The Beer Can Chicken

Here's Arnie's new kitchen gadget:

It's the beer can chicken cooker gadget.  He smoked a whole chicken over the top of a can full of beer.  The chicken was very moist and succulent, but really did not taste like beer...we need to research this process a little more.  It was a great experiment, though.  This was the first time he smoked a whole chicken.  It took three hours!  Well worth the wait.

Can you see the beer can peeking out the chicken's...hmm.  I don't think I want to consider which end of the bird that is.

Katie thought the chicken was very funny looking - as though it was standing up squawking at us.  She was impersonating (maybe that's imitating) the bird, so I snapped a shot of her.  She looks just as yummy.

I Used to Bake Often

The smell of warm yeast.  Bread rising and baking.  Smells that I love.  When the kids were little, we were home more often, so I used to bake rolls and breads.  I would bake a lot on one day and put some in the freezer for later.  I would even freeze the dough after the initial rising and forming of the loaves.  When we were ready to eat the bread, I'd pull the frozen dough out of the freezer in the morning.  By afternoon, it was ready to bake.

Robby set a play list for cleaning time.  We rocked out.

So today, we had nowhere to go and nothing to do.  Yay!  I made wheat rolls.  The kids, sadly, did not remember me ever making bread and were pretty fascinated by the process, although not for long.  They lazed around the house after their chores were done while I slaved in the hot kitchen.  Sweat dripping from my brow as I labored over...okay.  It was fun and not hot and not sweaty.  I forgot how much I love making bread.  I might try a buttermilk loaf of some kind on Friday. 

Katie Conquers Breakfast

On Saturday, our first official day of Spring break, Katie woke up early and found me at the kitchen table looking through cookbooks for coffee cake recipes.  Breakfast remains a lazy meal of sorts for me.  Usually breakfast is every man for himself in the Lewis household. 

Weekdays we are pouring bowls of cereal or boiling water for oatmeal or toasting English muffins or bread - on really great weeks we have frozen pancakes or waffles from the weekend that the kids heat in the microwave.  Weekends sometimes bring pancakes or waffles made by Robby or Maureen.  Sometimes Arnie makes garbage eggs - eggs and anything he can find in the refrigerator.  Arnie's concoctions are Katie's favorites.  Robby loves the pancakes and waffles.

On Saturday, Katie helped me search the cookbooks.  We found a simple recipe for buttermilk scones with currants and orange zest.  We had lemons and dried cranberries, so we went to work.  Katie enjoyed using the pastry cutter and I loved using more dried cranberries!  (Continue to have a couple bags on hand at all times!  One of my student's dad works at Ocean Spray and gives us sample bags of Craisins often.)

Katie and I are so proud of our scones.  Crispy on the outside and dense but crumbly and soft on the inside.  The lemon zest made the scones brighter and citrus-y while the cranberries added bursts of flavor.  Robby and Arnie liked them a lot.

Katie really did most of the work.  She is really fun to work with in the kitchen.  She is motivated to learn how to cook and bake - this week we are going to make granola!  More on that later...here's the scones.  This is a recipe we will make again.

Sprinkling them with cinnamon before they finish baking.

Maureen Tries Meringue

Pie crust still baffles me.  Yet I persevere.  For Robby's birthday in February, I made a chocolate meringue pie - after I made him a devil's food cake for his "friend" birthday party.  We all liked the pie.  The meringue was especially yummy.  I used a jar of marshmallow creme to add the fluff.  Purty, too.  Shiny.  Not good the next day, though.  The meringue got too weepy and the chocolate cream tasted too watery.

Day one, though, the pie was delicious.  The crust was okay, but I wasn't completely happy with it.  It still wasn't flaky - too heavy.  This time I followed a recipe from a cookbook that Sandy and Rochelle gave me called The Complete Southern Cookbook: More than 800 of the Most Delicious, Down-Home Recipes.  The recipe was great, but I still think I overworked the dough before baking.

I will keep trying.  Heather and Dan brought jars of lime and lemon curd when they were here at Christmas.  Any ideas for pies?  Can I just mix the curd with whipped cream?  Sounds yummy to me.  Send me your ideas!

First Spring Wildlife Sighting

Frogbert the green tree frog.  Sweet.

Ushering (Maybe Pushing) in Spring

Here we are in Spring Break.  It feels a little early this year, although I really think it happens the same time every year.  We are staying home.  Today I cleaned the cupboard doors, did laundry, my homework for a class that I took, and watched Disney Channel with Katie.  We also took a trip to Home Depot. While Arnie and Robby looked for casters for Arnie's tool box project, Katie and I checked out the garden shop.

We saw lots of flowers and a few vegetables.  I felt a surge of energy and excitement.  Lettuce!  Salad bowl time.  We picked out three kinds of lettuce:  red leaf, butter crunch, and romaine. As we were heading to the register, I spied some herbs to add to our salad bowls. A couple types of parsley and rosemary.  Mmmmm.  Katie spied purple flowers.  She loves purple.  The first purple flower she spotted was a primrose, but I suggested the viola pansies since we don't have any of those.  We have a lot of primroses.

The weather is rainy, but our new additions to our deck make us think spring is coming.  Goodbye winter, hello spring!

Arnie Smokes Meat

The kids and I surprised Arnie with a smoker this Christmas.  Okay.  Surprise is a strong word.  It is really hard to surprise Arnie.  I think the only time I surprised him was the Christmas I bought him a leather coat.  I hung it in my closet at school and waited until Christmas Eve to go get it.  Then, I left it in the car until we opened presents on Christmas morning!  That year he was genuinely surprised.  But that was pre-kids and a long time ago.  Now, I usually go get what he asks me to get for him!

He's been wanting a smoker.  In fact, the more time he spends fishing, the more he wants a smoker.  I decided we should start with a gas Brinkman - apparently a pretty standard outdoor cookery brand.

The smoker has been very fun and delicious.  So far he has smoked chicken parts of all kinds, pork chops, and salmon.  All very yummy.  He is quite talented.  These are photos of a dinner we made with chicken which Arnie smoked.  Succulent is an effective descriptor.

I love my part in this dinner - sides!

Amazing Athletes in the Lewis Household

It's time for YMCA Swim Team Regionals!  This year we are in Federal Way, Washington at the King County Aquatics Center, a huge Olympic size pool built in the 90s when Seattle hosted the Goodwill Games.  It is a tremendous pool and facility.  The kids are fascinated by the length of the pool and the use of the bulkheads that split the pool in half two create two 25 yard pools for the races.

I truly am a gushing mom this year.  I sincerely did not think either kid would make regional times this year.  Both of them are at the bottom of their age group, which means they have to work very hard to get regional times.  They both did, though!  Robby made regional times in 50 freestyle and 50 butterfly.  Katie made regional time in 50 backstroke.  So exciting.  They each get to  swim one more event and relays which adds to the experience.

Four states take part in the regional competition.  Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.  In total, there are probably 400 swimmers that make regional times.  Robby swam in two events today and has 3 tomorrow.  Katie swims in two events tomorrow. They are really tired tonight since we had to get up early to get a move on. 

This year Arnie decided to come with us.  For Arnie this is a big deal.  He really hates swim meets so the kids don't get to have him there very often.  He mustered a lot of courage or will power to get himself to this one. He worries about the crowd and having to talk to people.  It seems to him that people always want to talk to him about work.  I hope it wasn't too bad at a the swim meet since there weren't any of his students there.

Anyway, we are staying at a Marriott in Federal Way.  It's a typical Marriott.  Clean, organized, friendly, comfortable.  Federal Way has lots of restaurants and shopping which has kept us happy.  One of my students gave me a Sees Candy certificate for Christmas.  I haven't used it until now.  I'm never in a place that has a Sees Candy store, until now!  There is an enormous one right across the street from our hotel.  Robby and I walked over and bought a pound of chocolate creams today.  Yum.  We walked to an Outback steakhouse and had a nice dinner. 

We are ready for bed so that we can get another early start tomorrow.  Our goal is a better parking spot and a quieter place for Arnie to sit.  We are so proud of our swimmers. 



Here is our Grays Harbor Swim Team (GH2O) preparing for the national anthem.

The teams line up all around the pool.  We sing the anthem and then, of course, the YMCA theme song by the Village People.

An enormous place.