CREDITS:

Digital scrap items in the header, layouts and sidebar are by Miss Mint at PeppermintCreative.com or Jen Wilson at JenWilsonDesigns.com

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Grilled BBQ Chicken Recipe

My dad grilled a WICKED BBQ chicken growing up and when I asked him a couple years ago what the secret was he said "cheap Kraft BBQ sauce!" LOL! So I plunked Aiden in his kiddie pool, threw some BBQ chicken on the grill and had a delicious dinner last night that brought back memories of summer cook-outs with dad. I slightly altered my dad's original recipe to compensate for cooking them on a gas grill instead of slow roasting over briquettes & wood chips like he always did. They were AWESOME! Here's the recipe:

Tay's Melt-A-Man Hickory BBQ Chicken
(adapted from Tay's Dad's B*tchin' BBQ Chicken recipe!)

1 bottle Kraft Hickory BBQ sauce (99¢)
1 packet McCormick Grill Mates™ Hickory BBQ Marinade (50¢)
3 tablespoons Colgin brand Liquid Smoke - Hickory flavor (99¢)
Pack of chicken drumsticks (figure 4 drumsticks per adult/2 per child)
Basting brush & small cup to hold basting sauce
Rectangle pyrex pan


Open BBQ sauce and pour 1/3 of the bottle into a small cup. Set aside for later grill basting. Place rinsed chicken drumsticks in a glass pyrex pan. Pour the remaining BBQ sauce over the drumsticks, fill the BBQ sauce bottle with roughly 1/2 cup of water, shake to loosten remaining sauce and pour that mixture into the bottom of the pan. (Don't rinse BBQ off chicken with it) Open the marinate pouch and pour 1/3 of the pouch into the basting cup on top of the BBQ sauce. Sprinkle the remaining spices generously over the chicken. (Ignore marinade recipe on back, we just need the spices.) Pour 1 tablespoon of liquid smoke into the basting cup and drizzle 2 tablespoons over the chicken in the pan. Cover the chicken pan and basting cup with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Chicken will need to marinate 1-6 hours.

Fire up grill and leave it on medium-high to high heat. Using tongs, turn the drumsticks over in the pan twice to coat with BBQ sauce and place on the TOP rack of your grill. Close the lid and let cook for about 20 minutes. Open the lid, fip the chicken, heavily baste it and let it cook for 15 minutes more. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, move the chicken to the lowest grill surface, baste heavily again and close the lid to allow the BBQ sauce to caramelize and the chicken skin to slightly darken if desired. Chicken drumsticks should be done after about 45-50 minutes of grilling. Allow an hour and fifteen minutes or more for chicken breasts or full leg pieces.

Serve with baked beans, grilled corn on the cobb and/or any of your favorite summer side dishes. Enjoy and watch your man MELT!

Thanks for the memories daddy. I love you!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Aiden Stories

Sometimes my blog entries need no other title than that. I have a fun new routine of telling Brian about all the hilarious things Aiden said or crazy things he did during the day and let me tell you, it's a riot! My sister-in-law has a column running down her blog of the latest things her little girl Molly has said. I am really going to have to start doing that....

Aiden Discovers Love Bugs

On Saturday I took some "me" time and went to HomeGoods just for fun. I ended up buying Aiden a cute little outdoor bug catching kit for our afternoon play time on the font porch. He's wanted me to catch love bugs in the jar so he can look at them through the magnifying glass lid so today I plucked a flower cluster from a bush where a pair was eating and tossed it in the jar so he could observe the bugs drinking nectar. He gazed at the pair for a moment and then said "Bugs stuck!" I stifled a giggle. He peered even more intently into the jar and then I saw his forehead crease as his eyebrows lowered and he said "Bugs stuck.....NAUGHTY!" This time I about fell off my camp chair! Yes, indeed, the bugs are "stuck" in a naughty way. :)
(Nevermind that he was referring to the way the female of this particular bug couple was dragging the poor male around by his nether parts, going wherever she pleased and leaving the other bug flapping to keep his balance as if he's being dragged. Aiden has been learning at toddler social gatherings that pushing, shoving and dragging others is impolite behavior and apparently he thought the bugs needed a scolding! )

Lately I've decided that I wanted a lot more family time and that I needed to get better about taking pictures of the silly little moments. Last week we enjoyed making ice cream cones or going and getting snow cones to eat out on the front porch at sunset. It has made for a delightful and relaxing end to the day and it is something I hope we continue to do several nights per week. Here are some photos of other things we have been up to:



Here is the tent Aiden and I made the day it was raining cats & dogs and there wasn't much to do besides curl up and watch a movie!



He loved the tent. He especially loved laying sideways and watching the blanket overhead move as he kicked the chairs. (I had to re-make the tent about six times)



A quick pic of me & 80 one evening after finishing our ice cream cones on the porch!



Big bear hug for Bri!



He sure does love his daddy!



Ah, yes, the counter pic. This was the only way to get Aiden to understand that a frozen eggo waffle has to cook in the toaster BEFORE he can eat it. The previous three mornings he had screamed the entire five minutes it took the waffle to go from frozen to syruped & set in front of him. This particular morning I was too tired to fight him so I put him in charge of watching for toaster fires. I caught him lying down on the job...

And then we finger painted....



He was having fun with it until I wanted him to quit flinging paint and hold still for a picture! I'm sensing some attitude... In reality, he was bored with finger painting after six minutes. Clean up took over thirty five minutes so I don't think we'll be finger painting a whole lot but this was his first time ever so it was worth it!



Okay, okay, THIS was HILARIOUS! First, the back story: for Aiden's two year old photo shoot I bought him a skateboard and covered it in bright-colored, boyish vinyl decals. The problem is wall vinyl doesn't stick to the sandpaper-like surface of a skateboard very well so Aiden has been able to easily peel them off. Last friday Aiden smeared his clothes up with yogurt and the majority of his lunch so I stripped him down and sent him to go play. NO LIE, he wandered into the living room not ten minutes later with this biohazard decal placed on his arm tatoo-style! He'd done it completely on his own! I just about died laughing - it is so HIM!!!! (Not shown: the orange skateboard decal stuck to his butt!)

And there you have it. The most recent Aiden stories. :) Gosh I love this little boy!