RECIPE: Lemon Pepper Chicken

My sister introduced me to this fabulous recipe ages ago (I think I was just out of high school...maybe even before that). It's an easy recipe that's a hit with just about everyone, including my picky daughter.

LEMON PEPPER CHICKEN

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1 cup flour

1 Tbsp. seasoning salt (Lawry's)

2 Tbsp. lemon pepper

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup butter or margarine

Wash chicken and pat dry. Place each piece on wax paper and gently pound to about 1/4-inch thick. Combine flour, salt, and lemon pepper. Dip chicken in lemon juice then coat with flour mixture. Heat butter in a large heavy skillet or electric skillet. Add chicken and cook over medium heat until golden brown and chicken is cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels to remove excess butter.

NOTES:

• We usually use chicken breast tenders instead of breast halves. No pounding out necessary, they're easier to cut into bite-sized pieces for the kiddies, and they cook faster.
• If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: use fresh lemon juice. No juice in a bottle or cheesy plastic lemon thing allowed.
• Use butter, not margarine. Seriously...why did I even put margarine up there in the first place?
• In order to avoid burning the butter, use clarified butter instead of just tossing a cube in the pan. For those of you who have never done so before, here's what you do. Completely melt the butter in the microwave. Allow it to cool for a bit and it'll separate. Use only the darker yellow portion (the lighter stuff is fatty) for cooking. While it can burn or brown, it doesn't do so nearly as quickly as regular butter. You can actually refrigerate it until it's hard and then use a spoon or knife to separate it. But the 1st version is good for a quick fix.
• Don't drain the chicken on paper towels. You're wasting precious butter.
• We serve this over steamed white rice. I actually spread the rice out on a platter, put the chicken on top, and then pour a bit of the drippings from the pan over the whole thing. Evil, I know. But so very tasty.

Next recipe...Italian Beef Sandwiches (drooooool).

2010 Brain MRI & ENT Appointment

I had my annual MRI for the tumor in my noggin and a hearing checkup today. As I mentioned last year, I'm somewhat of a basket case for a good week or two before the big day. I worry myself sick thinking about how rotten MRI's are, the possibility of the tumor(s) having grown, my hearing having gone downhill, etc. This year wasn't much different in terms of the days following up to my appointments but thanks undoubtedly to the prayers of many dear family and friends, today went beautifully.

The waiting room was packed when I got to Imaging and Neuroscience (first time I'd seen more than just a couple of people in there) and I assumed that I'd end up waiting a while. And I did. When they did finally call me back, they gal said I could wear the wire-free sports bra I brought along and that I could leave my underwear bottoms on. Not that you want to hear about me going into an MRI with or without any unmentionables on but this was very welcome news as last year, they required that I leave both off. Another happy thing was that when I inquired as to whether or not I'd have to have wear a horribly constricting brace over my breastplate like last year (read: hardly able to breathe...forgot to mention it in last year's post), I was informed by the tech that my particular MRI scan doesn't require said brace and that whoever set me up last year shouldn't have put it on. Another sigh of relief. One final bonus to this year's MRI: my own iPod. If you read my post from 2009, you'd know about my previous music experience there. This year was much improved with me listening to songs from Glee while wiggling my toes to the beat and trying really hard not to sing along. Between my precious Valium pill, listening to my own music, and feeling calmer than ever, this was hands down my best MRI experience yet.

After getting out of my MRI late, we rushed up to the hospital (ate my brown bag lunch of a sandwich and grapes on the way) for my hearing test and to meet with my ENT. I always wonder how much I'm missing/failing on my hearing test and was happy to have the tech inform me that there had been no changes since last year. We had to wait a while to see my doctor but when we did, the visit was short and sweet with him telling me that while the MRI showed a variance of about 1mm since last year, it's well within the range of normal (measurements aren't always exact and the system isn't perfect) and he's confident that there hasn't been any growth. And this means...the tumor in my brain/inner ear and I get another year off. Come next September, I'll be a bit of a wreck for a couple of weeks before we go through all of it again. But as my mom says, if we have to have this whole process happen every year and find out that the tumor hasn't grown every year, we'll take it.

Next week I'll be seeing my Neurologist about possible problems with the tumor at the base of my spine. I've been having numbness/tingling in my right leg off and on over the past few weeks and anytime a patient has these symptoms, he wants to meet with them. I have noticed that it's less noticeable (if there at all) when I get more rest and sleep so I'm hoping and praying that nothing more than a quick appointment and discussion is needed. Crossing my fingers that we keep the current plan of an MRI of my back and neck next fall. We'll see...

Home Canned Gold

Some years back a dear friend and neighbor taught me how to can peaches. I vowed to can every year after that and while life hasn't always allowed that, I most certainly love it when late summer rolls around and I'm in a position to do so. I love pulling out my canner, my pretty quart jars, and all the canning gadgets that my hubby bought me a few years back.

This year was my 1st time canning in two years. I managed it when Claire was just over 1 year old but overdid myself. At the time, it was less than a year after my back and brain surgeries and my body didn't care for standing on my feet all day. I'm thinking that last year the memory of the pain that canning caused back in '08 was still too fresh so I didn't really give it much thought. But this year, nothing was going to stop me. Especially considering that I had the perfect opportunity to pick up a 1/2 bushel of beautiful peaches while in Brigham City.

I spent a good chunk of the Monday and Thursday after going to Peach Days canning those beautiful Suncrest peaches. I am a touch meticulous about prepping them...in addition to pitting and peeling them, I also cut out the center of the fruit where the "grippies" around the pit are. This year at the suggestion of a couple of friends, I tried briefly boiling a number of the peaches to make peeling faster/simpler. Being the weirdy that I am, I hated it! Some of the peels were easier to remove but I found the fruit to be slippery, some of them were hard to halve because they were so slick, and I didn't like the cooked texture of the outermost layer. So back to my hand peeling with a soup spoon (my favorite trick). The prepping is always the most time consuming part but from there on, it's smooth sailing with getting the jars into the canner(s) and then kicking back and letting the stove do it's thing.

I now have 12 gorgeous quarts of home canned peaches sitting in the storage room in my basement. A perfectly lined up shelf of pure gold that won't be touched until I'm good and ready and the memory of the hours I spent working on them has faded a bit. But when they do get pulled off the shelf...oh, how sweet it will be! Peaches for breakfast in the winter and fresh peach cobbler at a moment's notice. Mmmmmmm!

Brigham City Peach Days

Two weekends ago, I packed up the kiddies and drove up to Brigham City for its annual Peach Days celebration. I'd never been before but one of my sisters-in-law's mom is from there and it's been a tradition for their family since time began. They go up every year and make a day of it. So we tagged along for the fun this year (minus the parade...too much crazy even for me), heading up around lunch time.

We got our vittles at the ultra-packed outdoor food court. And the food wasn't just about peaches. Burgers and dogs, Navajo tacos, peach cobbler and peach/fruit pies, Japanese food, a variety of cold drinks and smoothies, fried Coke (what?), fried Twinkies, spiced nuts, scones, etc. I seriously can't remember everything that was there. All I know is I got a salad for me, pizza for the kids, and an amazing peach cobbler to share.

After lunch we wandered around the vendor/craft booths and then took the kids and got going on the real stuff: rides. They started out on this fun little "train"...metal barrels made into cars pulled by a darling older man on a 4-wheeler (with a rainbow umbrella hat to keep the sun off his face). Smiles all around on that ride. After that, Hudson got to enjoy a few trips down an enormous inflatable slide before we headed to the main carnival where we squeezed a whopping 3 rides into 90+ minutes. The kids went on a little caterpillar roller coaster and a UFO ride and then Hudson and I went on the ferris wheel. Claire fell asleep just before we got to the front of the line so she stayed on solid ground with my sister-in-law's mom and my baby niece while we rode. At the end of the day, we all went to Maddox restaurant/steak house for a relaxing sit-down dinner...always a welcome thing after a day on one's feet.

I'm really glad that the kids and I went up for the festival. But next time I go, I'm going to remember a few things:

1. Get more than 1 peach cobbler and try to get one that has more peaches than cobbler.

2. Bring sunscreen...I was a LOBSTER when the day was over. Thankfully I realized my forgetfulness soon enough to cover the kids who in turn mostly avoided getting burned.

3. It may be bigger and heavier but take the good camera!

4. Pack a few easy snacks for the kids so that I don't have to spend a month's pay on food.

5. Dose the kids with a good sedative before going to dinner. They somehow ended up MORE wired at dinner after a long afternoon in the sun. I'm kidding about the sedative. I promise. But I really was ready to pull my hair out by the time dinner was over.

The Green Door Poem

The Green Door Poem

I wanted to paint our front door.
Tired of the primer, I was.
So I gathered up some swatches,
As one ready to paint something does.
I flipped through every single one -
Found a lovely shade of green.
Showed it to my hubby...
He too was rather keen.
We hired a trusty painter,
He bought the color and did his job.
And when we saw the end result...
Well, it's a miracle I didn't sob.


Our front door was sure green alright.
A lovely springtime shade.
And before even 12 hours had passed
I said, "Changes must be made!"
I picked up all new swatches,
Went through them carefully.
Picked out another color and prayed
"Please don't let the neighbors see."
But the split-pea soup color had to stay
For days 'til the painter came back.
In the interim whenever I saw that door -
I wished that time would turn back.
Now the door has been painted...again.
And this time? Sweet success.
An olive green that we can live with and love
And I'm no longer a mess.

Fin.

P.S. New posts on the past couple of weeks coming over the next day or two and more painting, recipes, etc. to follow!

My Girl Is A Preschooler!

Today was Claire's 1st day of preschool. Considering how shy she was at orientation last week, I was a little nervous about how she would deal with the real thing. Always being one to do things on her own time, she completely surprised me today when upon getting out of the car, she happily walked up the driveway towards the other kids, only turning around to say "bye" when prompted by her teacher. Ahhhh....sigh of relief!

My baby girl all ready to head off into the exciting world of preschool.

I felt somewhat lost not having anyone at home with me and I'm glad that I was scheduled to help out in Hudson's class for a bit while she was at school. After that, I had time to run a few errands and get a little bit done at home before picking her up. Strange feeling but I'm sure I'll get used to it...

When I picked her up, Claire was every bit as happy as when I dropped her off earlier. She talked about snack time (banana, cookie, and water), recess, holding onto the rope on the driveway, washing her hands, and doing the Hokey Pokey. All good things. What can we say?

PRESCHOOL ROCKS!