I'm a Foodie

I love all kinds of food. I love Indian, Chinese, Italian, French, Thai, junk food, fresh food... I haven't met a food I don't like. I pride myself on visiting the restaurants featured on Restaurant Makeover.

But do you know what I really love?

It's not fancy, it's not cultural, it's not anywhere close to being good for you...

I love the little crispies that are left in the casserole dish after you make some shake'n bake chicken!

I'll even do the dishes if it means I get to pick the bottom of the pan.

Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. I know you look at them covered in the jellifying (is that even a word?) chicken fat. They're crispy, salty little bits of goodness.

That reminds me of my family's favorite story about me and my cooking. When I was 10 or 11 I was a latch key kid, at least for a few hours. My dad worked as a caretaker, and my step mom worked the afternoon shift at a nursing home. I was in charge of making dinner. Now before you call CAS, "making dinner" entailed taking the prepped food out of the fridge, turning on the oven and putting it in. My step mom would leave me a note telling me when the meat had to go in, when the potatoes had to go in and at what temperature.

One night we had shake'n bake... my dad loved shake'n bake. I took the chicken out of the fridge, turned on the oven and threw everything in. If you've ever had shake'n bake before you know how yummy crispy the skin is. Well on this particular night the skin was excellent! My dad and I would always take the skin off and set it aside to keep it for our final bite. Well it was soo good that night, that my dad distracted me and stole my prized piece of skin.

Later that night my step mom came home and was cleaning up the kitchen and was washing the dishes. As she was washing the chicken pan she noticed that there was something on the edges that wouldn't come off. Putting two and two together she checked the garbage can to confirm her theory. Then she calls out
"Nicole, what did you do with the plastic wrap I had on the casserole dish??"

You see where this is going?

That's right, I neglected to take the plastic wrap off the casserole dish before I put it in the oven. Mmmmm crispy plastic chicken!

I have not lived that down to this day. Needless to say all future meals were wrapped with tin foil. But in my defense the note didn't say anything about removing the plastic wrap!

Really me,
Just following directions
Nik

Farmville Live in 3D

I used to spend hours on line playing Farmville. In case you've been stuck in the closet for the last 2 years or so... or you're like my husband and you never jumped on the Facebook wagon, Farmville is an online game where you run your own farm. You have to plant different vegetables, pick them, plow the land and plant again. Yes, I was addicted. Much like I was addicted to Sims a few years back. I have an addictive personality apparently.

I know there are a lot of you out there *coughmysisterinlawcough* who have also fallen prey to the game along with many others. The good news is that if you are dedicated enough to check in to Farmville every 2-6-8 hours to harvest your crop, you are dedicated enough to try Farmville Live in 3D.

Last year I had a little garden 4x6 ish. It was good... this year I went for better. We extended the garden by another 4ish feet. Next year, we may just go for broke! The garden was easy to build, all you need is some old 4x4s or railroad ties, or some kind of trim. We used some old used wood my grandparents had lying around. The other important part is something to keep the dirt away from the wood, otherwise the wood will eventually rot. We bought some rubber pond liner which also helped to keep the dirt from falling through the fence on 2 sides. This is what we started with after the edition this year.



This year we planted 2 tomato plants, 2 pickling cucumber plants, 1 zucchini, 2 rows beans (green and yellow), a row of carrots, a green pepper, a butternut squash and Demi's Birdhouse gourd also went into the garden. As usual my tomato plants blew up and became monsters, my zucchini is huge and my cucumbers are out of control! And let me tell you this is so much more rewarding than Farmville cause at least you get to eat what you grow! Take a look for yourself.


Tomatoes, cucumbers and zuchini (I thought I gave them lots of room, but they're monster size!


Carrots & beans


Butternut squash back left, pepper middle, birdhouse gourd up front


Nik's Farm

For any of you who don't necessarily have the room for the garden, you can grow anything in a pot! And the dollar store has some really nice pots ;)

Really me,
The Gardener
Nik