Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's Life At Home: Grilled Jerk Chicken

We're at the point of the pandemic where I honestly don't know what inspired the idea of a pirate adventure.  I planned these all out so long ago!

But for whatever reason, earlier this month we traded in our regular legs for sealegs, took a quiz to get our "pirate names"  and made some pirate masks so we could look the part.

Of course, every pirate needs a parrot.

And a boat.  We started off with cork boats,

But then some ice boats joined our armada.

Once we had the look, the parrot, and the ship, it was time to go on our treasure hunt.

The treasure chest was filled with jewels, coins, and a fun new pirate game.

After uncovering the booty, we had a Caribbean pirate lunch- grilled jerk chicken and coconut water.

After nap, we got a chance to try out our new pirate game.  It's basically battleship, but with pirate ships instead of military ones.  

And enjoyed a really authentic pirate snack.

Now, I'm not sure if you know anything about pirates, but the problem with finding pirate treasure is that some other pirate inevitable wants it.  Which leads to water battles.   So we had our very own water battle.  Instead of cannons on the sea, we had water cannons and water balloons.

Water balloon fights have become a very fun addition to our weekend adventures as the temps pick up.  The boys are already trying to figure out how to work them in every weekend.  

For dinner, Thatkid requested a meal "from the sea" and so we had shells with lobster.  Which I'm sure is what most pirates ate when out at sea. 

I was very concerned about the kids and jerk chicken, because the grownups have a much higher spice tolerance than the young ones in this house.  I make my own jerk seasoning - which comes from an old coworker of mine who was Jamaican and he'd kill me if he knew I tweaked it to make it less spicy for the kids, so I'm posting it in its entirety here.  But if you leave the cayenne out, it becomes a very family friendly chicken seasoning. 

Grilled Jerk Chicken

1.5 Tbsp onion powder

1.5 Tbsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp ground ginger

1 Tbsp thyme

1 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp ground allspice

1 Tbsp paprika

1/2 Tbsp nutmeg

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp bouillon

1 Tbsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

4 chicken breasts

1. Make the jerk seasoning.  Combine onion powder, garlic powder, ginger, thyme, white pepper, cinnamon, allspice, paprika, nutmeg, brown sugar, bouillon, and cayenne in a small bowl.
2. Take 1 Tbsp of the seasoning and combine with olive oil and salt to form a paste (reserve remaining seasoning for other uses).
3. Place chicken breasts between plastic wrap and pound to flatten.
4. Rub chicken with paste on both sides.  Grill for 3 minutes per side. 

Backyard Olympians: Olympic Torch Chicken Wraps

Thatboy is REALLY not a sports person, except for some reason the Olympics.  He looooooves the Olympics and when they're on he basically doesn't sleep - just watches them for hours.

As you may or may not have heard, the Summer Olympics which would be happening right now, are not happening right now.

So we decided to have our very own Olympics, right here in our home. 

We divided the house into two "countries" and competitors from each country designed their flags which were hung on the Olympic grounds.

Since the weather was supposed to be exceptionally warm that day, we started with our Track and Field events.  Our first event was the 1k.

Each country picked an "anthem" and we held a medal ceremony after each event, playing the winning country's anthem.  Thatkid won the 1k, so he was awarded the gold medal. As a nice way to start the day, Thatbaby had earned a medal of his own.  By completing the 1k, he also completed the Trolls Virtual Kids race.  

Next up was the discus throw.  Which was easy enough to replicate with a frisbee.

And then came the javelin, a pool noodle subbed in for something pointier and more dangerous.

Since we didn't want a million running events, we subbed in some of those with more traditional races, like the 3 legged race.

And the egg/spoon relay

Next came the long jump

And we created our own hurdles by saving our weekly produce delivery boxes.

Our final event of the morning sounded good in theory, but didn't actually work out with a 5 year old.  We tried for "water balloon volleyball" which was tossing a water balloon back and forth between two towels, with each country holding one of the towels.  Unfortunately, both the tossing and catching proved to be a little much for Thatkid and we never got past the serve.

Since I didn't want to deal with an actual Olympic torch, I made a bunch for us to eat! 

After nap we were back at it with balloon tennis.  Each competitor got a tennis racket and a balloon and the one who kept their balloon in the air the longest won.

We had originally planned on using their bows and arrows for archery, but turns out Thatboy had thrown out all our targets, so I quickly improvised with water gun archery.  The boys had to shoot ping pong balls of golf tees with their water guns.  Thatbaby stole the show with this one.

Next up came the gymnastic events.  We began with rhythmic gymnastics where competitors from each country created and performed their own 30 second routine.

And then the balance beam - which was surprisingly one of the most challenging events.

We finished up with Olympic Ring tossing.

After the final medal ceremony, we headed inside for another Olympic torch snack.

We had a rather original closing ceremony.  Since it was so hot, we decided to end the day with a water fight between the two countries.

We retreated back to the Olympic village for some pulled pork sandwiches and Olympic onion rings.

I'll admit it was a hard to think up themed "Olympic" food when the Olympics are in your backyard.  It's not like I could just make food from the country where the Olympics were being held, although I did in the way with the pulled pork - totally a backyard food.  

Doing an internet search wasn't really all that helpful. . .until I happened across an article which mentioned that this "Blooming Quesadilla" looked like an Olympic Torch.  Bingo Ringo.  The idea is very simple - chicken, cheese, and taco sauce wrapped in a tortilla.  What makes it fun is that they're stacked and baked in a circular ring.

Olympic Torch Chicken Wraps (adapted from Tasty.co)

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup taco sauce

10 flour tortillas

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Combine chicken, onion, bell pepper, and taco sauce in a bowl.  
2. Cut each tortilla in half.
3. Add 2 Tbsp each of cheddar, monterey jack, and chicken to each half.  Roll the tortilla into cones, starting at the cut edge.  Create a ring with half of the tortilla cones, with the points in the center.  
4. Sprinkle half of the  remaining cheddar and monterey jack over the layer.  
5. Repeat with the second half of the cones to create a top layer, finishing with the rest of the cheese.
6. Bake 20 minutes, until the cheese has melted.

Camp Our House: Black Bean and Chicken Salad

We decided last year we would go camping for Father's Day weekend.  Thatboy loves camping, and the weather is perfect for it in early June.   And then the Coronavirus became a thing and we weren't going anywhere.

When they mentioned that campgrounds would be opening, we had a serious discussion about going.  Seems safe enough, right?  Except I have some friends in Canada, where they're kicking the pandemic's butt, and I remember when their campgrounds opened and all the restrictions that were put in place.  One of my friends got an RV because one of the restrictions was that they weren't opening the bathrooms at campgrounds.  No such restrictions were being put in place in California campgrounds.  They were open for business as if there was never a shut-down.  So we decided no on the camping.  (As a side note- we were totally right because less than 2 weeks after opening, we'd already had an outbreak at a San Diego campground.)

So instead, on Father's Day weekend, we found a campground much closer to home - our backyard!

We found that scavenger hunts are a must when we go on hikes when we camp, and earlier this year I had found these "Seek and find" sheets in the Target Dollar Spot and bought them.  Lucky for me, they work equally well on hikes around the neighborhood.

Hiking around, you can work up and appetite, so when we got back, we made a little snack - butterfly trail mix bags.

I also pulled out some of our crafts from our camping supplies.  The kids had just as much fun making bubble snakes in the backyard as they do at the campsite.

We did some family tournaments, like cornhole and bocce ball.

And a little bit of archery

Another Target dollar spot find were these Backyard Bingo games.  (We have roadtrip versions too)

For lunch, I had "packed" us a lunch we would have had a campground - a leaf-less salad that travels well, watermelon, and some sangria for the grownups.

Our neighbors happened to be out of town during the week and we were in charge of feeding their cat and making sure their pool got used, so we spent the afternoon pretending it was a lake.  When we got back, Thatboy lit a fire and we all sat around reading by the campfire.

And doing that resting thing you do at campgrounds.

We grilled hot dogs for dinner, and ate them with more watermelon and lots of chips.

And after we had hot chocolate (which is my kids' favorite part of camping I think)

And smores (their other favorite part?)

And then we let them stay up late telling "spooky" stories, which turned into silly stories.  We also let them stay awake in the tent whispering and giggling for a while.

Eventually the boys fell asleep, and Thatboy and I stayed awake listening to every little sound - we were both a lot jumpier in our own backyard than in the middle of the wilderness!  Our only problem is that the kids have been asking to sleep in the backyard every night since then.

One of the things that kept the whole thing feeling "real" (especially since we had indoor plumbing) was the fact that I did my best with authentic camping food.  We learned a couple years ago that the best way to keep our kids happy was to bring mostly prepared food.  Either foods that could be eaten cold, or foods that were already cooked and just needed to be heated.  The boys lack the patience for true camp cooking.  This salad is perfect to make ahead and bring with you, but that also makes it great for picnics - and when this is all over, summer barbecues.   Because there's no lettuce, there's nothing to wilt.  Rather than dressing, which can get gloopy even without lettuce (and yes, gloopy is the scientific term) there's just some lime juice which keeps everything fresh and bright tasting.  

Black Bean and Chicken Salad

1 can black beans

1 1/2 cups frozen corn

1 shallot, minced

1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered

2 cups cooked chicken, chopped

juice of 1 lime

1 Tbsp cumin

1 avocado, diced

1. Combine beans, corn, shallot, tomatoes, and chicken in a large bowl.
2. Add the lime juice and cumin and toss well.
3. Gently fold in avocado.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper.