Hawaiian Chicken Drumsticks

I really had my doubts about this, especially since it had peppers in it. I hate peppers, with a passion. But, I did my duty and followed the recipe. The recipe itself was difficult to follow, the wording and measuring wasn't consistent. So, I'll tell you what I did in effort to follow the original recipe.

Ingredients from original:

7 pieces chicken drumsticks, rinse and pat dry with paper.
50 g butter
1 green bell pepper, cut into strips.
1 can pineapple rings in juice, drained and set aside.
1 cup catchup
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup soy sauce
1 onion, cuti into strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon powdered ginger or 1 teaspoon thinly sliced fresh ginger root.
½ cup water
a dash of salt and ground pepper to flavor chicken

What I did:
12 chicken drumsticks
1/4c butter
1 green pepper cut into strips
1 can pineapple rings
1 c ketchup
1/2c brown sugar
1/2c soy sauce
2T dried minced onions
1t minced garlic
1/2t ground ginger
1/2 c water

I didn't get the chance to put the salt and pepper on the chicken and put it in the fridge for an hour, so I picked up after there.

I melted the butter in my skillet and put in all the chicken, turning it to "brown" on all sides. It didn't really brown, more...yellowed....

When it was all yellowed, I put it in my giant dish into the oven (my skillet wasn't oven safe) for 28 minutes.

While it was in there, I mixed up my ketchup, pineapple juice, brown sugar, soy sauce and water.

I got really confused when it came to the rest though. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to take them out of the oven and keep them in the skillet or out...I put them in and then realized I was supposed to keep them out, so I set them to the side. In the skillet I mixed about 3T of butter, the garlic, minced onion and pepper.

After 3 minutes I added in the saucy mix and had it on med-high stirring occasionally.

The sauce never really "thickened" after 4 minutes on 8 of 10 heating so I added in the chicken and put the pineapple on top. I turned it twice, once every 2 minutes and then simmered it for 5 minutes.

Overall it turned out pretty good! Aaron had 6, I had three, took one to a neighbor, "tried" one out and gave one to Noah.

See The Pin!

Honey Glazed Ham

In my opinion...If anything will be called "world's best", it will be THIS. Words cannot describe how amazing this ham was.

The recipe calls for 4lbs of ham, I had a 10lb one. Therefore, it cannot fit in a 5qt crock pot....Into the oven it went! I doubled the recipe so it was 3 cups of ginger ale to start with. Covered it with foil and put it in at 300 for 5 hours. Then, I poured on 1/2c honey mixed with 1t ground cloves, 1t ground mustard and 1/2t ground cinnamon.

The end result was heaven. Earlier I told some online friends about this ham and I used words I wont use on here...that's how good.

Behold the ham....

See The Pin!
I felt I would be doing the ham injustice if I didn't try to make a nice dinner to surround it. So, I had ham, Grands flaky biscuits, fresh (boiled) broccoli and fresh cut fruit. And some yummy yummy iced tea.

Tonight's a good night.....

Now go make the ham.

Pumpkin Spice Latte- Crock Pot!

Following my previous post, Noah got his steamer and I got a pumpkin spice latte (decaf) and it reminded me I had a Pin for that. A crock pot one at that.

After we got home, I looked it up and saw we had all the ingredients (minus the whipped cream I ate the day before....). After debating all day if I should make it or not, I whipped up a batch and set it. The house smells divine and it taste almost exactly like the one from Starbucks. So much so, that I decided to put it in my cup from there!

It was too hot for me to get instant gratification from, so to cool it off, I added two spoonfulls of Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream! SO GOOD.

See The Pin!

Vanilla Steamer from Starbucks

^^look! I'm caught up! This happened TODAY!

Not much to this Pin other than showing off my little man. We went to drop off my car to get it fixed (yay, spending a ton of money!). I told Noah we could go to Starbucks and get a drink for our walk home. Thankfully one of the service guys drove us so I didn't have to trek my butt a mile and a half home.

There was a Pin I saw once that said you can order kids. It's basically milk with vanilla I think. Not too hot either! He felt so grown up and loved showing it off. It was adorable and I know I'll be getting them for him again.

See The Pin!

11/09/2012- Lemon Garlic Chicken

So, I was in a bit of a rush this day and didn't get any actual pictures taken. Hey, it gets busy with two kids! Lol.

I did marinate it for 2 hours (the minimum time) because I actually forgot until later. But, it was very easy to throw together and get in the fridge. I used 4 chicken breasts because 1) That's what I had and 2)they were huge.

Also, I didn't use any lemon zest because I have no clue how to make that from a lemon. Cheese grater? Really, how do you do it? Please comment and tell me.

Anyway, you just put all that into a baking dish and cook it. They came out really tasty and made the house smell good. My only complaint, though, would be that the inside wasn't that moist. The skin had great flavor, but if you have thick breasts like I did, it didn't get through enough. Maybe marinating it more would help, but I'm not sure. It did go great with the scampi noodles though!

I'll be making it again, so I'll be sure to add pictures then!

This photo is courtesy of the creator.

See The Pin!

11/08/2012- Mini Chicken Pot Pies

What's better than getting veggies, protein and dairy all in one yummy muffin? Getting a toddler to eat it. These were perfect. Right size for Noah to eat and flavorful enough for Aaron to eat too. I forgot to put in some poultry seasoning, so I don't think there was as much flavor as there should have been, but it was still pretty good.

The recipe calls for about 1T mix on the bottom of the tin and then you put in your veggie/chicken/cheese mix and pour another tablespoon on top. Honestly, the last two that got filled and cooked were better than all the others. Why? Because I ran out of Bisquick mix and so I just stirred the mix around in what was at the bottom. It brought out the flavor more and every bite you got had something delicious in it.

The "recipe" that I used didn't give exact measurments, so here's what I did.

Follow the "pancake" directions on a box of Bisquick
Boil two chicken breasts for 10-12min and shred/cut into bite sizes
While letting chicken cool, add a can of pees and 2 cups shredded cheddar to a bowl
Cut carrots into small sizes (I used a whole carrot and cut it very small)
Mix cooled chicken in with veggie/cheese mix
Stir
Use 1/4c for each muffin spot

See The Pin!
They were so good, even cold, that Noah and I snacked on them the next morning. I'm surely going to make them again. The changes I'll make, however, will be to add the poultry seasoning, maybe a bit more cheese and only using 1T and stirring the mixture in with it.

11/08/2012- Science Experiment

I'm trying to work more with Noah on educational activities. We've talked about color combinations quite a bit, so I figured this pin would be fun. Essentially you use three glasses, put one color water in one, a different in the last and an empty one in the middle. You put a paper towel in each and put them to the middle empty glass. The colored water goes up the paper towel and down into the middle glass. The colors combine and wallah you have a new color.

We started it at about 10:30 and when we got home at 5:30 it STILL wasn't down in the cup. Maybe it's something you should leave out overnight? I'm not sure. I could have tried it but I am not too keen on the idea of leaving deep blue dyed water in reach of a toddler.

See The Pin!
I'll probably try an overnight version or maybe modify it. If I do, I'll be sure to update.