Roasted Chicken

One of the easy meals I make is a roasted chicken. It takes minutes to prep and can feed a happy crowd. I am a huge fan of Beer Can Chicken. The most memorable beer can chicken I had at a friends house outside Atlanta at Lake Lanier. My buddy calls it "Beer Butt Chicken", and he is a master at making it.

I don't always have the patience to grill so I wanted to figure out a way to make it in the oven. It's simple. Prep it the same way and roast it until it's done. The beer and spices in the can make for a steam bath of moisture to flavor the chicken.

I have another friend who brews craft beer, and for a long time we made it every Sunday using different dry rubs and beer combinations. Recently I got lazy and over the idea of the can and decided to just pour the beer inside the chicken and roast it. It's genius since I don't generally drink beer from a can and got sick of emptying out something from my cupboard to make it. You can use any beer you like. The stronger the flavor the better the chicken. If you don't drink beer, you can also use stock but I recommend the beer or a nice white wine.

Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken (4-6 lbs)
Dry Rub
Beer

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Clean and rinse the chicken with cold water. Remove any unnecessary parts. Make a dry rub using your favorite herbs and spices. I use a cocoa cayenne blend that I make myself. It differs based on what is in my kitchen at the time but usually involves 3T cocoa, 1T kosher salt, 1T brown sugar, 1tsp cayenne, 1tsp ground black pepper, dashes of each, garlic powder, onion powder, chili flakes, paprika, oregano etc. Whatever I can find will end up in it. Place the chicken into your baking dish and cover it the dry rub. I also use some extra salt in the cavity. Pour a beer inside the cavity of the chicken. Roast in the oven for an hour to hour and a half. Cook it until it's done. Use a thermometer to check it so you don't kill your dinner guests. Let stand for 10-15 minutes after you take it out of the oven, then carve it.

Today I served mine with some black eyed peas. It was amazing and I was only in the kitchen for a few minutes.

When Doves Cry

At home there is no cellular reception. This means I can't send or receive phone calls or text messages. It's terrible. I do however have a fancy little iPhone app called HeyTell that runs on my Wi-Fi connection. It is my primary means of keeping in contact with my friends. I got a HeyTell message from my best friend. She was telling me how she lost her appetite for the day and had celery and hummus followed by a bottle of wine. This, to me, sounds like a perfectly acceptable and well rounded diet plan. I didn't understand why she was concerned about it and now she is no longer concerned. Another friend recently posted on facebook about her incredible concert performance in the car and how she was sorry we missed it. I put on a pretty dang good performance myself today to When Doves Cry. I saw Prince in concert again a few months ago and it was amazing. I was almost as good as him today but my stage was a Jeep on a curvy road. You're really missing out by not being here.

I made my way down to Wally World for some fun. I decided to replace my weathered pink pool with a fresh blue one. I need to swim to get out of the heat. I was walking around and every time I'm there I keep finding myself in the Hunting/Fishing section of the store. In Florida my dad was a member at the Manatee Gun and Archery Club. Here I think we are allowed to set up a shooting range in the back yard. Concealed weapons permits are easier to get than a drivers license. It is completely normal to see folks running errands with a gun attached to their belt and the sound of gunfire echos through the hills on a regular basis. I know guns can be a touchy subject but they have become something that for me is better to understand and be comfortable with rather than fear. I like shooting. Plain and simple. It's fun. I attended Camp as a kid and we did archery. I loved it. I found myself in the aisle staring at the foam targets with the bullseye on them. They are taunting me. There was a crowd of men over by the bow and arrows so I left the area, defeated. I am taking bets on how long it takes before I buy that foam target and my very own bow.

I made my way over to the food section. I have been asked if I miss California, and the answer is, not yet. I do however miss having a friend with a child because they always have snacks in their house that I would never buy for myself. I'm not really a snacker as it is. I could live happily on a diet of celery, hummus, and wine. I think having had a long conversation today with Monique, the mother of an almost three year old, made me purchase the goldfish. I don't have any excuse for it but now I have them in my childless home. I would assume that was a better idea than stopping at the house next door to the Baptist church who has a sign out front on pink poster board that is also taunting me. It reads, "Free Kittens". I won't take a picture of it because that means I will have to stop and that is not a good idea.

Back to the idea of Fantasy, I am realizing that all of those Disney movies I watched growing up have some similarities to my interests and experiences here in Tennessee. I have Bambi living in my back yard, and Mandyland is quite similar to Never Neverland. At this point in my life it's better than living out Romeo & Juliet. I finally bought something orange today. That color is everywhere!

Sun Dried Rocking Chair

My mom hasn't figured out how to post comments on my blog. She emails them to me. I'd like to share the one she sent regarding my last post:



Thanks mom. I think I'll be okay. Without fantasy, living in Mandyland just wouldn't be very interesting and I wouldn't have a blog to write. I think it's important to encourage your children and friends to live out fantasies. Disney has made a fortune on this idea and helped me create and complete a project.

I finished the rocking chair! What a pain that was. Thankfully I only bought one. I can only imagine if there were more, how long they would sit unfinished. Knowing now that I should have sanded it better to begin with, if I ever decide to re-finish it or anything else for that matter, I am certain I will do a better job. Also, a table might be easier. Something flat that doesn't have as many individual pieces. I told my dad that I wanted to make sure it had character and looked like I did it. He laughed at me. I guess the parts where I didn't sand off all of the drip stains are evidence enough that it was my work, not his. It's drying in the sun and looks so pretty. When I told whatshisname that I was going to stain it myself, he asked what color. I told him that I wanted it to be Honey. His response was, Oooooh nooooo! That's sticky and will attract bees. I'm still laughing.

The banjo fantasy project is, and will remain a work in progress. Now I just need that fantasy farm boy to come by and carry the rocking chair up the three flights of stairs to the deck outside my bedroom. I guess I will be sitting in the sun for a while.

The Hundred Acre Wood

A couple of months ago, my father got a visit from a local fireman. He stopped by to explain that he was part of the county cave mapping team. Anderson county has over 100 caves, most of which surround the lake or make their path towards it. He informed my father that two caves sit on our property. One of them had been mapped a few years back and the other was discovered when they were going out to explore the first one. He asked if he would mind if they got a team together to go explore it. My father was excited. They exchanged numbers and time went by.

About two weeks ago we got a call and a message from the fireman. He had a team together and they wanted to come the following Sunday. Just after we heard the message there was a knock at the door. He stopped by to see if we got his message. They chatted on the front porch and I got the abbreviated version of the story. Three people would show up around 9am and be out by 5pm. If they weren't out by then to make their phone call to check in, the rescue team would be deployed.

It was raining when they showed up. The grass in the field hadn't been cut yet. It was a professor, the fireman, and a female geologist, all in wetsuits. They invited us to come down with them. I was happy to watch from the covered back deck. At about 4:15pm they resurfaced covered in mud. They explained that it was really dark, a few bats, a couple of tunnels, and then a glorious area with 50 foot ceilings, and green pools of water. It's the biggest cave they have ever seen and it goes on and on. Now I wish I had gone with them. I didn't even know where it was. The only idea I had was to start walking in the area of where they parked the car.

The trees in the uncut area are over 100 feet tall. I have walked in about ten feet at the far right of the yard where there is a path. It's gorgeous but almost too familiar from the movies I have seen. It looks like there is a hobbit living somewhere or a white horse is going to come running through, Robin Hood could possibly be living in there. Any description I give to the area does not do it justice. I call it the Hundred Acre Wood and when I got my nerves up after several encouraging words from my friends, I went on a search for Hunny. The Winnie the Pooh reference and possibility of seeing Eeyore was the only comforting thing about walking into the unknown. It's not nearly as scary as I thought.

When I walked into the area where the cave explorers went, my mouth dropped. There is a giant sink hole that goes down about 25 feet. There are trees growing from the center of it. Right there about 20 feet in from where the trees start is the cave entrance. I couldn't believe how close it was and how big it is. I walked around the edge of the sink hole which is situated on a hill and just stood in awe. Now I really want to go in. There is no way to go down there unprepared and hope to make it back up. This is going to require some equipment. I think I will be able to get to the entrance with just a rope to be able to get back up. This remains uncharted territory for now.

I have always been a cautious person, not taking too big of risks when I don't know what I'm doing. I am getting a bit more adventurous daily. I took the tractor down to the other end of the yard that I previously couldn't get to because the grass was so high. I found the other cave and saw so much of natures beauty. This place is awesome! I feel like a kid again though, I never really grew up. I suggest a cocktail to celebrate my new found desire for Spelunking and adventures in your own back yard!

Hundred Acre Hunny Pot

1 part Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey
3 parts Diet Ginger Ale
Fresh or frozen berries for garnish
Ice
Mason Jar

Put ice in the mason jar. Add Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey and fill the rest of the jar with diet ginger ale. Top with berries and enjoy. Simple and refreshing! Everything tastes better out of a mason jar, especially when it's Hunny.

*Too early here for a drink, so no photo. Sorry.

Beer on Sunday

Anderson County is dry. If you don't know the concept, you can't buy booze. If you're lucky, at best you can find beer in certain areas stores. Want a glass of wine? Not a chance. You'll have to drive to another county that sells that stuff and about a 45 minute drive from anywhere you live out here. I was familiar with the term "Package Store" from my summers growing up, for no other reason than that's where we would stop to pick up booze for my Grandfather's Manhattan. He had one at 6:00pm. Just one. No one in my family prior to my generation was much into drinking and I think it's possible that we've made up for that during college and beyond.

When I was in High School, my father came upon a new hobby of brewing beer. I caught on pretty quick and although it was a lot of work, I enjoyed it. Over the years his collection of brewing equipment has grown. He moved to Florida for six months out of the year, a few years back. He tried and failed to make beer that tasted like mine and got into wine making. He has won several awards for his wine. I mean lots of awards. Pretty much every competition he has entered, he wins Gold and Double Gold. He made an attempt again at beer crafting just before I got here and lucky me, I showed up to be able to bottle it. 5 gallons of Tennessee Caramel Nut Ale.

In honor of the dry county and the fact that you can't buy beer in a store before noon on Sunday, I present RRanch Bootleg Beer! It's over 8% and pretty good. I guess they just assume you will stop by after church, not before. Stores are all closed by 8pm here and I'm not allowed out after dark so I guess it doesn't matter what time the evening cut off is. In California, I stopped for gas on my way home at about 10:15pm one evening. I had a winning lottery ticket and was not allowed to cash it in. I had no clue that there are no lotto sales or winnings exchanged after 10pm. Guess that's supposed to keep people out of trouble. You can buy a lotto ticket on your way to church though. For the record, I haven't seen a bar since I've been here and had one beer at the Mellow Mushroom in downtown Knoxville. I guess it's good to know I can always come home and enjoy a cold one safely and no ones gonna stop my tractor. (I'm kidding.)

Milk & Cookies

Having had more time in my life than ever to reflect on things, today let's take a walk down memory lane. I have no recollection of the above photo. It's dated July, 1983, Knoxville, TN. It has been in the same frame next to my mother's bed as far back as I can remember. I was three years old, and had a thick southern accent that I have spent years trying to cover up. It's a rare thing to hear from me but if I get really tired, drunk, or am caught talking to my parents or siblings too long, it makes an appearance. My mother informed me today that I was in Knoxville as a child. I think we must have been stopping through on one of our many road trips in this blue conversion van that my parents had. I didn't ask her about the story but showed my father the photo on my iPad after my mother learned how to use her scanner for the first time, and he acted like he's never even seen it. Not much of a response from him about it either. It's one of a few precious photos that shows us as we were. Simple folk. HA! Or, it was one of those touristy old time photos where they dress you up in silly clothes and tell you not to smile. Either way, I haven't aged a bit since then, and my mother said she must have been about 19 1/2 at the time.

Staying true to the pioneer roots, the house water here is supplied by a well. I wish I was kidding but that is the honest to goodness truth. I call it the wishing well but there is no hole to drop into because it has a cover and I'm too scared to open it. Off to the side of the well is the North property line. Trees everywhere. It is really pretty as is the entire property.

I moved to California from Atlanta just before I turned five years old. My mother was a fundraiser for the Atlanta Ballet when we lived there, my siblings danced in the company. In California my mom was a member of the PTA and Troop Leader over the years for the Girl Scouts at the different levels. She always made things for the school bake sales and when I got older she was known as Betty Crocker by my friends because she always had something sweet and homemade in the house. One of my favorite childhood recipes was called a Peanut Blossom. It's a peanut butter cookie, rolled in sugar and topped with a Hershey's Kiss. What follows is an ode to that recipe that I have adapted over the years. I have made them countless times and they are a favorite among my friends. Enjoy with milk, or wine.

Peanut Butter & Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
2/3 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Tablespoons Whole Milk
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 3/4 Cup AP Flour
1/2 tsp Good Salt (never ever iodized)
Milk Chocolate Chips
Raw Sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with a silpat or parchment paper. (Invest if you don't have it at home.)
With an electric mixer beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy, then add in the peanut butter and mix well. (This is a good reason to purchase a Kitchen Aid Mixer for your girlfriend.) Add in the egg and beat well. Add in the vanilla and milk. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add it to the rest of the ingredients and then stop. Do not over mix once the flour is in. Fold in the chocolate chips. If the dough is too warm to roll into balls you can put it in the refrigerator to chill for a bit. Form into whatever size cookies you prefer and roll in the Raw Sugar. Place evenly spaced on your prepared sheet pan and bake until golden brown. 8-13 minutes depending on the size, just check them and rotate the pan.

*Since I didn't want to bake all of my cookies today, I took 2/3 of the dough before I added the chocolate chips and put it in the freezer for later. Recipe yields approximately 36 delicious cookies.

Hay Hay, that's quite a nice shirt you got.

Someone told me today is Saturday. Makes sense why there were so many people at Wal-Mart and the dump today. I haven't seen that much traffic heading up the road to the Marina since I have been here. Lines everywhere. I have lost track of the days of the week but sometimes I'm reminded. A rather exciting outing includes a trip down the crooked road to find some treasures at the ONLY large store within a 30 minute drive. Wal-Mart is the happening place. My Aunt Toots came to visit my father in late July and when I asked her about her visit she explained the highlights of the town and the same excitement that I have for the tractor. I found a couple of pictures of her riding it. Quite amusing. She also joked about how Wal-Mart is the only thing around. I think it's safe to say she, like me, does not frequent the store in her hometown of Boulder, CO.

A very foreign concept to me is going to the dump. There are no weekly or bi-weekly trash men that come by. I assume out here you could get away with burning it but that's a bit to rustic for my tastes. We, like everyone else in the community, drive down to the dump and separate out things among the big blue bins. Everything has it's place and there are explicit instructions to not rummage through and no dumping oil. I considered myself well exposed to to what life is like but the only thing I have learned since I have been here is that I know a lot less than I thought. I never thought about what I put into a trash bag until now. I now consider everything about it; how heavy it will be, if it will leak, what category blue bin it will end up in, and how long can it sit here before it makes it's way down the hill, is there a raccoon that will come and get to it before I get it out of here. There was a back-up at the dump today so I took a picture while I waited in line. There is a whole dump protocol that I am picking up on, and the concept of owning a pickup truck makes a lot more sense to me.

Finally after disposing of several bags and a box of yucky stuff, I was on my way to have a look around at the place with the big blue sign. I know I tried to explain how much orange there was but I think photographic evidence is necessary. I was also wrong about there being four places in the store with displays, I counted seventeen today. The orange shirts were everywhere! On people too, not just on the racks. I still will not purchase that color. The only orange thing I like, I have growing in my garden. The pumpkins are still producing new blossoms. I found two new baby watermelons also.

After my big shopping adventure, I made my way back up the hill. Not less than two minutes after I got the bags inside, I heard tractor noises. I was probably a little too excited to see heavy machinery but the guys came by to roll the hay! My dad made his way down to chat with the guy as he was driving by with the thingy that makes the small rows into bigger rows. I went down and was a dumb blonde and asked about the process. A few minutes later another tractor with a different thingy on the back came by and followed the first one around. It picks up the hay and rolls it and then drops the bails out of the back. They came by after with another tractor with what looks like a forklift on the front and back and a flat bed trailer. In a matter of minutes the dozen rolls of hay were gone. For what seems like a simple process, they have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in that equipment. I am thankful that they come by and take care of that for us. Apparently they won't be back for the rest of the year. Does that mean it gets cold here? Uh oh!

Peach, & The Color Orange

Knoxville, I'm learning, is a college town. University of Tennessee Knoxville is better known as UT. Their mascot is a Vol named Smokey. I assume since Knoxville is the center of the universe here, that they either don't know that there are other colleges in the UT system or they are just lazy. It would be like calling UCLA, just UC. Maybe I don't understand it because I'm not from here or I am missing something completely. The schools website is UTK.edu, enough to explain my point.

The school color is a unique shade of orange. I have been privy to see many different shades of orange since I have been here. I am blessed with not being colorblind so I get to enjoy the pleasure. The many shades of orange include but are not limited to; Men Working Sign orange, Roadside Cone orange, Hooters orange, Home Depot orange, Hunting Vest orange, Jail Jumpsuit orange, and UT orange. The last of these is EVERYWHERE! You can't escape it. There are UT flags hanging pridefully from every house but mine. The gas station sells all kinds of products in that lovely color with the UT logo all over them. Down at the Sequoyah Marina next to my house, all you see is people in that color shirt. Wal-Mart has four sections strategically placed throughout the store just in case you don't have a wardrobe full of the color and, let us not forget the UT orange paper napkins for your BBQ. It's something special to the residents of the area. I did not grow up with such pride for anything other than the American Flag which we have hanging outside the front of the house.

When I came here, I was a redhead. I had strawberry blonde hair as a child, and once I developed my fear of the sun it became a deep shade of auburn. It has been every color on the spectrum at some point. I decided since, for the first time in years I didn't have a corporate job to dictate what color my hair needs to be, at least for a little while, to change it. I would go blonde. After the first attempt, my hair was a nice shade of sunflower yellow mixed with, yep, UT orange! They were gonna get me somehow. I figured if it didn't go lighter the next time, I would simply dye it back to some form of red. It has since gone much blonder, and I really like it. Unfortunately with my current hair color, UT orange doesn't compliment my features so you won't see me in it EVER and I will stick with my happy girly color of pink. Pink is a soft and pretty color that looks good on blondes.

Realizing how much pride this community has for their local teams, I have decided to make something using all Tennessee products and a shade away from orange on the color wheel very familiar to me called Peach. Cobbler it is!

Tennessee Peach Cobbler

4 cups fresh Tennessee peaches cut into 1 in wedges, pits removed
1/2 Tennessee lemon zested
1 Tablespoon Tennessee lemon juice
1 cup sugar, plus 3 Tablespoons divided
1 cup flour (I used Tennessee Flour of course!)
1 egg from local chicken birds
Heavy handed pour of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey
Splash of really good vanilla
6 Tablespoons of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place peaches in a bowl with lemon juice, zest, 3 Tablespoons of sugar, vanilla, and the heavy handed pour of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey. Toss to coat the peaches, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 15 minutes. Pour the peach mixture into a lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish. Stir together egg, 1 cup of sugar, and flour in a medium bowl until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle over fruit. Drizzle melted butter over topping. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. You can also use this recipe for berries or mix the berries with the peaches. A day before you make the cobbler, I highly suggest you make some dulce de leche to top this heavenly dish.

Dulce De Leche

1 can of sweetened condensed milk (adjust the recipe size by adding extra cans to the pot)

Remove the paper labels from the unopened can(s). Place in a heavy bottom pot and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil and cook for three hours. Add additional hot water if necessary to keep the cans covered. Remove from the heat, dispose of the water and allow the cans to cool at room temperature. Once the cans have cooled, place them unopened in the refrigerator to store them. They will keep for a while in there. Once you are ready to use the caramel, open the can. It can be warmed in a microwave safe bowl, or in a pot on the stove. Watch it carefully while you heat it so it does not burn. Enjoy!

*In the photos you will see that I used a smaller baking dish. My father is diabetic and also cannot have alcohol. I made a smaller portion of the recipe using Splenda and no booze and made mine the diet-free way. Both good. I also used blanched, peeled peaches today but my recipe has been time tested with fresh and frozen homegrown fruit. All of which are successful. Anytime you bake, please use unsalted butter.

Sunflower Harvest

What started as another experiment in the garden turned into a beautiful sight. Between the rows of blueberries, Uncle Bob suggested that we plant two rows of corn. When you plant corn you have to soak the kernels overnight in water. The kind we had was covered in this pink stuff that I later learned is fertilizer and will dye anything it touches pink. He told me to put three kernels together in a hole in the row and make them at least a foot apart. In the shed, he found some sunflower seeds. They look just like the kind you buy in a bag and enjoy at a baseball game. In one of the rows Uncle Bob had me drop a few sunflower seeds in between the corn. He said if the birds don't get to them then I will have beautiful sunflowers in between the corn. I was excited to see if they would grow.

The corn and sunflowers were quick to sprout in the miracle mud. Before I left the corn was over a foot tall and well on it's way. By the time I arrived at the beginning of August one row of corn was ready to be eaten and the second row was all sunflowers. They completely dwarfed the growth of the other row of corn. Thankfully the blooms were gorgeous. They had grown twelve to fourteen feet tall. One of them had a stalk wider than a baseball bat. It was nice but I was kind of disappointed that none of the corn in that row survived. I had planted a different species in each row. Now I would only be able to enjoy one kind and I had these flowers that were pretty but going to die soon.

Uncle Bob came by and asked if I was going to harvest the sunflowers for the seeds. What? You mean the huge flowers are where sunflower seeds come from? I was honestly surprised because every time I had sunflowers that I bought from a store, I never saw sunflower seeds in the blossoms. I guess I wasn't really sure where the seeds came from and assumed there was a sunflower seed making variety of plant. If you don't ask questions you're never going to find out the information you may have wanted to know. So I then asked Google how to harvest the sunflowers.

Sunflower harvesting is a process that requires good timing and outsmarting the birds. You can let the seeds dry out naturally in the garden but in doing so you risk them falling to the ground or being enjoyed by birds as a lovely meal. Google suggested waiting until all the petals fall off and the backs start to turn yellow. The seeds start to get the familiar black lines. Then you cut them off with at least 12 inches of stalk still attached. Put a brown bag over the once beautiful blossom and hang them to dry in a warm shed. Lucky me, I actually have a really warm shed perfect for drying them! I probably would have built one specifically for this purpose if there wasn't one here. There are hundreds of seeds in every blossom and all the while I was thinking I had planted pretty, but useless flowers. I enjoy being wrong in times like these.

Once I had done my research, I headed straight down to the garden to see what Google was talking about. I was shocked. These flowers that I was looking at for so long, all the sudden seemed different. I had a new perspective. I saw the seeds! It was like a Christmas miracle and I was so excited! Then, I had to wait about a week. Most of the sunflowers still had petals. This whole garden thing is testing my patience. At least now that the flowers were getting uglier, I knew I still had something to look forward to.

I took down four blossoms today and over the next week, the entire row will be ready for harvest. There is one blossom that is so big and has so many seeds that it could feed an entire dugout for a whole baseball game. The garden row can probably supply a team for a season. Now they hang and I'm back to waiting for the seeds to fall. Then it will be another project trying to figure out how to roast them. I'm sure Google will have something to say about that as well.