Engagement Chicken and Fanatical Issues

1) Apparently my mom watches the Today Show.  Which is news to me.

2)  While watching the Today Show, my mom saw a segment about "Engagement Chicken."  I came home from work one day to find an email in my inbox from my mother.  She told me that she saw this story about a woman who cooked "Engagement Chicken" for her boyfriend and he proposed.  And then through word of mouth and the recipe being published in Glamour magazine, a grand total of 72 women got engaged after cooking "Engagement Chicken" for their boyfriends.  I suppose she was telling me this because she wants me to make "Engagement Chicken" so M will propose.  She denies this.  She claims she just thought it was funny.  Lies.

For starters, even though the recipe is supposedly easy, I'm sure I would screw it up.  Therefore M wouldn't want to marry me because what guy wants to marry a woman who can't make "Engagement Chicken?"  Secondly, I'm in no hurry to get engaged.  

Mom called me on Saturday to make plans for Sunday night dinner to discuss Easter (we like to plan,  I guess?)  While I was chatting with her on the phone, she mentioned she bought the cookbook that had the "Engagement Chicken" recipe among others like "Get him to clean the apartment burgers" and "Let's make a baby pasta."  She thought it was quite witty.  And then she said she bought two copies.

"Guess who the other one is for?" she chided.  

Guess.  I betcha can't.

But it's all good, because I have this new (not quite so unhealthy) obsession with reading recipes.  For Christmas I got a subscription to Southern Living from my brother and I decided to buy Real Simple (because OMG it's the best magazine.  Ever.)  This has fueled the fire.  This month I also bought the Food Network Magazine and Better Homes and Gardens.  Now, you're probably thinking, "Great!  She's gonna make some really great food!"  I hope you're right, but I have this feeling it'll be like every other time I rip out recipes and then don't ever get around to making any of the recipes.  

I have a recipe binder thing, so I'm hoping that I'll get myself organized, actually punch holes in the recipes I've torn out of the magazine (folks, there's like 75, at least) and sort them in my recipe keeper.  As if I didn't have enough cookbooks already.  I guess we'll see how it goes.

But I'll leave you with the recipe for "Engagement Chicken" in case you are dying to get your boyfriend (or girlfriend) to take the plunge and propose.  Or just in case you wanna know what all the hype is about with this chicken!

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (approximately 4 pounds)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, plus 3 whole lemons-including 1 sliced for garnish
1 tablespoon kosher or coarse sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Fresh herbs for garnish (4 rosemary sprigs, 4 sage sprigs, 8 thyme sprigs, and 1 bunch flat leaf parsley)

1) Position an oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Remove the giblets from the chicken, wash the chicken inside and out with cold water, then let the chicken drain, cavity down, in a colander for two minutes.
2) Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.  Place the chicken breast-side down in a medium roasting pan fitted with a rack and pour the lemon juice all over the chicken, both inside and out.  Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper inside and out.
3) Prick 2 whole lemons three times each in three difference places with a fork and place them deep inside the cavity.  Chicken cavity size may vary, so if one lemon is partly sticking out, that's fine.  (Tip: If the lemons are stiff, roll them on the countertop with your palm before pricking to get the juices flowing.)
4) Put the chicken in the oven, lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
5) Remove the roasting pan from the oven.  Using tongs or two wooden spoons, turn the chicken breast-side up.  Insert a meat thermometer in the thigh, and return the chick to the oven and roast for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the meat thermometer reads 180 degrees F and the juices run clear when the thigh is pricked with a fork.  Continue roasting if necessary.  Keep in mind that cooking times in different ovens vary; roasting a chicken at 350 degrees takes approximately 18-20 minutes per pound, plus an additional 15 minutes.
6) Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving.  And here's the secret: Pour the juices from the roasting pan on top of the sliced chicken--this is the "marry me juice."  Garnish with fresh herbs and lemon slices.


I think this is just pretty funny in general.  But I don't really get how they judge whether the "Engagement Chicken" resulted in the engagement.  Time is a very important factor here.  Several of the success stories in the cookbook indicate that the couple got engaged that very night, which seems that he was planning it all along, because clearly the ring was already there.  But what about the cases where they got engaged a month and a half later.  I really don't think it was because of the chicken, folks.  The most promising evidence would be a resulting engagement the following day or next weekend.  Obviously.
 

It's been a while

Sorry I've been so distant lately.  Life seems to be getting away from me. 

Last Friday M went to Chicago for the Cubs' opener.  It snowed and was frigid, but he had a great time and claims he was in heaven.  In the meantime, his college friend Curt came in town to visit, so we went out with their friends to dinner and this bar in Nashville called the Greenhouse, which was a blast.  It's nice to be the sober one when everyone else is smashed because you can help them recall what happened the night before.  Needless to say, Curt didn't feel so great Saturday morning :)

We spent a great weekend with their group of friends.  M came back late Friday night and we had everyone over for a bonfire and snacks to watch the Final Four basketball games Saturday night.  After Curt left on Sunday, M and I headed to Lowes to get some veggies and herbs.  In addition to our rosemary, bell peppers, broccoli and what we thought was cucumbers (really tomatoes in the wrong place) we bought some azaleas which are starting to bloom!  I'm really excited to have home grown veggies!

Work's been busy, but good.  I finally have friends to hang out with outside of work.  I've been watching American Idol (which I've never watched before) on Wednesday nights so that I can bond  with them.

I wish I still had time to blog at work, it would make it so much easier to keep up on here.  But alas, it's not that easy.

I'll try to update again soon.

Family "Heirlooms"

I'm a big fan of heirlooms.  I think it's special to have pieces of furniture and other things, jewelry, china, etc. that were worn or utilized by family members, whether it be only one general ago, or many.  I have my eye on many items my parents have.  Some they purchased through the years and others have been passed down.

One item I especially want is this old nightstand/chest thing in my mom's room.  It's not very fancy or nice quality, it's actually quite beaten up, but the story behind it is wonderful.  When my mom was a teenager, her grandfater decided to get remarried or something along those lines and her mother (my grandmother) was so mad she wouldn't talk to him.  He had some stuff in his house that she wanted, so she loaded my mom and my uncle (who was about 8, I think) into the car and drove over there when she knew the house was vacant.  My conservative, straight laced grandmother kicked in the window of the basement, dropped my uncle down in there and ordered him to come upstairs and unlock the door.  They entered the house and my grandmother stole the things she wanted out of the house, including the chest which has since had a new top put on it because the other one rotted.

The whole time they were breaking, entering, and robbing, my mom was thinking "my mom's gonna get arrested, I've got homework to do and I can't drive a car."  

So I want the chest because of the awesome fact that mom helped loot it from my great grandparents.

M and I went to dinner at my parents house on Sunday.  My parents have decided to spend 2 hours every Saturday purging their attic and cleaning it until it's in decent shape.  This started this past weekend and during dinner my parents asked me if I wanted an "heirloom" punchbowl.  

I say "heirloom" because it was passed down from my grandmother to my mom, but that's about the extent of it.  My grandmother had a neighbor who got too old to run errands and such so their children were going to put them in a nursing home.  My grandmother offered to take their grocery list once a week, buy their groceries and the could reimburse her when she returned.

One day, when Sisi (my grandmother) came to get the grocery list, the lady asked her to pick out punch bowl.  Sisi asked what kind, and I was secretly thinking the lady was waaaaay to old to be entertaining and had no use for a punch bowl.  

The old lady told Sisi to pick out one that she thought looked nice and gave her some money.

Sisi returned to the old lady's home with the punch bowl.  She (the old lady) handed it right back to my grandmother and told her it was a thank you gift for being so sweet and buying their groceries every week.

So when Sisi passed away, my mom couldn't part with the punch bowl, not because it had any sentimental value, but because of the sweet story behind it.  So now I have the same dilemma before myself.  Do I just let my parents donate this punch bowl to Goodwill or let it be sold at a garage sale, or do I take it because of the nice story behind it and let it gather dust in my shit cabinet in the kitchen?  I mean, I don't have a punch bowl, but I generally don't have a use for one.  Maybe if I were throwing lots of showers and such.

 Thoughts?  Do I let it go or take it?

Beautiful

So I don't know what the weather is like where you live, but I'm writing this while sitting in my backyard.  It's a perfect 78 or so degrees, the sun's still up and shining, and there's the slightest breeze.  It could not be more perfect!  This winter was particularly rough.  Excessive amounts of snow and down right frigidness.  It was also a very emotional winter.  I don't do well with cold and darkness in general, but added to unhappiness at work, I was just straight up unpleasant to be around most days.  

I am so grateful for such a beautiful day/week.  It's nice to be able to enjoy the earth rather than being cooped up at a desk or bundled up inside.  

I hope that each of you gets to enjoy the sun this weekend if you aren't already!

Wee Bit Wednesdays

I've been such an awful, awful blogger lately, but I'm just so exhausted that I don't have the energy to put forth an effort.  I will tell you that M and I toured the Belle Meade Plantation on Sunday.  I thought I had been there on a field trip in elementary school, but during the tour nothing looked or sounded familiar, so I'm going to guess either a) we did and I tuned the whole thing out because I was busy chatting with my besties, or b) we never went.  I thought it was interesting and the old Antebellum style house was beautiful.  After the tour, which I had bought a groupon for, we did the wine tasting at their winery.  I had a great time, and I think M actually enjoyed it, too.  I'll leave you with some pictures before Wee Bits.

 

{one} scruffy or clean shaven?

Depends, on myself-clean shaven.  If we're talking about a guy, some scruff or a beard is hot, but being clean shaven can be, too.

{two} what’s your favorite sundae topping?

Too hard to pick just one, so either chocolate sauce, whipped cream or a cherry

{three} do you own slippers?

Yep.  We have hardwoods and it's approximately -239408 degrees in our house all times.  I have two pairs.

{four} did you ever have a tree house?

Unfortunately, no.  But I often climbed the tree in our front yard.

{five} how you do relieve stress?

Umm...watching tv, drinking, listening to music.

{six} what’s your favorite dr. seuss book?

Hands down The Lorax

{seven} have you ever taken dance classes?

No.

{eight} which do you use more: the thesaurus or the dictionary?

hmm, neither?  I have a pretty expansive vocabulary.  But if I have to pick one, probably the thesaurus (which makes me laugh and think of FRIENDS.  Joey sends a letter to the adoption agency for Monica and Chandler, but tries to sound smart by using a thesaurus to change a bunch of the words, he ends up signing the letter "baby kangaroo tribiani" lolllllll.

{nine} what’s your favorite form of exercise?

Used to be running in college, but when I do exercise, I guess the elliptical machine

{ten} what’s the longest you’ve ever waited in line?

Not entirely sure, but I've waited at least an hour and a half for several different roller coasters.  All totally worth it :)