Look! Up in the Sky! It's a Bird! It's a Plane!

It's Super Kate!

Seriously, I cannot believe how much I got accomplished yesterday. I definitely must have some superhuman powers. I'll give you an overview and then break it down a bit:

7:30-9 Got up, showered, got dressed, headed to class
9-12:40 Bar/Bri
12:40 - 1:30 Drive home from Bar/Bri (are you kidding me? 40 miles, 50 minutes! I hate Orange County Drivers. If you want to go 70 mph GET OUT OF THE FAST LANE - or at least get off your cell phone so you can see the line of cars on your ass)
1:30-6:30 Review Civ Pro, Outline two Civ Pro Essays, write 3 Civ Pro Essays, roast a chicken, make ice cream
6:30 -7:30 Dinner and dessert
8-9 Bowling
9:40-11:30 Movie

Do you see all that? That's like a month's worth of activity in one day!!!


The nice thing about roasting a chicken though, is its pretty easy. I use a recipe I got off of Spark People which basically involves sticking a marinated chicken in the oven for 4 hours on low heat, so I'm not standing over a stove keeping an eye on anything. It's really the perfect dinner for a study/work day. And pop a couple of potatoes in the toaster oven....dinner. The end. No muss, no fuss, and its one of those "Oh, woe is me, I slaved over a hot stove all day" kind of meals.



Now we don't usually do dessert, but two nights ago Jon decided he wanted cookies at 9 PM so I was scooping frozen dough onto a cookie sheet. I think I permanently destroyed my wrist - frozen cookie dough is HARD! Tonight I was prepared for him, I "made" my own ice cream by mixing low fat vanilla ice cream with a reduced pomegranate sauce. Jon's eyes got big when he saw it in the freezer, but when he found out the swirl was pomegranate he got "that look" on his face.

K: What?
J: I don't like fruit on my ice cream
K: It's not on the ice cream, its swirled in. And its not fruit, its a syrup.
J: Whatever
K: Fine, don't eat it. More for me. But I know you're going to want some later.

And as usual I was right. After dinner I scooped him up an entire bowl and put some apricot/triple sec sauce on top with fresh raspberries (fruit and more fruit. Take that!) . He might have been complaining, but I couldn't hear anything over the scrape of his spoon against the bottom of the bowl.

K: So you like it?
J: Yeah
K: Hmmm so that's three things I've made you didn't think you'd like, and each time you've ended up really liking it. Do you think there's a lesson to be learned here?
J: Like what?
K: Like maybe you shouldn't be so judgmental?
J: Naw, I don't think I learned that lesson.

Bowling was fun. I started out good, then a group of teenagers moved in next to us. That's not the problem. I don't really have a problem with teenagers. Except one of the girls kept using MY ball. Hellloooo go get your own ball. As soon as she started using it I started throwing gutter balls. I think she cursed it. And I broke two nails. Seriously, if I had a voo-doo doll........




Then we went to see Surf's Up. Jon's choice. Jon doesn't even like cartoons. But this one was about surfing. Jon stops to look at billboards if they're about surfing. So we went to see a cartoon about penguins. It was cute, predictable, but since it was aimed at 7 year olds maybe it wasn't so predictable for them. Jon stared glassy eyed at the screen the whole time. When it was over he complained that it ended too soon. I was a little worried.
K: I bet you'd like to be a penguin huh?
J: Why?
K: So you could surf all day.
J: Umm, that's not what penguins really do
K: Okay, just so long as we're clear that this wasn't a real documentary

Spark People's Sticky Chicken

• 1 teaspoon salt
  
  
• 2 teaspoons paprika
  
  
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  
  
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
  
  
• 1 teaspoon thyme
  
  
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
  
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  
  
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  
  
• 3-4 lb. roasting chicken
  
  
• 1 cup chopped onion
  
  

1. In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all the spices. Remove giblets from chicken, clean the cavity well and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture into the chicken, both inside and out, making sure it is evenly distributed and down deep into the skin. Place in a re-sealable plastic bag, seal and refrigerate over night.



2. When ready to roast chicken, stuff cavity with onions, and place in a shallow baking pan. Roast, uncovered, at 250° F for 4 hours. After the first hour, baste the chicken occasionally (every half hour or so) with pan juices. The pan juice will start to caramelize on the bottom of the pan and the chicken will turn golden brown. If the chicken contains a pop-up thermometer, ignore it. Let chicken rest about 10 minutes before carving.

Pomegranate Ice Cream with Apricot Sauce and Raspberries

1/4 cup pomegranate juice
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup apricot preserves
3/4 Tbsp triple sec
raspberries

1. In a small saucepan bring pomegranate juice to a boil. Boil about 10 minutes. Let cool.
2. Remove ice cream from freezer and let sit out for 20 min. until slightly softened
3. Spoon ice cream into medium bowl. Stir in reduced pomegranate juice. Return to freezer until ready to serve.
4. When ready to serve, combine apricot preserves and 3 Tbsp water in a small saucepan. Simmer over low heat, until preserves are melted. Remove from heat and stir in triple sec.
5. Spoon apricot sauce over ice cream and top with raspberries.