A few days ago my uncle went on vacation and told me to keep an eye on his garden, to harvest anything that was ready. Well, there was more vegetables ready for picking than I thought there would be, so some preserving techniques were required, this is the result, eleven jars of home made vegetable soup. Chris and I picked, Chris juiced the tomatoes and I sliced the okra and corn.
For some bizarre reason I decided that I wanted to cook a whole chicken. Having my roasting bags and my bird, I set out to begin working on the chicken this afternoon. I thought it would be no big deal, just rinse, season and pop in the bag. I suppose I subconsciously eliminated the part where there are inner parts to deal with. I really grossed myself out by opening the orifice of the bird and looking in. I grabbed my tongs to finish extracting all of the ickies out. I was so disgusted with having to do that part, which is something I don’t easily. I believe at one point Chris was laughing at me while I was fishing for “spare parts”. Fortunately, the chicken cooked well in its bag and is a nice golden color with a smooth texture of meat. A very lovely chicken.
UPDATE (1906): Decided to use the drippings to make a white gravy, it tastes amazing as well 
This evening I tried my own attempt at making a chicken seasoning. I was going for something mildly spicy with a bit of a bite, but nothing too hot for my dinner guests (my parents and Chris). I overshot and ended up with something very spicy, but that was considered to be a good flavor by all who attempted eating it. The mixture is listed below.
Equal parts:
One-half part:
Three parts:
After mixing the seasoning I spooned a single teaspoon into a shaking bag (any light-weight plastic bag, gallon or larger, will do), tossed in a half-breast of chicken and shook aggressively. Once each piece was seasoned I placed them inside a turkey bag (laying flat) on a 13×9 baking dish. I added some sliced Italian sausage on top of the chicken. Tied the bag with butcher’s string and tossed it in the over at 350° for 45 minutes.
I believe the level of heat of this dish can be controlled by adjusting the amount of seasoning placed in the bag, perhaps next time only about a half of a teaspoon per piece of chicken.
The Internet has changed many thing in our lives, some for the worse, some for the better. I once thought that the only reason I didn’t like calling to order pizza, either for delivery or to pick up, was because I was nervous with the phone conversation portion of the process. Last Saturday I placed my first Internet pizza order with Dominos while staying at my cousin’s house.
The reason I decided to pursue the option was quite simple, I was in a foreign location and was wanting to look up the number for the place, and the “Online Order Now” button just looked too inviting. I gave it a try and was pleasantly impressed with the number of options that were availible, as well as the depth of customization I could do. I usually think of pizza as boring, because I usually place the same order over and over again (because its easy). I had a lot of fun customizing my pizza, and found it refreshing that I could make my pizza any way I wanted, even it I wanted a pepperoni and sausage pizza with banana peppers on the left and jalapenos on the right.
My favorite feature of online ordering is the same as my aunt’s favorite feature of it, you don’t have to scream at a person who can barely hear you and then pray that they get the order right. I find that it makes ordering more simplified, and because of the strong existing connection between phone and pizza, I’m not worried about the added complication of having to locate a WiFi hot-spot to place an on-the-go pizza order any time soon.
Why did I write this? I don’t know, I am easily amused.
