Pickled chicken?

Okay, I'm not actually pickling chicken today. I'm finally trying a recipe for brining chicken before baking it. It hasn't been a 'fear of brining' that has prevented me from trying this up to now but lack of foresight. There have been many evenings when I look at the chicken and think of how I could have done better by it but a five-minute brining before baking didn't seem feasible.

According to my cooking research on the subject, brining helps maintain the juiciness of the meat. Baking seems to dry out chicken a bit so I'm hoping I've come up with a winning solution.

It was 97 degrees, yesterday, but is much cooler today. I'm taking advantage of the decreased temperature to dare turn on the oven for dinner preparations. Hey, I like to live on the wild side!

Go figure on religious values . . .

Of all the beautiful holy days of the Church, it seems the ones that attract the most attention is Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday. Why? You get 'freebies'! I'm always amazed at how packed the church is on Ash Wednesday. People you have never seen before cram the pews. Until our pastor made a change, a great many of them left after they got their ashes and skipped Mass. Talk about being confused! We've actually had people come in before and after Mass and dip into the waiting ashes to bestow them on themselves. One friend said that some ethnic groups think they will have a year of bad luck if they don't get their ashes. What about the bad luck of not attending Mass on Sundays the rest of the year?

Palm Sunday also brings in the crowds. Every year, the pastor says one palm per person but people garner as many as they can get away with and while the celebration of the Mass is going on, they sit in their pews weaving the palms into crosses. Another point in their life missed!

It is no use fretting over these people. We can send a prayer their way and who knows - they might show up for Easter, too!

Sunday morning quote offerings . . .

"Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking."
-- John Maynard Keynes

"One man's folly is another man's wife."
-- Helen Rowland

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him."
-- Galileo Galilei

Old age or sensitive ear drums?

So, if neighbors (and I use the term VERY lightly here!) have a party, they are three houses down the street, and our house is literally shaking with the beat of their 'music', am I being overly sensitive?

It is 4:30 in the afternoon and they look like they are settling in for a long, long night. According to our police ordinances, disturbing the peace is against the law ANY time of the day and I'd say their 'music' easily falls into the category of disturbing the peace. My son, who is on the far side of our house and wearing earphones for a game on his computer, can't concentrate. We took our ordinance rights seriously and called the police. The people, however, look like they will need two or three calls before they comply.

I remember some of the 'good, old days' when you only had to politely ask someone to turn down their music and they did because they didn't seem to realize how loud it had become. The police advise us to call them first and not go near the offending neighbor. A real change in the world and neighborly values.

Sigh . . . I was hoping for an early night and a good sleep today. Doesn't look possible. To give an example of how LOUD this party music is, we can't even hear the television over it.

If I find a cure for possible migraines, I'll share the information!

The Department of Labor . . .

The North Dakota Department of Labor claimed a small Bismarck farmer was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to investigate.

Department of Labor employee : I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them.

Farmer : Well, there's my farm hand who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board.

Then there's the mentally challenged worker. He works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night so he can cope with life. He also sleeps with my wife occasionally.

Department of Labor employee : That's the guy I want to talk to...the mentally challenged one.

Farmer : That would be me.

Cleaning Day!

Cleaning day was always a challenge when the children were little. I remember sitting on the sofa and recovering from delivering our second baby a few days earlier and watching my husband vacuum the carpet. Well, unknown to him, our toddler was following close behind eating a cracker. My husband didn't see the little one and every time he turned to reach a different section of the carpet, the toddler would scurry behind him BUT always leaving a trail of cracker crumbs. It was funny seeing the expression on my husband's face each time he discovered new crumbs in an area he KNEW he had just cleaned. Now that my brood is teen and over, there are whole new cleaning aspects to deal with as their hearing, despite assurances by the doctor to the contrary, has gotten very bad. : - )

Remember the younger years, here are a few things you do NOT want to hear on cleaning day:

1. I moved the sofa. Did we find all the eggs last Easter?

2. Why are there 25 children’s vitamins under the refrigerator?

3. Do we have any really big ant traps?

4. How can you tell how long a mouse has been dead?

5. There is green stuff oozing out of the refrigerator door.

6. The local museum wants to do an archeological report on the dust
findings under our bed.

7. Do we have a cat?

8. Is he supposed to be spray painting the dead grass out front green?

9. I cleaned out the fish tank. Have you seen the fish?

10. Will blue food coloring come off dog fur? Did you see the dog go by?

A reminder . . .

“The only justification for looking down on anyone is that you're going to stop and pick them up.” Wynton Marsalis