happy 4th!

Fourth of July, and its really not super nice. Although I suppose its not raining and the sun has come out a few times today. It has definitely been a nice relaxing day though, and you have to love it being a holiday on a Monday. 4 day workweek, yay... Happy America Day everyone! ;)

Went to see War of the Worlds this afternoon, after grabbing some lunch and getting groceries for Travis to make his super awesome italian wedding soup. I've never had it, I am kind of excited to try it as it sounds pretty damn good from the ingredient list. Plus the chicken stock will have been made from my awesome beer can chicken I cooked up yesterday. (War of the Worlds was ok, not a waste of time, but not stellar at all. Just your basic it-might-be-the-end-of-the-world blockbuster movie, just FYI).

As for those beer can chickens, thats a good story:

Yesterday there was a cookout for 4th of July, since I did not have to work, but half the cookout participants did work 1-5pm, I was put in charge of preparing 2 whole chickens and side dish for the pre-4th of July grilling fest. I have never cooked and dealt with an entire raw chicken before, nevermind 2. Thankfully Sir Oakes was awesome about getting the guts out of the chickens and washing them up before leaving me to prepare the feast. After inserting beer cans into the bottom of the chickens and trying desperately for about 10 minutes to get both of them to stand up on the drip pan properly, I got them onto the heated grill. In the process, the chickens fell over and spilled half the beer, which I tried to mop out of the pan, but had to leave some in there. I felt pretty proud of myself for setting that all up and getting the chicken-cooking on its way. Thankfully Paul and Mercedes came to hang out early, because when the wood chips caught on fire, they managed to set the beer in the bottom of the pan on fire, and lord knows I had no idea how to put out a grease fire. Mr Chemistry himself (Paul) knew to put salt on it. So after charring only a tiny bit of the side of one of the chickens, no more disasters. Whew. And when the partiers got here and the chickens were done, not to mention my smashed parmesan potatoes (recipe courtesy of Giada Di Laurentis, thanks FoodTV!), everything tasted great. The chickens definitely rivaled some of the best chicken I, or any of us, had ever eaten. At least I would like to think so, but judging by the comments I got, I think the beer can chicken was very popular.

Well. That seems like a good amount of writing on the 4th of July. Happy holiday everyone, be safe!!!