Catching up...

It has been quite awhile since I posted a blog.  Life has been busy at the Burroughs' home!  Tristan is rambunctious as ever and learning like a sponge, soaking everything (good and bad, eek) up.  Austin has raised his grades consistently for the first time since Hurricane Katrina (back then he was an A-B student that turned C-D after the devastation).  Fallon has become our problem child, I would like to blame teenage girl hormones and angst but fear it might be a bit more involved; the girls in this small town are not very welcoming to a pretty and smart new girl.  Brian's job is treating him very well, and in turn it is treating our entire family well.  Fingers crossed for another promotion on the horizon!  As for me...well I am just hanging out waiting for February 4 to find out the gender of this bun cooking in my oven.

That is correct, you read it right, we are expecting Baby #4 in June, 2013!  We have talked about trying for another baby on and off since having Tristan.  The talks became serious when we purchased our home in March, 2012 but then tapered off when the home improvements took over our lives.  *sigh*  We made the decision to definitely go for it in the summer and after a few cancellations by myself or the doctor office, we were finally able to have my IUD removed September 17, 2012.  It was a HAPPY surprise when we discovered less than a month later that we were pregnant!  As of today, January 18, 2013, I have reached 18 weeks and enjoying the movements of Baby #4 more and more with each passing day.  We waited until we were finished with the first trimester before announcing to family and friends, which made for a wonderfully fun Christmas surprise for both of our parents!  My Mother opened the reveal gift while celebrating Christmas in Phoenix, Arizona with my brother and Brian's Mother opened the reveal gift while Brian trained our camera on her to catch her reaction.  It was great fun!  Highly recommend doing something like that if you ever have the privilege of being in the early stages of pregnancy near a holiday.  :-)

Well, lunch is calling and I must not be late so I will sign off for now.  Hopefully I won't take forever to come back and update everyone on the happenings in the Burroughs home.  Much love!

What do spiders, snakes, and mice have in common? Our HOUSE :-(

Let me tell you what happened...last night...

We live {sort of} in the country, which means we have the wonderful perks of deer in our  yard, stars at night that we can SEE, beautiful bird song unmarred by the sound of vehicular traffic or people in general…we are truly back to nature.  Getting back to nature has things that I do not consider benefits as well, like snakes, spiders, and mice; unfortunately our home has an over abundance of these three unwanted creatures.  The spiders we had to deal with when we first purchased the home, the house had been vacant for 4 years and we had every species imaginable taking up residence in and around our home.  We were extremely thankful that spiders were our only concern…until a few days ago when our oldest son (16 yrs old) started finding snakes. 

It began innocently enough, a big dead black snake on the road in front of our home.  It soon became alarming when he found two baby copperhead snakes in our yard, one in the middle of our back yard and then last Saturday he found one under our deck…the deck I let our toddler play on while waiting for Daddy to return home from work!  The snake findings has relegated me inside of our home, especially since our lawn mower has bitten the dust AGAIN, and the lawn is getting taller than I am comfortable walking in with slithery creatures around.  Sulfur is on my list of things to purchase the next time I go to Ace Hardware! 

After last night, I have to add to my Ace Hardware list…mouse traps/poison (we have not decided the route we will take at this moment).  Oh yes, my three least favorite of God’s creations have decided MY HOME should be theirs.  Our oldest (poor guy, he might start thinking we are doing this as a hoax on him) was getting ready for bed last night when he came urgently downstairs to get Brian.  I was putting the baby (2.5 yr old is still a baby, right?!?) to sleep when this occurred and the commotion meant Mama had to calm the little guy BACK down before he would snuggle in for the night.  GRRRRR I took the little one up to his crib and could hear Brian and Austin’s voices in the connecting bathroom, quite animated and {to me} loud so I went to ask them to quiet down.  Upon entering the bathroom, I see that they are both gathered around the toilet; Austin has a history of clogging things, so I was not surprised to see them in such a stance.  The alarming thing was that the plunger was still in its place and they are pointing and giggling like schoolboys (oh they will love to hear I wrote THIS in my blog! He he).  A mouse found its way into the toilet; the toilet that my little guy had been placed on not even an hour before to help ensure a dry diaper come morning. 

These creatures are able to produce a massive amount of mouse droppings, and this one was not an exception, unless you consider the fact that it was actually dropping in the toilet (apparently falling into a toilet that you cannot get out of will scare the doo-doo out of a mouse).  The little creature was wet and shivering; I tried really hard to have sympathy rather than revulsion for the little thing.  There was great debate as to how it found itself to be in the toilet.  Since we have ceiling vents upstairs, my guess is it entered through the vent from the attic,  Brian disagrees but has not decided on point of entry, Austin just wishes he could use his bathroom without the fear a mouse will jump out of the toilet onto his…well onto him.  L 

Now, not only do I have the urge to look every time I feel something on me (spider? Eek), but I have to walk in my own yard making noise like a crazy person in hopes of scaring off any resident snakes (sulfur must be purchased SOON), and now we all are going to be inspecting our toilets a LOT more closely before we allow ourselves to utilize the facilities.  The latter will be quite fun during the toilet training phase we are currently in.  JOYOUS DAY!    

Fried Chicken PLEASE! (..and Breakfast Burritos, and Fudge...recipe links provided)

Saturday I managed to make a trip to the grocer. This allowed me to prepare and freeze 22 Breakfast Burritos (I added 1/3 each: green, yellow, and red bell peppers along with an onion; all diced and sauteed with the meat). I also made the Chocolate Pecan Fudge my husband has been begging for (this is a quick fudge, I will be making a different recipe on Sunday for a taste-test determination of the best recipe…stay tuned!). Now that I am writing this down, I realize that Saturday quickly turned into ‘All Things Brian LOVES to Eat’. J I say this with love, as was the cooking that went along with today done with love. For dinner, I created the meal requested by my lover the evening before; he even pulled the meat out of the freezer in preparation/anticipation of this meal!

You see, my husband believes that I have perfected fried chicken. That is correct- PERFECTED it; or at least as far as my husband/family is concerned and that is who I aim to please. J I do not make it often, even though I bake it off, it is first bathed/fried in oil so the health factor is a little low. Aside from that, the sides with fried chicken (as far as my husband is concerned anyway) need to be starchy and creamy (i.e. mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese…one evening he wanted BoTH, oh my!).

How have I perfected fried chicken? The first trick is to brine the chicken for several hours, preferably overnight. I came across the trick of brining turkey what seems a lifetime ago and it SERIOuSLY changed my view on all things fowl. J That Thanksgiving we stood over the stove top picking the turkey apart, we did not even carve it…it was not making it to the table whole! EVERYTHING about that turkey was delicious; NO MORE bland turkey meat! Heaven was smiling upon me the day I discovered brining and my family has been thankful ever sense. J

OK, I am back in the present, what a nice memory…food does that you know, the smells and tastes can instantly take you back in time; our own individual olfactory time machines! Now that I am back in the present, I should get to the business of sharing my chicken recipe. OH, don’t let the length scare you, I wrote the recipe with the beginner in mind. J

Fried Chicken (for Beginners and Seasoned Cooking Vets Alike)

Brine Ingredients:

6- Legs of Chicken (I use only legs because as a child I always had to fight my 4 other siblings for the TWO legs…I lost a lot.  You can use any part of the chicken you want…BUT IT MUST HAVE ITS SKIN INTACT.)

1- Tbsp Dried Rosemary

1- Tbsp Salt

1- Tbsp Pepper

1- Tbsp Garlic Powder

3- tsp Paprika

Water (to cover 1” over the chicken; I use a plastic zippered bag large enough for the chicken [usually the one I had them frozen in])

The chicken is soaking in all of that goodness!

~~~

You can use frozen or fresh chicken when using this brine.  If you chose to use frozen then allow the chicken to thaw before taking it out of the brine (usually 4 hours up to overnight, depending on amount of chicken).  Place your chicken in the container you will use for the brine.  The secret to brine is to ensure that the ENTIRE surface area of the meat is fully covered by the brine; preferably 1” above the meat surface.  With cut chicken, I have found that it is easiest to ensure this occurs by using a plastic zippered bag large enough to easily hold the chicken and water (6 legs will fit easily inside of a Gallon bag with room to spare).   

Once chicken is inside of your container, add the spices above.  THEN add the water.  It sounds like it could happen either way, and technically you can add water then spices but I have found that plastic bags, once filled with water and chicken, become a slippery mess and my spices miss the target…not to mention my meat sometimes shoots into my sink while doing this.  EEK!

Place your container full of the chicken-brine goodness inside of your refrigerator until you are ready to prepare.  Allow your meat to enjoy the bath you created.  If the meat is thawed, 30 minutes is the minimum amount of time to brine; the longer the brine, the tastier and moister the meat.  TRUST ME! 

Quadruple Threat Coating Ingredients

2-3 eggs

1 Tbsp milk

1 ½ tsp pepper

1 ½ tsp paprika

1 ½ tsp seasoned salt (or table salt…I prefer the added flavor of seasoned)

1 ½ tsp garlic powder (important to use POWDER, you do not want your meat TOO salty)

1+ dashes of Tabasco sauce (I omit this when frying for my kiddos)

2 c flour

I was over-zealous with the egg...should have used only 2.  Oh well!

~~~

In a bowl large enough to lay your largest piece of meat in you will mix: 2-3 eggs (3 eggs if you are doing more than 6 legs/pieces of chicken; 2 eggs 6 or fewer pieces), milk, ½ tsp pepper, ½ tsp paprika, ½ tsp seasoned salt, ½ tsp garlic powder, Tabasco (optional).

In a separate, larger, bowl, place the flour and remaining 1 tsp each of the spices listed above (NOT the Tabasco, this is only put with the wet ingredients).  Mix well. 

{NOTE: Typically, you use the same spices in the egg and flour mixture as in the brine.  I did not want an overpowering flavor of rosemary, hence taking it out of the egg and flour mixtures and putting seasoned salt in its place.}

Ingredients and Tools to FRY MEAT!

Oil of choice (I use vegetable oil due to cost and taste.  I would NOT recommend olive oil for this recipe)

Large 12” skillet (if you want to do it in one fell swoop, otherwise whatever pan you have)

Tongs

Non-stick cooking spray (do NOT use kind that has flour)

Grill/Griddle pan (use the Grill side…or if you do not have this use a large, sided sheet with a cooling rack fitted inside.  The key is to allow the oil/fat to drip off the meat)

~~~

Pre-heat oven to 375-degree Fahrenheit.  Spray your grill with non-stick cooking spray and place grill inside of the oven.  Place the large skillet on your largest burner (even heating will occur this way) and pour your oil until you have covered the entire bottom of the pan and it is about ¼”- ½” deep (give or take, you want plenty of oil…flour coated meat has a tendency to soak it up).  Turn the burner to medium-low heat (my stove has a 1-10 mode, I use 3.5-4.0 for frying chicken).  I canNOT stress enough that you do NOT want too high of a heat for this process.  You want HOT oil, hence heating the oil before conducting the Quadruple Threat Coating process. You do NOT want to have oil so hot that it splatters your face/arms/neck every time you look at it (experience talking here, PLEASE take heed). 

Your chicken has rested long enough, time to bring it out to play!  You need to have PLENTY of paper towels.  I am talking quadrupled on a metal (easy to sanitize later) tray, then several more to dry the chicken.  Remove the chicken from the brine and rinse well, placing the pieces onto your bed of paper towels.  Once your chicken is on its new bed of paper towels, you need to pat it dry.  The chicken should be pretty darn dry at this point. J 

Chicken will have some seasoning still on it from the brine, this is OK. 

{NOTE: dry meat allows the egg and flour to stick during the coating and frying process.}

I typically create an assembly line of raw meat, egg mixture, flour mixture, and metal platter/cookie sheet.  Now the messy, fun part begins!  Dip one piece into the egg mixture, then completely coat with flour.  This piece goes back into the egg mixture and then again into the flour.  Finally place it on the platter and repeat the process with all of your meat. 

{TIP: Use one hand for egg mixture and one hand for flour mixture.  This will help cut down on the goopiness on your fingers.}

My assembly line typically is from left-to-right but for picture taking it would not fit :-)

Place the coated meat gently (leaving some space between pieces) into the hot oil.  Take care not to drop the meat, the oil burns like a…well it hurts really badly. L  Once the meat hits the oil, let the oil work for you.  This means do not touch the meat for at least 5 minutes, the longer the meat remains untouched, the better your crispy crunchiness will be!  I do not know if it is me, but the first side always takes the longest.  DO NOT COVER THE MEAT, you will lose the crunch we are going for!  Once your chicken reaches the desired golden color, flip and repeat the process. 

Yes, I am OCD when it comes to chicken placement!  You can get more in if you place it this way.  :-)

Beautiful golden yumminess!

Can you SMELL it?!?  Mmmmm

When all of the pieces are brown (the meat will not be cooked, but the crust will be done), place them onto the grill inside of your oven and forget about it for 20 or so minutes (until the juices run clear).  Not kidding, the longer you bake it the more grease will come off the chicken and you should be able to eat the chicken with very little need of napkins between bites. J 

The grill I use.  The wooden spoon was supposed to show the amount of grease that came off of the chicken.  FAIL on getting that in the picture.  *sigh*

During the baking of the chicken you are now free to make any side dish you wish (assuming it will take 20 or so minutes to make). 

Enjoy and let me know how if you enjoyed your chicken as much as my family enjoyed theirs!  (Suggestions and comments are welcome as well, this is my first recipe that I have written out completely on my own so if I missed steps or over-wrote let me know [remember I did have the beginner cook in mind]). 

SURPRISE!

The day is still in its infancy and already things are not going as planned.  GRRRR As mentioned in earlier posts, we are doing all things toilet training in our home.  Tristan woke early and has been doing marvelously with his potty training!  Immediately went pee on the toilet upon waking and several times afterward.  He even went potty 3 times (he has yet to understand he needs to remain a little while to expel all necessary refuse, we are getting thereJ).  Let me tell you where it went wrong…so very wrong. L

We created a fort under the dining room table - complete with pillows, blanket, tape measure (used for procrastination blog), and his ABC magnets.  I kept checking in to ensure that he was doing okay and was not in need of the facilities.  We are TRACKING; all systems are running smoothly!  Then Tristan started to become displeased…with everything.  The scratch-n-sniff Yankee Candle magazine failed to engage him, not sure how because it engaged me. J  The giant mess Austin made while feeding the dog failed to engage him, the food was ALL over the kitchen floor, how could this not be intriguing?!?!  When Tristan became quiet, I failed to think it was due to mischief.  *sigh* I guess I will never learn.  L

The sound of water splattering in his direction DID garner my attention, especially when I knew the only way he had water was if he expelled it from his little being.  AARRGGHH!  Instead of coming to me to tell me he had to go to the bathroom, something he had been doing all morning, he decided to pee into my lazy susan cabinet!!!!  He looks up at me and says "Mama, I PEE". The problem is he did it on purpose, pulled his underwear aside to accomplish this feat. As I am heading his direction he realizes he should not be quite so proud and takes off...leaving little pee footprints across my clean floors.  OH MY GOODNESS.  I am still reeling from this lovely SURPRISE, as the smell of disinfectant lingers in the air.  Everything is fine inside of the cabinet, thank goodness, but the day has only begun.  What is in store for me the rest of today?  This question I cannot answer presently but stay tuned...       

Some Family Time

We had a great weekend with the in-laws.  They came up Friday evening and left too early Saturday evening.  Special THANK YOU to Steve for helping Brian with the installation of the new door ; it looks spectacular and the extra light that shines in I WILL get used to (yes I STILL keep looking over my shoulder thinking someone forgot to close it!)! J Baked peanut butter cookies for our family's 'Cookie Monster' aka Papa Steve, even snuck in a batch of Grandma Diane's favorite pumpkin oatmeal cookies, grilled up some hamburgers and hot dogs, and enjoyed the company.  J  Diane your help with our illuminating concern works wonderfully, thank you!   

Trials of Tristan

Tristan has been going part-time to a local daycare facility since June.  On his first day we received a call from the Director stating that he was acclimating very nicely...except for when he tried to run away THREE times!  Perhaps that is a bit dramatic.  He merely walked out of the front door, that leads directly to the parking lot...three different times.  Each time he managed to overcome various barricades staff put in his path in the hopes of deterring his escape.  This problem has since been fixed with special child-proof handles on the doors and it has been smooth sailing until yesterday.

I should preface with the fact that we spent the weekend working really hard with Tristan's potty training (another blog worthy post I am sure).  He has become QUITE intimate with all things toilet.  :-)  When we arrived to pick Tristan up from daycare I was met by a staff member leading him by his hand toward me.  Considering the last several times I have arrived to pick him up became a chasing game around, over, and under the jungle gym, I thought that they were helping me out by corralling him.  HA!  It turns out that this is how they greet a parent that needs to be informed of "an episode". 

Tristan's new found introduction to all things toilet decided to make an appearance when nap time ended.  While the staff was busy changing diapers, waking children, and putting bedding away, Tristan decided to sneak off to the bathroom.  Before you freak out and think that this is a horrible daycare you must know that Tristan has ninja stealth-like abilities - true story.  Once inside of the bathroom he saw the toilet training seat being used for all of the toddlers and had an 'ah ha!' moment.  I know he had this moment because he decided to place said training seat over his head and wear it like a necklace.  You see, these little seats go on very easily but removal is a tad tricky.  Tristan discovered that he was unable to remove his new toy leaving him no option but to go for help.  The staff member telling me what happened was blessed with finding Tristan tugging on her shirt saying "uh oh".  :-)  I smiled, because when I showed up he obviously had been relieved of his newly acquired bling.  You can imagine with me how funny it would look to see this on your child can't you?

It turns out smiling was not occurring in the onset.  The training seat became stuck on Tristan's head, trapping the tops of his ears (the tops look pretty red even today) and wouldn't move up OR down.  There was a moment that the staff thought they might have to call to have it CUT from his head!  Oh my goodness, imagine my intake of breath when I heard THAT; all smiles were removed from my face.  Long story somewhat shortened - the wonderful ladies were able to finally remove the training seat from Tristan's somewhat reddish head.  I was assured that he was cleaned and sanitized all over, it was a training toilet seat around his head after all, no matter how much it is cleaned it still has a gross factor!  Happy ending for all.  Of course, they are now implementing precautions to ensure this doesn't happen again.  OH the Trials of Tristan!

Traveling Tristan strikes AGAIN!

Our 2+ year old boy is quite a handful!  Today he has decided that he should 'wash' the dishes.  :-)  Oh joys!  ONE of my kids really WANTS to do housework...it just happens to be the one that is tinier than most of my cleaning tools.  *sigh* 

What to do?!?  I did what any sanity-preserving Mama would do: I let him 'wash' dishes!  If you decide to follow in my footsteps PLEASE learn a few lessons from my adventure.  First I should tell you what I did correctly:

• I removed all breakable and/or dangerous items from the sink area.
• I cleaned the sinks thoroughly.
• I used one side for the 'washing' by putting warm water and some dishwashing liquid.
• I provided him with plenty of dishes such as: plastic cups of various sizes, plastic straw, and large serving spoon.
• I gave him a perch that was high enough to put him within reach of the sink without being too high.
• I was never more than 3 steps away at any time during his adventure.

What will I do differently next time?  The lessons I pass on for you to learn:

• Place a water-proof mat or plastic under the perch to capture the inevitable water spillage.
• Ensure that your child is in clothing you don't mind changing immediately afterward.
• Make sure all sponges, washcloths, towels, etc are out of your child's reach (YOWZER the mess they can make with H2O!).
• Ensure that all dishwashing liquid is out of child's reach (this made for quite a fight when the bubbles went away and he decided he needed more "soap"...avoid this at all costs lest this sanity-preserving exercise was for naught).
• Remain within arms length at all times!  3 steps away turned out to be too far; my little guy decided that he had to rinse the dishes too, the perch was a tad further from the faucet requiring him to reach and scoot the chair out from under him.  Visualize with me:  nose diving toward soapy water, feet dangling in mid-air, shriek of anxiety (not sure if it was Tristan's or my shriek).  This MUST be avoided at all costs! {NOTE:  I have super-hero, cat-like reflexes;  I was able to avoid catastrophe by catching him in mid-dive :-)}

Tristan reaching to rinse the dishes...right before nose diving experience. 

Despite the mishap and mess, my sanity was most definitely preserved (for the time being), the kitchen counters/cabinets/floor are super duper clean, and my little guy was extremely happy!  Of course, now he thinks that he should do the dishes all of the time and no object is safe from being used as a 'perch' but that is life with Traveling Tristan!