchen that I love. One is a rotisserie and the other is a rice cooker. The rice cooker is a fairly new addition because I have a ceramic stove top that I DESPISE and had too many burned batches of rice so the hubster was so thoughtful to bring me this great contraption to assist me. I love it. Simply because I can put everything on to cook, then I can go do my thing. Like blog. (sure) But I do like to clean the kitchen, set the table, cut up veggies, and so forth while dinner is cooking and I feel very productive and secure that our meal will be cooked thoroughly in a reasonable amount of time. So. If you don't have either of these, or you only have one, I will try to include an improvised method to achieve the same results. :)

I'm going to start with the chicken.
Ingredients:

One whole chicken with guts removed
Fresh rosemary (mine is stolen from my neighbor's yard, forgive me Lord)
Fresh garlic (3 cloves peeled and minced)
Sea Salt
One lemon
Black Pepper

Here is a photo of the sea salt I buy at Costco. My son painted these darling little salt and pepper shakers so I thought I would share...but I do use a black pepper mill for fresh ground pepper in all my cooking.

The key ingredients: lemon, stolen rosemary, and garlic

This is a garlic press in case you are not aware. I could not live without it and it is best to invest in a good one. Please do not buy the "good cook" brand at your local grocery and expect to be happy with it. Just sayin'.

And here are the fat little garlic cloves all peeled and ready to be minced!

Here I am doing my most favorite (NOT) thing in the world to do. Removing the innards of the chicken. This right here can convince me to be a vegetarian for life. I promise, I say it every time but then when the chicken comes out of the rotisserie all dripping and crispy I always change my tune.

After removing the guts, squeeze the lemon juice all over the guy. He will love it.Then salt him generously. He might yelp a little during this process because salt can burn especially right after the lemon wash but it will be ok.

After that I stuff the lemon halves into the body cavity. (that way he doesn't suffer from malnutrition during the cooking process)Here is where you use the handy dandy garlic press and just squeeze all the garlic right on top of Chicken Little.

Then you gently massage the minced garlic all over the bab...I mean chicken. He will find this rather relaxing. Next is the stolen rosemary treatment. Here I am stuffing some into the body cavity to keep the lemon company.

Here I had just been chewed out by the hub so I was just letting out some frustration...just kidding, I made a few cuts in the breast (ow) to insert some rosemary sprigs.Fresh cracked pepperAlmost ready for the next step! But first, a message from our sponsor:

Have I ever told you how much I love birds? Well this little bluebird is a very special family heirloom. He is part of a bird collection that my grandmother had while I was growing up. He is in fact the smallest one of the collection and the only one I have been fortunate enough to have in my posession. Anyhow, he sits on my kitchen counter and brings me much cheer. I also love colored glass, which you can see in the nicely blurred background, in addition to the darling little handpainted apple/sugarbowl that Caeden painted for me at "Kid's at Art". I love my birds and my glass! And now, back to our show.

This next section of our process is tying this little guy up. I usually cut a piece of COOKING twine (please don't use anything else and expect for your house to not burn down, I will not be responsible for your arson escapades) about 24-30 inches in length.First start off by stretching the twine midways across the chest of the chicken. Don't worry about cutting off his circulation.Gently flip him overAnd crisscross the twine just like this.Then flip him again and cinch the twine catching his little legs right above the kneecaps.Tie the twine in a knot and trim off any excess. There. Now he has no choice but to sit still and there will be no chance of him scampering off to join the Gingerbread Boy.

Now comes the fun part. If you don't have a rotisserie you would be putting Chicken Little into the conventional oven at this point. (preheated to 350 degrees.) Cook for 30 minutes at 350 then reduce heat to 325 and cook for one more hour. For the rotisserie crowd you get to spear the chicken right in the breasts with the rotiserrie sticks.Carefully work him down until the rotisserie sticks come poking out right between the legs and the...ummm...butt area I guess.Put the other end of the rotisserie wheel on and voila he's ready to enter "the chamber".Doesn't he look so cozy and snug? (He? I've been saying "he" all this time and I just realized I think it's a "she". Oh well)Set the timer for 1 1/2 hours and go take a nap!!! Ha! Actually no, go scrub toilets or spank a bottom I don't care but you have at least an hour and a half to do whatever you want. In all reality, I start the rice about now but I am waiting for part of the recipe from my sweet sister in love who shared it with me so I will add that LATER. Sheesh. My neck is killing me from all this blogging and photo importing and whatnot. I usually serve this with yemeni rice, homemade hummus, toasted whole wheat pita bread, sliced red peppers, and sliced cucumbers. 

I hope you enjoy your chicken!!!

Gator Gumbo-A Spicy Hot Tale by Candace Fleming

Ahhhh my dear friends and readers...today is TASTY TUESDAY!!!! But alas I should have chosen my item of show and tell YESTERDAY and done my photos and blogging update today. Unfortunately, my scrumptious concoctions are still in their respective cooking gadgets and my time for blogging is NOW. So bear with me and cut me some slack and my promised presentation will be posted as soon as possible! You won't be disappointed I promise.

Are you wondering why I changed the name of my blog? Well check out the "about me" on the right and it sort of explains it okay? I'm sort of funny about names but I think this fits my lifestyle a little better.

So in the meantime, I was looking for a cute book for my kids to learn a little about cajun food since they have recently discovered a love for hush puppies, ("lil' doggie things" as Ava calls them) and I stumbled upon this adorable book called "Gator Gumbo-A Spicy Hot Tale" by Candace Fleming. I'm posting a review from Amazon's fabulous website for you to enjoy. Please note that the title of this post is actually a link to the book on Amazon! (Can you tell I LOVE Amazon?)

"Let me tell you about Monsieur Gator.
Monsieur Gator, he lives down in the bayou, oh yes he do.
He lives on the edge of the swamp, uh-huh.
He has big claws, big teeth, and a big appetite, for sure.
But Monsieur Gator, he has a big problem too.

You see, Monsieur Gator, he is getting old.
He is growing gray.
He is moving so-s-o
so-o-o
Sl-o-o-o-w.

Hoo, I tell you that gator moves slower than saw grass grows.
He moves slower than a snail with sore feet.
He moves so slow he cannot catch himself a taste of possum, or a
bit of otter, or a whiff of stripe-tailed skunk.

And - oh ho! - them critters sure know it!"


So starts this wonderful tale; a retelling of the tale of The Little Red Hen when all is said and done. This little story is set along the banks of a Louisiana Bayou and is filled with the most interesting characters.

All the swamp critters know that Monsieur Gator is getting old and cannot catch them any more and they take full advantage of this and spend their day teasing and tormenting the old gator. I must say that they are obnoxious little critters and as the story unfolds you become quite sorry for the old gator and quite putout at the obnoxious little beasties.

The old gator is crafty though. I suspect he has read the adventures of The Little Red Hen and he uses the same ploy that our little feathered friend used, slowly building his pot of gumbo and asking at each phase for help; help that is solidly refused by his lazy little tormentors. That is okay with Old Gator though...he keeps right on working.

Now I will tell you right here that the ending of this little story comes out quite differently than the results of the hen and her bread making; oh my yes! I hate to throw in a spoiler here so I will just say that in the end, Monsieur Gator is well fed and he no longer has a band of twerps making his life miserable.

This is a well written and beautifully illustrated book. It is great fun to read this to a group of little ones and it is especially fun if you can come up with just a bit of a Cajun accent. The kids get quite a kick out of it.

Let me address a couple of the objections voiced concerning this work. First, it seems that at least one reviewer did not like the book because, strictly speaking, it did not follow the absolute correct recipe for making gumbo. That is absolutely correct - it did not. On the other hand, I have read this work to at least fifty or more children over the years and I can assure you that not one of them picked up on this fact. To trash a book due to this seems to me a bit petty. Secondly, some reviewers felt that there were too many new word introduced in this story; too many for the wee crowd. This may be true, but on the other hand, I felt this is one of the strengths of the book...i.e., the introduction of new words. I have never in my rather lengthy life met or seen a kid hurt by learning new words, no matter what their age. Thirdly, it would seem that the rather violent end...i.e. the little critters got ate by the old gator that was tormenting him, is somehow politically incorrect. Good grief folks, in the wild you have predators and you have prey. That is just a fact of life. This is in many ways a cautionary tale and I see no problems in teaching a child how nature (and life I might add) actually works. I have seen quite a number of gators in my lifetime and have yet to find one that was a vegetarian.

Of course this is all quite subjective and in the end, it is the parent or teacher who must make the judgment call as to whether or not their child will respond well to this work...that is what parents and teachers do.

All in all, this is a great read; one of my favorite. I have read it to many children and I always receive calls for rereading. Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

I hope to be posting pictures of our Fourth of July celebration as well my tasty tuesday contribution in the very near future. Stay tuned...Spicy Red Hen