Happy Holidays

I thought I would post about some great sites for the holidays. They are in no particular order.

1. http://www.emailsanta.com/email_santa.asp

Send out an e-mail to santa. Get a instant response. This has become a holiday tradition.

2. http://www.capturethemagic.com

Give your kids proof Santa was there.

3. http://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/MissingRecipe.asp

Great candy and cookie ideas for Christmas.

I will add more if I think of them.

Too Long!

It has been way to long since my last post. Partly because our old computer gave out. And partly because of my laziness. So to fill everyone in, we had a great Halloween. Shelby dressed up as the cutest care bear you have ever seen. Hunter was a bag of garbage, but at the last minute decided it would be to hard to maneuver around the neighborhood in. Porter was a dinosaur. So glad I make costumes because they last a lot longer than the store bought variety. Hunter came home with way to much candy. And the following day he had it sorted out, and had written down each piece of candy and how many of each kind. He told us this way he will know if anyone has taken any. I guess you have to protect your candy from thieving brother and sister.

We have snow and I have been listening to Christmas music. So It feels like we already had Thanksgiving. I however refuse to put up the Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I am so excited for all the fun baking and treats. I better watch myself. One of our favorite treats is white chocolate popcorn. I made it for neighbor gifts last year. I was being lazy and didn't want to bake 20 cinnamon tea rings. So anyway here is how you make the white chocolate popcorn: 2 bags microwave popcorn with butter popped and put in bowl, 12 oz white chocolate chips or bark melted. Pour over popcorn, stir until well coated, pour onto waxed paper to cool. You can add all kinds of things to this to make it even yummier. I promise once you make this you won't want to put it down.

Best Grilled Whole Chicken

We made this about a month ago. I am just getting to posting it. I didn't know what the result would be, but it was fantastic. Somthing everyone needs to try. The kids all thought it was funny. It looked like there was a headless chicken standing on the grill. You can also make it on your gas grill. We just love the taste you get from cooking with charcoal.


Cola-Can Chicken

Ingredients
1 chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)
2 quarts cold water
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste
1 can (12 ounces) cola
2 teaspoons melted butter
1 to 2 chunks of light smoking wood (preferably cherry or apple) optional
Procedure
1. Mix the salt and white sugar in the cold water until completely dissolved to make the brine. Wash the chicken inside and out and place it in the brine breast side down, placing a weight on top of the chicken to keep it submerged. Brine the chicken in the refrigerator for 1 hour, then remove from the brine, wash again, and pat dry with paper towels. Place the chicken on a plate and put it back in the fridge to air dry overnight (optional).
2. Combine the chili powder salt, light brown sugar, black pepper, cumin, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper together in a small bowl. Pop open your cola and drink 1/2 of the soda. Make two additional holes at the top of the can with a church key-style can opener, and toss in about 1 teaspoon of the rub. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the rub inside the body cavity. Hold the bird upright, with body cavity at the bottom, and lower it onto the can so the can fits into the cavity. Pull the legs forward to form a sort of tripod, and then tuck the wing tips behind the chicken's back. Brush the chicken all over with the melted butter, and then apply the remaining rub to the chicken liberally.
3. Light 1 chimney of charcoal, and when lit and covered in gray ash, dump out onto the charcoal grate. Arrange half of the coals on each side of the grate and place a drip pan in the middle between the two piles of charcoal. Place the wood chunks on top of the charcoal if using. Bring the grill to between 325-350 degrees. Place the chicken in the middle of the cooking grate, over the drip pan, then cover and cook until an instant read thermometer reads 180 degrees in thickest part of the thigh. You may need to add more charcoal about 1 hour through cooking.

Napolian Dynamite??

I promise you we feed our son. He literally eats like he is starving to death, however stays stick skinny. Lately he has been coming home from school with leftovers from his lunch in his pocket or backpack(YUCK). The first time he did this he came in with a chip bag from lunch with 2 chicken nuggets. He said he didn't want to waste them. As he proceeded to eat them. I thought he was for sure going to wake up in the night puking. I have tried to explain to him that he can't bring his food home. I guess the talk didn't work because a week later he came home with a WAFFLE. How on earth do you sneak a waffle out of the cafeteria?? So every week I am a little nervous to see what he might have brought home. I swear if anyone discovers what he is doing we will be reported to child services, they will think we are not feeding him. Oh the joys of motherhood. I guess I better check his pockets before washing, I might find a corn dog and some tots.

Pumpkin Cookies

I love pumpkin cookies. These are my favorite. The secret is the butterscotch chips.

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup shortening

3 cups sugar

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups pumpkin

4 1/2 cups flour

1 bag chocolate chips

1 bag butterscotch chips

bake 375* on greased cookie sheet 13-15 minutes.

Tooth Fairy

The tooth fairy finally made a visit to our house last night. Porter was so worried all last year that he hadn't lost a tooth. So finally he lost one in second grade. Good thing since I promised him that second grade was his year to loose a tooth. (since his brother lost his first one in second grade, I thought that would be a promise I could make.)Oh the trauma you have to face when you are 7 years old. I know I was grateful for all my late tooth getter's, since I was breastfeeding. All of my kids got there first tooth at 11 months. He was sure that he would never loose a tooth. Yesterday he woke up and noticed his tooth was loose, not very loose but loose just the same. I told him to keep wiggling it and it would come out soon enough. I guess he worked on that puppy all day, because when he got home from school it was just hanging there. I helped him wiggle it some more. But I'm not the adventurous type that will just grab it and yank it. So when Mike got home he asked to see it, he grabbed hold and yanked that sucker out. He was so excited for the tooth fairy to come he even went to bed early. When he woke up to change to make a dollar instead of a crisp bill, he was little disappointed. Mike told him the recession must have affected the tooth fairy also.:)I remember just getting a quarter for my teeth from the tooth fairy. Wow how things have changed.

Our 12th Anniversary

Mike and I celebrated our 12th anniversary September 6th. Wow where has the time gone?? I look back at those old pictures and can't believe it was so long ago. I am so lucky to have a great husband that is a worthy priesthood holder.

We had a great day. Just hung out and had agreat time at home with the kids. Here is to many more years to come.