A Homemade Life: Buchons Au Poulet

We have a pretty typical routine for Father's Day.  Out for a pancake breakfast, then a day at the beach.  So naturally, when I talked to Thatboy about what he wanted to do for Father's Day, that was what I expected to hear.  

With a 1 week old in the house, he wasn't anxious to head out to the beach and lug everything that would be required to keep our newborn out of the sun all day.  So we made slightly different plans.  Only slightly different because like every other Father's Day, this one started out the same.

All the boys at our usual pancake breakfast.  Because it wouldn't be Father's Day without.

Instead of the beach, Thatboy thought it would be great to spend the day at the pool.  But ever since we moved from the apartment we don't have access to the complex pool anymore.  So we found a new place to play The Wave Waterpark.  We rented a cabana for the day which gave Thatbaby and I a nice, shady place to hang out.

While we laid in the shade, Thatboy and Thatkid took advantage of the rest of the waterpark.

Thatkid's favorite part was the lazy river.  He loved those inner tubes.

They also spent a lot of time in the actual pool.

Thatkid was too little for the waterslides, so Thatboy played there without him.

While I took Thatkid over to "Rippity's Rainforest" which had a splash pad and playground.

We stayed until the park closed and then headed over to Plan 9 for dinner.  And beer.

Father's Day is the perfect way to cater to the men in your life.  And I think I did a pretty good job of that in planning our Father's Day.  In general, I tend to cater to Thatboy in almost all aspects.  Except the kitchen.  I still cater to me in the kitchen.  Which means we never have fish for dinner and there are no cans of tuna in the pantry.  

I can't stand tuna.  I won't even kiss Thatboy if he's eaten a tuna sandwich.  So there was no way I was going to make Wizenburg's Bouchon Au Thon.  Over the past (mumble mumble) years I've learned that chicken makes a pretty good substitute for most tuna dishes (except seared ahi....seared chicken just doesn't work for me).  And in this case, that proved to be true yet again.  Because of the tuna base, I was concerned how these would turn out.  Which is silly because it's chicken and cheese.  Which work well together in all circumstances.  These were much lighter than I was expecting, and much better.  They make a perfect lunch, or even breakfast.

Buchons Au Poulet (Adapted from A Homemade Life)

6 oz canned chicken packed in water, drained well

1 cup shredded gruyere

1/3 cup creme fraiche

3 Tbsp tomato paste

3 eggs

1/4 cup chopped onion

3 Tbsp chopped parsley

1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 325.  Grease a muffin tin.  Put the chicken in a medium bowl, using a fork to break it into small pieces.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well, mashing as you go.
3. Divide the mixture among the muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes, until they are set on top and around the edges.
4. Transfer the tin to a rack and let cook for 5 minutes, run a small thin knife around the edge of each bouchon and remove them from the the tin.

A Day for Thatboy

For Father's Day, I let Thatboy decide what he wanted to do for his ideal day.  When he woke up in the morning, we greeted him with presents.  Thatbaby made him a shirt using DecoArt Ink Effects.  I love this stuff.  It's paint that you use on just regular paper, and it creates an iron on transfer.   I like it because the ink goes right into the fabric, so it doesn't have that "sticker quality" that most iron-ons have.  It's more like screen printing.

For this particular shirt, Thatbaby wanted to do handprints, so he used the paint to make handprints on paper, which I then ironed on to the shirt to create a kind of abstract art piece.  I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but Thatboy is wearing it below.

We went to Thatboy's favorite breakfast place, The Original Pancake House.  Thatbaby is a pretty big fan of pancakes too.

Afterwards we headed to the beach.

My present to Thatboy was a quadrocopter.  He had so much fun flying it around the beach (and back at the house during Thatbaby's naptime).

Thatboy surfed while Thatbaby and I jumped in the waves, built sand castles, and dug a really big hole in the sand.  When Thatboy was done surfing, he joined us and brought Thatbaby back into the water with him for a little surf lesson.

It didn't go so well.  Thatbaby was much happier splashing in the water on his two feet.

And showing Thatboy the big hole we dug.  After the beach we grabbed some sandwiches for lunch and headed home for naptime.  I crashed with Thatbaby while Thatboy flew his new toy in the backyard.  It was a late nap, and pretty soon it was time for dinner.

We met up with the Ks for dinner.  K3 is getting so very big.  Thatbaby had so much fun playing with him, and the two boys tortured K2 with joint tickle attacks.  I think he may choose a different seat next time we eat together.

By the end of the night, Thatbaby was ready for bed, whether he agreed or not.  He was sad to say goodby to his friend, and was having such a good time during the day.  As for the star of the day, Thatboy had a pretty good day too!  But he deserves it.  I mean, Father's Day only comes once a year.

Turn About As Fair Play

Thatboy planned a phenomenal day for me on Mother's Day, so I wanted to give him something similar.  When I asked him what he wanted to do, he said his ideal Father's Day would be a day at the beach with all of us. 

He got a head start on the weekend when Thatbaby's daycare provided him with his first father's day gift.  They are far better at getting handprints than we are.  And they also had a more success with finger painting than our at-home experience.

We started off the morning at Original Pancake House for breakfast, since it's Thatboy's favorite breakfast place.  He had his usual giant pancakes, cutting off some for Thatbaby who also had some egg.

And then it was off to the beach.  Thatbaby could hardly contain his excitement for his first beach day.

Thatboy headed out to surf, while Thatbaby, Thatdog and I played in the sand.  Thatbaby pulled his "saddest baby in the world" routine when I wouldn't let him eat the seed pods that dot the beach.  One of these days I have to get video of it.  It involves a pout, a wail, and him throwing his body into the ground.

When That boy returned from his surf session, he brought Thatbaby out to the water.

This lasted just long enough for that wave to roll in.  The Pacific Ocean?  She's cold.  And Thatbaby is a delicate flower. 

When it started getting late we packed up and headed home.  We cleaned ourselves up and headed to Thatboy's favorite restaurant.  There's nothing he doesn't like about this place, from the very first plate of bread that's set on the table.  That's right we go through more than one plate of bread.

I haven't quite mastered their fantastic bread - warm and herby.  But this one is pretty popular in my house.  And setting it on the table: warm with butter melting off of it, can elicit similar happiness.

Water Bread and Rolls (From the Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp shortening

1 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 pkg yeast

6 cups white bread

1. Mix the butter, shortening, sugar and salt in a large bowl. 
2. Bring 2 ups water to a boil, add it to mixture and let cool to lukewarm.  
3. Measure 1/4 cup warm water in a separate container, add the yeast and let it stand for 5 minutes to dissolve.  
4. Add the dissolved yeast and 5 cups of the flour to the first mixture and mix thoroughly.  Turn out onto a lightly floured board and let rest for about 10 minutes.  
5. Adding as much of the remaining flour as necessary, knead until smooth and elastic.  Place the dough in a large, buttered bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk.  
6. Punch the dough down and knead it once or twice.  Half-fill a buttered loaf pan; bread the remaining dough into pieces the size of small lemons and arrange them, sides touching, on a  buttered 9 inch pie plate.  Cover the pan and the pie plate and let the dough double in bulk once again.  
7. Preheat the oven to 375.  Bake bread, allowing about 25 minutes for the rolls and about 45 minutes for the loaf.  Removed from pans and cool on racks.

A Few of His Favorite Things

We usually celebrate Thatboy's birthday with his friends the weekend before Thanksgiving since the weekend after people are inevitably either out of town or hosting out of towners. So last week I told Thatboy not to make any plans for Saturday, because it was going to be birthday extravaganza time.

Since I had waited too long to throw him a real birthday party, I decided to devote the day to doing things he loves. Thatmom came over to babysit since most of Thatboy's favorite things are not baby friendly.

I began the day by addressing his love of cars and driving fast by taking him to K1 Speedway for some go-cart racing.

Thatboy had done this once before, but it was my first time and something outside of my comfort zone. But I hadn't chosen this place for me.

It was very different than Mario Kart, which I excel at.

Thatboy, who does not excel at Mario Kart, came in second during our 14 lap race. He was happy, but that happiness grew even more when he discovered that the person who came in first place had the best lap time of the entire week. As for me? Well I was expecting to come in dead last, so I was just pleased as punch when I didn't.

Our second stop on the tour of Thatboy's favorite things was supposed to be at a place that serves the best burgers in San Diego. But we were running a little late, so instead we grabbed In N Out on our way to the main event of the day, Thatboy's mini-surprise party!

When trying to figure out what to do for Thatboy's birthday I stumbled across a new beer shop in town, Bottlecraft. Like a wine bar for beer (although how weird does a "beer bar" sound?), Bottlecraft is a beer shop with a "drink me here" philosophy. In addition they also offer flights of beer for tastings. Thatboy loves beer, especially craft beers which the shop specializes in, and so I thought it would be the perfect venue for celebration.

I emailed a couple of his friends asking them to join us, but warned them not to say anything to Thatboy. When we arrived at Bottlecraft, Thatboy was excited just to be there, but he lit up as he saw some of his friends start arriving. He does love drinking buddies.

He was like a kid in a candy store as he wandered through the store picking up beers for the table to sample. Bottlecraft has a healthy collection of our favorite local brews, as well as many craft beers completely new to us. And there were many small batch/limited edition beers they carried that of course we just had to try. We came home with a ridiculous amount in addition to the bottles we sampled while there.

And of course, it wouldn't be a party without cake. When I asked Thatboy what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he said he would like either Thatmom's 20lb cake, her ice cream cake, or a storebought red velvet cake. Thatmom had promised to take care of the first two for his birthday and Thanksgiving, so I thought I would take care of the third for his party.

Thatboy's favorite red velvet cupcake comes from Elizabethan Desserts, so I naturally turned to them for his cake. It came out perfectly!

And thought this would be a good time to share my go-to cole slaw recipe I had promised to share weeks ago. Mostly because this is one of Thatboy's favorite meals I've made in a long time, so it's a great place to share it!

I started making pulled pork a couple years ago. It's great for dinner for two with loads of leftovers that freeze well, but it's also an easy dinner for a crown. But it's one of those things I didn't grow up with, and so, of course I didn't know where to begin.

So when I stumbled across the Cooks Illustrated as seen on Bridget's Blog I decided to give it a shot. Especially since it was a crockpot version that meant very little effort on my part. It quickly became my pulled pork staple and the one I made at home and brought to friends. I usually alter it very little, my main change being to add extra BBQ sauce at the end and mixing it in before serving because we like our pulled pork saucey round here. This time I made an additional, accidental alteration.

One of the first rules of cooking is not to measure your ingredients over the workbowl. I never follow that rule. Which is one of the reasons I enjoy cooking more than baking. Cooking is pretty forgiving when it comes to that extra bit of sugar or cumin that falls into the pot. But this time as I was mixing the spice rub, the cayenne came out much faster than I was expecting, leaving me with far more than the recipe called for. And I knew we would have some spicy pork on our hands. I tried to counteract the anticipated burn with extra brown sugar and something must have worked out with the proportions because it was the best pulled pork I've made yet. The extra cayenne gave it a delicious kick that had Thatboy asking for leftovers for days.

And with my pulled pork I usually serve coleslaw. In fact, I tend to put my coleslaw on my sandwich with the pulled pork. Thatboy likes his beside his sandwich - you can do whichever you prefer. I use an old school boiled dressing with my coleslaw which I prefer to mayonnaise (although it contains some of the same elements). Something about that vinegar kick just does it for me and the dressing makes for a less creamy side dish.

Coleslaw
1 small head cabbage, shredded
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/4 cup cold water
1 TBSP butter
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1. Mix the egg yolks with water, butter, and vinegar in a saucepan over low heat.
   
2. Continue heating, stirring until thick and creamy.
   
3. Toss the coleslaw with the dressing and serve.
   

I'm not an action photographer

Did you miss yesterday's giveaway post? It's not too late to enter!

One of Thatboy's favorite aspects of his job is that a couple of days a week he gets to leave the office and go work in the community. He works with the police department and gets to interact with community members in some pretty interesting ways. He's worked with elementary school kids and introducing them to the justice system. This past weekend was the big event he had been working on all year. A skate park exposition within the community.

Together with a local pro skateboarder and the police department, he organized a day at the skate park for the kids. There were demos, competitions, free food, SWAT vehicles and weapons, and of course, a ton of giveaways including skateboards, shoes, shirts, hats, games, pads, helmets... you get the idea.

I'm not much of a skateboarder (I know you're shocked). So I didn't recognize any of the big names that were there. Although they drew quite a few of the local boarders. These guys were OLD School. Some of the original Dogtown boys, if you're familiar. They began with a demo.

Kien Lieu is a jumper

While John Pope LOVES spinning on his board.

After the pros were done, they turned it over to the amateurs. It was time for competition. And competition was fierce. Just ask this 5 year old. He won ALL of us over. Even the hardcore older guys.

I'm not an action photographer, but Thatboy tried his hand at it, playing follow cam. According to him, this is what he and his friends used to do for each other back when he was younger and skatier.



Speaking of, is there anyone cuter than my husband in a yellow helmet?

All the kids who competed with the pros. There were even more who weren't competing. Just eating hotdogs and talking smack.

Thatboy, the pros, and his crew. BTW, the little munchkin in the front row, Dennis Martinez's daughter, kept me entertained almost the entire time I wasn't watching the scene. She hung out at Thatboy's booth getting more and more excited about the free stuff we were giving away.

I can't even begin to tell you how exhausted we were after the day. We had arrived before 9, and left close to 5. Thatboy spent the rest of the evening in a hot bath. There was no way I was going to cook, so we stopped and picked up food. Pictures of takeout are never as interesting, so back to the archives to share with you a super easy alternative to fast food. It's like a McNugget, but WAY better. And it stands still, so it's easier to take a picture of.

Breaded Veal Cutlets
1 1/2 Tbsp flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper
1/2 lb veal cutlets
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp oil

1. Put the flour, egg, and crumbs on three separate shallow bowls. Mix the salt and pepper into the crumbs.
2. Dip the cutlets in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Let sit for 15 minutes.
3. Heat the butter and oil in a skillet over medium heat. Fry the cutlets 4 minutes per side.