my Waynick family

Thanksgiving Day- 11/27/2008

Chris, Sara, Michael, Geoff (Candace's bf), Candace, Donya, and Mark

Chris and Me

Happy Thanksgiving! (Round 1)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! :)

Today, I rolled out of bed at about 9:00 and immediately smelled the wonderful aroma of thanksgiving dinner.

I went outside to watch Chris and the fam make a funnel cake for the first time-

two deep-fried Snickers bars (YUM!!)

and potatoes to make french fries. (we didn't get a photo of the yummy fries)


Then came the fried turkey project.

This is 3rd turkey that my hubby has fried and it was the most delicious.

Absolute perfection.

the fried chicken catastrophe continues...

Got home from work today and my poor sweet husband is plunging the sink. The dirty dishes are strewn all over the counter. I asked him what the heck was going on. The kitchen sink is clogged and neither of us can figure out why. These things happen I guess.

In any home problem/crisis we have a system:
Step 1: Attempt to fix problem ourselves
Step 2: Call the Father-in-Law (FIL), aka: Mark, aka: Master-of-home-repair-and-handyman-tasks

Well, since Step 1 is failing miserably we resort to Step 2.

As Chris plunges away, I'm talking to the FIL on the phone. He stated something brilliant as the MIL was reading the first part of "the fried chicken catastrophe" on her computer. He asks "Where'd you put the chicken paste? Did you put in the sink?"

I think to myself "Chicken paste? What the heck is chicken paste?" and in the midst of my thoughts, Mark adds, "Well, it's really not paste, it's like dough, the flour that you cooked chicken with..."

OOOHHH, the chicken bisquick goo! Of course! Well, Shhhhhhugar cookies. I ruined the batter AND clogged the sink with it. Awesome!!

Chris and I cracked up. At my expense. Again.

the fried chicken catastrophe

I think I'm a decent cook. Chris can show me up any day, but he reads cookbooks and recipes for fun.

So to the point, last night I decided I would fry up some chicken breast tenders, basically because I was too lazy to do anything else with them. Normally I just throw the chicken in the pan with some oil, dash on some salt and pepper, and done! Well, I got crazy and decided to use cornmeal to cover it and make it extra unhealthy. I couldn't find any white cornmeal in my pantry, so I got out the Bisquick. How convenient! There is a recipe for the "Ultimate Chicken Fingers" on the back of the box! Sweet!

I tend to not measure most things when I cook and it always turns out fine, so I skimmed over the ingredients for the batter: an egg, Bisquick, paprika, garlic salt, pepper, ok got it. But I did not read the directions- I can do this myself, right?

Made the batter in 5 seconds flat- threw everything in the bowl and mixed it up. Wait. Oh crap. It's sticky. Is it supposed to do that? I think so? Umm...? No worries, I saw all the ingredients.

Picked up the raw chicken tender and attempted to slather a handful of Bisquick-goo onto it. Slid off, stuck to my hands, plopped back in the bowl... did everything but coat the chicken. My hands were coated though! Dadgummit, I was going to make this work. I tried to take a smaller blob of batter and press it onto the chicken. Didn't stay- it just got sucked back onto the dough that was all over my hands. The batter just got stickier and stickier the more I fooled with it... kinda like cookie dough or bread dough. Oh Lord, I did something wrong. What is the problem here?? Ok, so about 1/8 of the chicken tender ended up with batter on it and I just chucked it in the pan. Did the other 5 tenders the same way.

My hands were covered in goo. Had to use extremely hot water to remove the nasty-eggy-bisquicky-raw-chickeny dough off my hands. EW!

In the pan were several chicken tenders with blobs of dough stuck on them in various places. It sucked.

Meanwhile, Chris came in to observe the madness. Busted out laughing when I told him what happened (still not knowing what I did wrong, but obviously HE knew.) "Honey, you dip the chicken in the egg, THEN you shake it in a baggie of Bisquick to coat it."

Wow... DUUUUUH, Sara.

Note to audience: Read the directions next time.

p.s. If you have a funny cooking story, please comment so I won't feel so stupid. LOL!

currently...

1.) Got a new job within Medtronic effective Nov 3: Associate R&D Scientist, working on a pharmaceutical treatment for acute back pain. Love my new team and I'm learning a lot. It's fun to be a nerd. My first official day on the job was spent in California with my boss working with lab rats.

2.) Chris is receiving interview offers from all over the place. We will be travel-fiends this winter that will ultimately result in a ranking list and a determination of where we will be living for at least the next 3 years. (See the Countdown to Match Day ticker on the side of my blog.)

3.) Avery turns 3 on November 20th. Happy Birthday puppy! Now if we could just find a way to get rid of his durn fleas!!!!

4.) No issues with Crohn's or joints- God is so good to me!

5.) Christ United Methodist Church is moving toward some really excellent (positive) changes to benefit the kingdom of God. Chris and I have been an active part of this process and look forward to the changed hearts of the congregation!

Other than these changes, our lives are pretty normal from day to day. Go to work, watch movies, go to Grace Group, go to Side by Side, eat, clean house (sometimes), do laundry (only after the basket overflows onto the floor), sleep...