Freezable "Chicken Nuggets"

Like most kids, mine like "chicken nuggets". I really do not like to fry food, but even less like buying fast food for my kids. So, I have come up compromise: spend a few hours cutting battering and frying lean chicken breast in pure vegetable oil, then cooling, freezing and packing in a resealable plastic bag. This makes for super quick and easy lunches or dinners for the kids during busy times. They call it "Chinese Chicken", but it is really just a simple seasoned batter with 2 tablespoons of corn starch to give it the special crisp. They reheat beautifully too!

I usually do 6 to 8lbs at a time and like to fry it in my dutch oven.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

• 8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 1/4 cups self-rising flour (I use All Purpose and add about 1 tsp baking powder & 1 tsp baking soda)
  
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper (use about 5 turns of fresh ground black pepper)
• garlic salt or garlic powder - about 1 tsp
• ground cumin - about 1 tsp OR ground ginger is going Asian with them
• paprika - Spanish or smoked - whatever works - about 1 tps
  
• 1 egg
• 2 cups water
• Mix all of the batter ingredients together,
  
• i usually do 1 to 2 chicken breasts at a time, cubed & coated w/ batter.
• fry in veg oil until golden brown.
  
• drain & cool on a wire rack on a covered cookie sheet,
  
• then freeze on the rack on the sheet before moving to a zip top freezer bag for storage
• reheat in 400 degree over for about 10 minutes

Buffalo Hide in Progress

Thank goodness the weather has been cool - That's pretty much all I can say about it.

The hide has a home on the side of ours right now. JB scrapes it from time to time. It mostly only stinks when it rains now. The head is another story. . . . Although it's not driving the neighborhood dogs nuts.

Who am I? Casting Crowns - very cool!

Halloween 2008

We trick-or-treated with our friends, the Sollebergers, Friday night.

The weather was wonderful, so we had 2 hours of walking, visiting and gathering sweet treats!

Raven & Luke were a Pair-o-Dice, Carson was a ninja and Alex was Christine and Derek was the good sport of being the Phantom. More than once, when Derek & JB were on the street, people thought Alex was Little Red Ridding Hood, but she seemed happy to inform them that she was in fact Christine of Phantom of the Opera.

It was a very good Halloween.

Happy Halloween Week!

Raven's Halloween week started this past Friday with a costume birthday party. She dressed up as a vampire - a pretty good one, if I do say so myself.

Then Saturday was a busy day of Halloween fun. We had the annual Morey Halloween party, the kids were a "pair-o-dice" for the party and will be again tomorrow for Trick-or-Treating.
Saturday evening we took our Brownie troop to the Camp DaKaNi Haunted Hayride. It was a bit more haunted than any of us leaders expected :) The girls had fun - if you want to check it out - here's the blog that I keep up for our troop. (click on that link & it will take you there)

We have a GREAT dozen Brownies this year!

Raven is getting quite a bit of of scouting this year, maybe it's her age, maybe a new troop dynamic, who knows.

On Sunday, my birthday, we spent the day as a family in the car going to Altus to pick up the buffalo parts (head & hide) from the processor. I hear that the meat will be ready this weekend, but Ben is going to hold it for us for a week or so - we are splitting it with the Crawfords. Here's the link for JB's interview the day of the auction at the Wichitas. He was a local celebrity when we stopped in Frederick on Sunday for lunch!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Luke's Bobcat & High Seller for Den 2

This past Thursday at Pack 90's meeting, Luke received his Bobcat badge!

The custom in this Pack is a face painting ceremony. It was really neat and Luke enjoyed Mom painting his face :)

They also announced the top popcorn sellers for each den, and Luke achieved that for Den 2. That meant that he got to pick someone to "pie" in the face. He wanted to get Raven, but she hid and they didn't want to let kids-pie-kids, so it was Mom by default; I think that Luke enjoyed it a little too much :)

Way to go, Luke!

Quartz Mtn Saturday

While JB & Ben rock climbed with ropes, Raven, Luke & I hiked up Quartz Mtn. It was a great hike and a good combo of hiking trails, bolder hopping and navigating around while off the trail. The kids were great! Luke found this little alcove that the kids took a brief rest in - and it was a nice view from there, it took a bit of coaxing to get Raven to make the rest of the trek up the mtn. We had a snack at the top then headed back down.
Another day of wonderful fall weather.
The Quartz mountain area was teaming with people, as was the Wichita Mtns, for Fall Break. We (me & the kids) were fortunate enough to not run into too many on our hike, the dad's not so lucky :)

Me, the kids & a buffalo on Mt Baldy

Raven, Luke & I hustled up Mt Baldy on Friday while JB & Ben looked for caves on top of Elk Mtn. The dad's didn't have much luck finding the caves they were looking for, but we found a lone buffalo on the way down Mt Baldy. The fall weather was wonderful! It was a great day for a hike.

JB's Wheeler Peak Summit

Wheeler Peak NM'>Click here to see all 27 of the pics.
JB will update with his commentary later. I don't know what all to say except - what a view!

Spirit of Survival

This weekend was our family's 1st 5K run, Spirit of Survival. We enjoyed the weekend with the Crawfords in Frederick.
JB, Ben & Felisha got up before the sun on Saturday to head to Medicine Park for the 5K up Mt Scott. I brought the kids over for the family 5K at noon.
Everyone finished their races, the dads did a total of 10K - 5 up Mt Scott & 5 with me & the kids.
It was a great event and our families had a great day on Saturday in Medicine park and the Wichita Mountains. I think we are all hooked and look forward to our next run.
Luke wanted to win, but towards the end, just wanted to finish. He ran with JB and they finished the 5K in less than 40 minutes. Raven & I took longer, but this was my 1st 5K and longest distance since knee surgery (ever actually).
Delia & Ben did really well too. Delia ran across the finish line like a little trooper!
As far as the 5K up Mt Scott goes - wow! Ben, JB & Felisha did GREAT! If you're interested in finishing resluts - they are posted online.

SOS part 2

Here's Ben & Felisha finishing the Mt Scott run.
And Raven Luke and Delia at the end of the Family 5K.
Then the kids at lunch at the Riverwalk Cafe in Medicine Park following the races.
It was a GREAT day!

Raven's Special Sunday

The tradition in the United Methodist Church is to present Bibles to 3rd graders each year. Raven received her's Sunday, September 21. She was excited about the day and to make it better, Jeni asked her to help serve communion. That was very special to Raven. We are very proud of our girl. She is growing so fast!

Family Fun Night @ CT

Luke loved this bouncy-thing! It reminded me of the summer show "I survived a Japanese Game Show". After many tries in the middle of the velcro Luke decided the trying the side was a better idea . . . check out the video.
He also made good use of the ER room with head, neck and eye injuries :)
I didn't get pics of Raven because she was busy being a girl with her friend Kesha.
It was a very good night!
After returning home to see Dad, we decided to head to the Drive-in to see Clone Wars. All in all a good Family Fun Night.

Something fun - Myachi

I saw this today - seems reminiscent of the hacky sack, but more like a mini-bean bag. It's called a Myachi. Looks like they are available locally at Mardel's.

Fall Picture Days

This week is Picture Days at school. Decided to have the kids coordinate their color's this year. They both got hair cuts. Raven was happy about hers but Luke HATES getting his hair cut.
Just had to throw in this pic of Jake, too. :)