Thursday, November 20, 2008

Chicken for Days

We had this for dinner last night. A. and I went to the grocery store and found the chicken (already in quarters!) was only 69 cents per pound. Wow. So we had to get two packages. Then, this recipe helped me to finally finish a bag of corn flakes we’d had for a while. Woohoo! It was a good night.

Here’s the recipe for the chicken:

Country Baked Chicken

3 T. margarine spread
2 ½ t. salt
2 t. cumin
1 ½ t. dried oregano, crushed
1 ½ t. garlic powder
¾ t. pepper
8 lb. chicken quarters
2 large eggs
6 c. corn flakes, crushed

Heat oven to 350F. Since I was making so much chicken I had to use two 13x9x2 pans. So put half the spread in each pan. Place in oven until melted. Tilt the pans until the spread covers the bottom, more or less. Mix the spices in a bowl. Then, in assembly-line fashion, dip the chicken pieces into the egg, sprinkle with the spices, then coat with crushed corn flakes. It’s a bit messy, but it’s a quick process.

Arrange the chicken in baking pans. So that they fit in there nicely. Then bake. After one hour, turn the oven up to 425 and bake for 15 more minutes or until done. Watch out or the crust will brown too much!!

One pan of chicken is plenty for one night’s dinner for a family of four. We had it with oven-roasted potatoes. Yum!

The second pan of chicken is perfect for use in tacos, enchiladas, etc. In fact, I plan on making my top-secret Applebee’s enchiladas with the second pan. That is, unless my dear hubby gets to it first! :)

BTW, there are no pictures, since the camera's batteries took too long to charge. Cold chicken somehow isn't as attractive as hot.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Labels for Earth-Friendly Packages

Since my funds are kinda low, I’ve been selling things on ebay and amazon in order to pick up a bit of spare change. Seeing as how low things are going for nowadays, spare change is an appropriate term! Anyhow, in order to keep some of that hard-won money in my pocket instead of in a strange cash register, I reuse packaging from work and from other shipments that I’ve received. Okay, I did go ahead and invest in a $1 roll of brown shipping paper from the dollar store. Other than that though, all shipping materials are reused.

It’s hard to walk the line between turning a profit and sending out ugly, used-looking packages. Luckily, Lisa at lisaclarke.net came up with the perfect solution. She created printable labels to stick on packages. It’s the perfect idea. Instead of being cheap, I am now being environmentally considerate. Woohoo! I’m going to start sticking these labels on all of my reused package shipments. :)

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Alicia's Meme

I just love allsorts's blog. It's so fun and full of ideas. Anyhow, this afternoon, while running around the internet when I should have been studiously... studying, I saw that she had just done a one-word meme. Not to be left out, I just had to play too. :) These are so much fun!

Where is your mobile phone? pocket
Where is your significant other? work
Your hair colour? multi
Your mother? crazy
Your father? loving
Your favourite thing? discovering
Your dream last night? forgot
Your dream goal? unknown
The room you're in? office
Your hobby? movies
Your fear? poverty
Where do you want to be in 6 years? elsewhere
Where were you last night? home
What you're not? selfless
One of your wish-list items? bookshelves
Where you grew up? Texas
The last thing you did? study
What are you wearing? sweater
Your TV? dusty
Your pets? numerous
Your computer? laptop
Your mood? tired
Missing someone? husband
Your car? diry
Something you're not wearing? mascara
Favourite shop? Mexican
Your summer? busy
Love someone? passionately
Your favourite colour? many
When is the last time you laughed? night
When is the last time you cried? months

It's hard to try and convey so much with just one word!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Fine Dining

Today A. & I are going to a school thing this evening. Since it starts at 7, we probably won’t get home until late. So, I was going to go ahead and splurge. Yes, you guessed it. We were going to grab something off a dollar menu. What the heck? We deserve it. And lo and behold, guess what came in today’s office mail? Coupon booklets for Burger King. Woohoo! I guess this means that we can do a combo meal instead. Or some variation thereof. :)

Monday, November 3, 2008

Just the two of us. We can make it if we try...

Right now I’m taking a few college courses online. One of them, a writing class, requires group participation. My group members and I need to work together on several projects. Well, there are about five-six members in my group. This means that I need to interact with each member every time we have to collaborate.

For our most recent project only one other member and I are participating. I wonder what happened to our other group members. Are they just skipping this assignment? And the one prior? Has life gotten in the way of taking this class? Are they going to drop the class?

I should feel badly for them and miss their participation. But I don’t. In fact, I feel relieved. Since now it’s just down to two of us, this last assignment has been a breeze. It’s shaved off an evening or two of work from a class that is time-consuming enough as it is. Yes, I’m bad. Cold-hearted and uncaring. And well-rested from not having to stay up late last night working on this assignment!!