Ryan's 5th Birthday Party!

With Ryan's B-day on March 1st, we held his party the Sunday before. Loads of fun. All junk food for eats! Gummy Bear, worms, slugs, and swedish fish! Animal crackers and frosting covered Animal Crackers with sprinkles!

Ryan requested cupcakes this year and our very good friend Charra made some amazing cupcakes, with Ryan's fav animals!

Here's a close up showing the details. Amazing!

Of Course there were many friends and family who came over too.

Once it was time, the 5 candles went the cupcake that Ryan choose and we all sang the Song!

Clyde was there and had a great time too, and even got some hands on Grandma Time.

Of Chicken and Redemption Part 3 - Pulled Chicken

Yep, the Chicken did not work, but I had a plan.

It involves a Crock Pot, water, many hours and low heat.  Oh and a over cooked and tough stewing chicken.

All that went on for almost 24 hours.  Well, closer to 18, but in the end the meat was just falling off and most of it was rather tender by this point.

Then came the process of separating the meat from the bone and other stuff.  Kind of gross, but fun too!

I was left with a nice bowl of chicken!  I was also left with some really great and yummy juice that I added my frozen veggie and made a deep rich stock from. You know how much I love making stock right?

I had cooked up some beans and rice all ready, now for the pulled chicken.  As is the nature of this blog, this was truly a Back of the Fridge plate.

The sauce was a combination of beer - a pale ale, stock, water, white vinger, molasses, maple syrup, a dash of OJ, and spices (salt, pepper, cumin, cyan, red pepper flakes) and onions, garlic, and red bell pepper.

In a pot I heated up Olive oil, added the veggies and cooked until soft.  Deglazed with the beer, added the rest and a little corn starch for a bit of light thickness (does that make sense?).

Heated up until bubbling and then added the chicken and mixed well.

Served the chicken over the rice and beans with a side of boiled greens.  Bammo Mitch.

It was super yummy.  Hot dang was it good.  It could have been spicier, it was rather sweet and a little heat would have been nice.  But wow.  Redemption.

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

Of Chicken and Redemption Part 2 - Dessert

Sunday dinner was a bit of a flop.  The chicken was crap o la, but the rest was good.  The veggies were near perfect!

I love Sunday Dinners that include dessert and during the cooking of the chicken and cleaning of the kitchen I was inspired to fix dessert.  Pear tart!  But I had no dough, and I lack in dough making skills.  But I can make a mean shortbread cookie.

I made a normal batch of shortbread

• 1/2 cup butter
• 11/2 cups flour
• 3 T sugar

Mixed and patted into my french tart pan.  Then I sliced up 3 pears thin and dusted with a little sugar and cut some butter over the top of that.  Baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 ish minutes.

It was super yummy.  So yummy it may make an appearance at a special large dinner party I throw every year,  Maybe.

Part 3 of the story is coming around the corner...  The redemption phase.

Read Part 1

Read Part 3

Work Life Balance

Finding a Work Life Balance is a very important thing to us (one reason I quit Facebook).  I personally have to try to keep it Work Life Balance and not Work Versus Life.  There is a wonderful phrase - Do you Live to Work or Work to Live?

Watch this video -

My Other Blog - personal journal

Hello dear readers,

I am glad that many of you are enjoying this blog and I hope you too are getting creative with what you have in your kitchen!

I wanted to let you know that I have started a personal journal type blog as well.  You can find it here at

A Harehl Musman Production - hmprod.blogspot.com

You'll find stories and pictures and videos of our everyday life.  I hope you'll check it out.

E

Post #1. This first Entry. One. The Beginning. Not the Last.

TA DA!

Well here it is post #1.  Hope you're happy.  

First up, some over due photos.

Here is sleep Clyde with hands folded.  A Classic Image. 

Here is Ryan feeding Clyde for the first time.  He did a great job!

Here we find Fezziwig the cat enjoying a nice place to sleep.

And lastly, because it has to be a bit weird in here - I found this hanging in the hallway at Starbucks on 1st and Pike in Seattle.

Now really, who doesn't need more slack in their life?  Dobbs will help you out.

Of Chicken and Redemption.

Thanks to Johnny & Joe for leading this 3 part post off.

Stewing Chicken - is an old hen that is past it's laying prime.  Tough, dry and requires a long slow heat cooking process.

That's where I screwed up on.

My In-laws gave me stewing chicken that my brother in law had processed during a farming class.  The bird looked good, and I had a grand idea for Sunday Chicken dinner.




I cut the bird down into sections, put it into a pot with olive oil and potatoes, fennel bulb, onions, garlic, and vegetable stock.  Covered and put into the oven and cooked for about 1.5 hours.

Lets say that the veggies were wonderful!

The chicken it self was dry, tough, rubbery, and plain dull.  I was sunk.  My pride was hurt and I felt just dumb.  I should have know better I thought.

There was though a grand plus side to the dinner - The Wine for starters.

My friend David over at La Buona Tavola turned me on to a wonderful bottle of Italian red wine.

Good round flavor, not too fruity.  It was a pleasant drink to go with the vegetables!

I came up with a plan, but not until we finish dessert.  You'll have to wait until the next post for dessert: Pear tart with a shortbread crust.


Read Part 2
Read Part 3