My First Roasted Chicken

So, I received a fabulous gift for Christmas, some Rachel Ray cookware that is a lovely shade of green. So, I've been cooking up a storm lately. I made the best omelet the other day, a Mexican dip that I took to the Tracey Fiesta on New Year's Day, and now inspired by my friend, I've roasted my first whole chicken. So very simple to do and so cheap. I think this will be enough food for a week or longer.

The chicken was a farm raised, free range chicken from an Indiana farmer that I got at the Goose. I washed the chicken well and then filled it with peeled orange slices. I put some melted butter, rosemary, thyme, and sage on the top and roasted it for about 3 hours at 350 degrees. And, it was delicious. Very moist.

So, yesterday I had a great chicken dinner, today I made chicken vegetable soup, and sometime this week I'll probably make some chicken and spinach pasta. Or maybe some of this will end up in the freezer for a while, because right now the chicken seems endless.

Finally Finished

Ah....accomplishment! My couch has been in mid-recover for a couple of years now. And finally in the last 2 days it is done. No more botanical print. Tiger still has his blankie in the corner, but there is a green covered cushion for that corner too. It feels good to be done. And now with the sewing machine still out and a little fabric left over, I will attack the seat cushion on the rocking chair and maybe make a few more of the red print pillows. Or maybe re-do the seats of the dining room chairs. With today as my last totally free day of vacation, we'll see what happens.

What happened to Christmas?

Wow...that was a blur. It seems like November 14, the Tracey kick-off to the Christmas season was just yesterday. I can't believe they'll be taking down the lights on Monument Circle in just 9 short days. The lights from Monument Circle are one of the things that I always look forward to at this time of year. I used to hate the darkness of winter; I go to work in the dark and I come home in the dark most of the time. But, my route always takes me past the circle so that I can see the Christmas lights. I've even figured out the exact point when I need to look to the right when I am driving to work through the 65/70 connector through the city. I drive home at street level, so it is much easier to see, but I always look forward to those lights.

This year Trevor and I did our Christmas craft that he gave as gifts to all of his brother's and sister's. We did stepping stones for everyone's gardens, once summer comes. While this was an awkward craft, kind of heavy to be exact, it was one of my favorites to do. While I'm not looking to go on a round 2 of mixing 130 pounds of concrete in my house, I liked that we were able to use bottle caps for the designs, thanks to Goose the Market. Trevor made the designs for each person on his own and painted everything too. I was the concrete mixer and molder. The picture above shows Trevor with a few of the stones that he made.

We actually finished Trevor's craft on December 19 when we wrapped everything and took them to his family Christmas celebration. The good thing for me is that this had inspired me to continue on and make some crafts on my own. I made a couple of gifts this year, which actually haven't gone to their recipients yet, so no pictures yet. And, since I had the sewing machine out, I've been finishing up a craft that has been stuck at it's midpoint indefinitely. I've been sewing all day today, and one more day should do it. And one more trip to a store. More to follow if I do finish this week.

I spent Christmas at my brother Bob's house. It was great to spend Christmas up there. Their house is always so relaxing and the food is fabulous. We had steak for Christmas dinner cooked on the grill. I can't even tell you the last time I had a steak cooked on a grill, but it was probably at Bob's house. Delicious!

It has just all gone so fast. I still have 6 days of vacation, so I'm trying to not think about work at all. It hasn't been difficult.

I hope you all are having a great holiday season.

This Interruption brought to you by Facebook

I said I'd never do it, but I did. I signed up for Facebook. And that, along with a few other things, have prevented me from getting back to this blog. It's not like I ever post anything on Facebook though. Mainly I just lurk out there, reading posts from my friends, and playing games like Farkle and Yacht. And unfortunately, I figured out that I am pretty good at the Facebook poker. (But I'm smart enough to know that if I were actually in a room with someone playing poker, they'd know exactly what was in my hand.).

All my lurking on Facebook though, brought me to the picture that you see above. It is a picture of my Dad that I had never seen before. He is sitting on the back steps of the house he and my Mom built, and I don't mean that they had it built. He built it. They moved there in 1986, and he is sitting where the deck will be, so I would imagine this was taken sometime very close to the Fall of 1986. He looks so happy.

Finding this photo was worth joining Facebook. I am the Lucky Girl.

Before Meets After....

My brother Keith organized a work weekend at my Mom's farm this weekend. I am so tired, and I know everyone else is too. But, we got a lot done. After all was said and done we were able to: remove storm windows, paint, caulk, clean, and replace the storm windows; power wash the house, garage, lawn furniture, deck, and Red's barn; remove rust from the barn door and porch railing; paint the barn and barn door; tear down the shed under the apple trees; put round-up on all needed areas; clean out the barn loft; repair the roof of the barn and re-shingle; paint the porch roof; organize the desk area in the kitchen with some new filing cabinets; organize the computer desk; and do general cleaning inside...i.e., dust, vacuum, clean bathrooms, kitchen cabinets, and the bar area in the kitchen.

It is a really good thing that we had about 20 hard-workers at the house. Everyone did a great job with everything. I'm especially glad that my nieces have brought some great men into the family who went up and down ladders and up on the barn roof with joy. They must really love those girls.

And, the little shed (pictured above) is no more. It has suffered the destructive nature of the groundhog family, who burrowed into the ground and actually buried a bicycle. Lots of stuff was in that shed. My Dad used to keep it all pretty cleaned up inside, but lack of use took its toll on everything. We pulled out lots of junk, and memories.

Labor Day Weekend 2009

This has been a great weekend, and we still have one day left. A lot of stuff has gotten done around my house and my best boy Trevor and I have had a lot of fun too. Trevor has been staying with me on Labor Day weekend for the last 4 years. We always are happy that we have an "extra day" to do something special.

His first Labor Day with me, Trevor and I went to his first "real race" at the Indianapolis Speedrome. The Speedrome is a local track and home to Figure 8 racing. You can sometimes see it on the Speed Channel on cable. You all watch that channel don't you? Me too. The next year, we started riding our bikes at the canal downtown. It is a pretty safe place to ride your bike, because there is no danger of traffic. You just have to watch out for going in the water.

This year, we did another "new" activity for Trevor. With my new found interest in golf, I decided to try to get him hooked too. I got him a junior set of clubs at Play It Again Sports, and we went to the Golf Dome. He loved it! And, he was very good too. Most of his shots were straight down the middle, and he even hit the red target (see photo above). His only question was why I didn't buy the large bucket of golf balls.

It is also tradition for us to go to the Indianapolis Indians last game of the season, where there is a big fireworks show. This year, the fireworks were the best we've seen yet.

All this was mixed in with cleaning the basement and a closet in preparation for a garage sale next weekend. I think I found plenty of stuff to put in the sale, and got a closet cleaned out and shelves put up in the basement in the process.

The First Round

Today was the day...my first 9 holes on a real golf course. It was GREAT! I had so much fun. I shot a 51, which I have heard is pretty good for the first timer. I did hit a couple of good shots, but there is a lot of room for improvement. I almost can't wait to go again to see if I actually can get better. Is tomorrow to soon? :-)

And then...I went back to work. It actually was a good end to a stressful week. I made my boss laugh a lot this afternoon, which was good for everyone. Lately, it has come to my attention that I am quite the comedian. My brother called me at work about two weeks ago and he said, "I hate to call you at work. I never know if you are in some big meeting, or in the middle of telling a joke." I never realized I was that funny. Maybe my boss just laughs at everything.

Amid all the pretty good golf shots, there was one that I would like to highlight. In fact, I don't know that anyone has ever made this shot at the Orchard Golf Center. I am at least one of the very few who has made a shot into the open garage door of the maintenance shack. I was not aiming for it, but maybe somewhere in my subconscious I knew it would be the funniest shot of the day.