Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Lemon Roasted Chicken

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Remember, many posts ago, when I made Simple Roasted Chicken Breasts? I was so excited about them because they were juicy on the inside and the skin was salty and crispy. Not to mention, the best thing about them is that it might have taken me 5 minutes to prepare them... then you chunk 'em in the oven and forget about them for like 30-45 minutes. I rubbed them with olive oil and sprinkled them generously with salt and freshly ground cracked pepper... it was simple perfection.

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However, I wasn't 110% satisfied there. I decided to put a little lemon twist on them and the result was {bitter}sweet. If you really really like lemon you will love this rendition... if you're more of a "subtle is better" lemon person than simply marinating the breasts in lemon juice for a few hours would do the trick just fine. The actual lemon slices were good but they definitely gave the chicken a "bitter lemony" taste and some people like that... I'm more of a subtle lemony person.

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Notes on roasting chicken: it's all about the kind of pan you use. A sheet pan or shallow roasting pan will give you browned crispy skin, not a dutch oven or high rimmed bakeware {unless your searing instead of roasting}. Also, you want to find a balance between "just done" juicy but rubbery chicken, and too done dry chicken... and the cooking time all depends on the size of the chicken breasts you are roasting. Remember: BONE IN, SKIN ON! That's a surefire way you will have juicy, tasty, moist chicken.

*Keep in mind that half of this roast chicken knowledge comes from Ina Garten, the other half from trial and error.*

Wow. I can't believe I just typed all that about roasted chicken... but then again, if you try this at home you might agree that it's totally worth it!

Monday, December 27, 2010

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

In mine and Aaron's life, the word "home" has numerous meanings to us because we use this word in so many different ways... We've lived in four different places the past two years, lived with other people {family and friends}, in a hotel, and so on and so forth... if you've been a blog reader for a while you will have noticed how all-over-the-place our lives are, and you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.

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Simply being in the South feels like home. The hospitality, humidity, casseroles, all of our family and friends, polite manners, poofy hair... You get the picture. Fairhope is where we have spent ten years together growing up... Mississippi is where we spent four years of college and is actually where I have lived most of my life {if you include college}.

Please note that no female in this household put those horns on the mantle. 
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We didn't get married and "settle down" like most people do... We don't have an apartment or a rental home, and we are not homeowners... we've come to realize that it doesn't matter if you have an actual "concrete" house to live in, just being with each other gives us that warm, content feeling and makes us feel "at home" in the biggest sense of the word.

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We have come to "define" home as each other. No matter where we are, whether its in the Northwestern tip of the country or the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, if we are together we are home.

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I will say though, Fairhope is a place we call home and there's nothing like spending Christmas here with our family. Aaron, being the only child that he is, has fit right in to all of our family traditions these past few years and loves being right up in the middle of it. Him and Dad have started a few new traditions of their own actually... I will show you later on in this post.

Every year we wait until everyone is home to decorate the tree. We turn on the Christmas music and start rummaging through all of the ornaments wrapped in tissue paper. When we were younger we used to "call" who got to hang certain ornaments on the tree. For instance, Bully was a crowd favorite and the cinnamon stick ornament was always a hot item because it smells like cinnamon and after years of hanging on our christmas tree, it still smells like cinnamon!

This picture collage is GINORMOUS and I have no idea how to make it smaller... at least you can see each ornament really really good!
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There are about ten ballerinas on the tree that are mine {I was a ballerina for 7 years of my life}... Julie always gets to hang the ER ornament because it's hers, and she has been that show's most loyal fan most of her life. We have ornaments on our tree from every vacation we've ever taken and the Disney characters are ones mom and dad bought on their honeymoon! {They went to Disney World}. We still hang our handmade ornaments from Sunday school and preschool... I would say they give it character!

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Our tree is beautiful in a sentimental way... Every ornament on our tree means something to one or all of us... and we intend to always keep it that way.

Every Christmas Eve we get really busy in the kitchen and cook up a big, fancy dinner. This year Dad marinated and grilled moose steaks and I made an herbed parmesan butter to melt on top. For our side dishes we made Pioneer Woman's Roasted Ricotta Roma Tomatoes {with a "Jillia" twist of course!} and her spinach salad.

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For dessert, we made Martha Stewart's miniature chocolate souffle's {with a "Jillia" twist- I don't know why I can never exactly follow a recipe }.

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They were almost too pretty to eat!

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After supper we have always opened one gift and it is always new pajamas... which of course we wear to bed. As we fall fast asleep, Mr. and Mrs. Clause set up all the gifts in their prospective spots. Yes, we have "spots" on Christmas morning. Mine has always been the couch {which I now share with AW}, Julie has always gotten the main chair in the room, and Jessica has always claimed the smallest chair in the room. Sometimes it pays to be the oldest! :)

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This is Christmas morning... BEFORE. Don't dare look at our faces closeup. Opening presents always takes about 2-3 hours because we d-r-a-g it out as long as we possibly can. We go around the room and open presents one at a time so we can see what every body is getting. Dad made coffee and pumpkin bread and mom cut up strawberries with fruit dip so we wouldn't be absolutely STARVING while we opened presents.

In the middle of opening presents, Rocky and Rudy thought all the tissue and wrapping paper was the best spot to have a WWF smackdown... {There was catnip involved and it makes them go crazy!}

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Then they got over it.

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Did I mention that Papaw Horace spent Christmas morning with us? He always makes a good time great. Santa even came to visit him too!

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This picture was taken AFTER we were done.

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After all the presents were opened, we cooked up a big pancake breakfast {as we do every Christmas morning}.

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After breakfast, we {the girls} piled up on the couch by the fire and watched movies all...day...long... In between movies, we made moose chili and taco soup and it was delish.

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Aaron and Dad have started a tradition of blacking out the living room, pushing the two couches together, and playing the newest Call of Duty X box game all day... However, this year they both got "toys" that almost distracted them from the x box...

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And you better believe their remote control helicopters {flying aimlessly around the house} distracted us from our movies a million times... Aaron and Dad are literally big kids.

And I will now end with a picture of Mom's adorable piece of pottery we got her. We love it!

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All of our Christmas traditions make each year so meaningful. Christmas, to us, is all about spending time together, giving, receiving, and all the while realizing how blessed we are that God has sent his Son for us so that we can rest in knowing that our eternal home is with him... and that's a reason to celebrate!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

More Holiday Happenings

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Since my last post was a little winded I will continue with recording all the family festivities in this post.

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This is how we do Christmas at Meemaw and Papaw JB's.

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And we love it... the tv trays, solo cups, the smorgasboard of dishes in Christmas tins and aluminum foil, the casual "buffet/fend for yourself" atmosphere, it's all a part of the fun at Meemaw and Papaw JB's or should I say "Camp Wynndale" {as we normally call it}.

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Newman loves Christmas at Meemaw's too... He gets shy in a crowd though.

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Gatlin, the baby of the family, is like a bull in a china closet.

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I wish I could just have an ounce of his energy... Just an ounce!!

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A few nights ago, we had Christmas in Fairhope with Papaw and Charlotte and the Pitts clan.

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We had a wonderful meal.

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We opened presents!

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And we were thoroughly entertained by Papaw's storytelling... He's a character.

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We were all in the Christmas spirit... especially the hostess with the mostess.

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Gatlin likes teams that win... {and teams that have cool blue fields}. Here's "Cam" doing the heisman.

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Remember how I said the deer horns go everywhere my dad goes? Well, here you have it. He even puts them on his head!

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Our Christmas season has been very merry so far and we are getting really really excited about Santa Clause coming!

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I hope he's good to all of you! Merry Merry!!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

'Tis the Season

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Pardon me for not vacuming before I took this.

The title of this post has been my "personal motto" these past couple of weeks.

Every time I have consumed more sugar than you can shake a stick at... I reassure my marathon-training self: 'Tis the season.

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When I simply just want to lay around {in most likely a sugar-induced coma}... I sigh and say, "'Tis the season..."

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While opening gifts... of course I'm excited "tis the season!

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Simply having an excuse to spend time with extended family makes me so thankful for this season.

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I am a family (wo)man in every sense of the word... And I love this time of year because it gives us all an excuse to get together, eat, relax, catch up, laugh, open presents, you name it... I am blessed to have a total of six grandparents and ten cousins that I love and have so many memories with.

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Two weekends ago we spent the day in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with my Dad's side of the family. Unfortunately Dad was on call that weekend and couldn't make it.  He was performing a total hip replacement while we ate dinner. We missed him and all but we had ourselves a really good time. The food was divine and the company even more so.

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{Just for kicks, please note Julie who is sitting at the head of the table. You know, the one that everyone is listening to.}

Anytime we have a family gathering here in the South, lots and lots of food is involved. And I love it.

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We snacked on crackers and dip, fruit and dip, lemon bars, oreo balls, and cheese straws that we hardly had room for our delicious dinner and dessert. It's ok though, we made room.

Grandmomma's fudge... {it's hard enough to chew on yet it melts in your mouth... it's perfection and only Grandmomma makes it this way.}

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and divinity... they are these heavenly little clouds that melt in your mouth and no other divinity compares to hers.

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Why does everything taste so much better when you're grandmother puts her special touch on it?

The food was almost as good as the fellowship.

Moving onto another side of my family... the one I married into!

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We had the Weatherford-Carter christmas last weekend as we do every year, and fun was had by all!

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Mrs. Vickie had decked the halls to a T!

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We made Christmas cookies...

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while Stan {the Man} - as I call him! serenaded us with Christmas music.

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Remember those sugar-induced comas?

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We opened presents and well... I think pictures are worth more than a thousand words!!!!!

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Oh yes... yes she did. I think I eventually had to pick my jaw up off the floor... eventually. I am currently blogging on it right now and it is my baby!! I could not BELIEVE the generosity... well, yes I could. That's just Mrs. Vickie for you... and it's not so much the financial side of the gifts but the thought behind it.

And thankfully Aunt Sue was there to help me set it up since I can be kind of technologically challenged and she's a whiz!

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I wonder what Dr. Stan's "thoughts" were behind this gift?

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He's a jokester!

And I'll leave you with that for tonight... this working girl is tired. I'll be back soon with some more Christmas cheer!

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