crockpot chicken wings

ok, someone asked about this, so here are the uber-easy instructions for crockpot chicken wings.

buy plain ol' chicken wings at the grocery store. not in the freezer section. go where you would grab chicken breasts, pork chops, ground beef and sausage. the chicken wings should be with the chicken. makes sense. anyhoo...

pay for the wings. i don't want to be held responsible for oodles of people stealing chicken wings. that's just madness. so pay for the wings.

take them home. i'm sure they wouldn't appreciate you setting up a crockpot in the middle of the store.

if you want, spray a bit of cooking spray inside the pot, but you don't have to. i forgot to once, and the wings turned out fine.

dump in the wings.

dump in the sauce. again, i recommend the Diana chicken n' rib sauce, though i'm sure just about any BBQ sauce will do. it's a matter of taste. i prefer Diana, though.

cook the wings on high for about 6 hours. this gets them good and cooked. and when you go to eat them, the meat will be just falling off the bones and melting in your mouth.

there's my "secret" recipe for crockpot wings. i stole it off the "A Year of Crockpotting" blog (the link is on the sidebar). enjoy!

mmm... wings... this is why i can't go veg!

i made chicken wings for supper tonight. i'd post a picture of them, but they're just a pile of bones now, having been devoured by a ravenous hoard of young and old. that's right, they were DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mmmm... chicken.... {drooling like homer simpson}

i put some parchment paper in a pan (haha! makes clean-up so easy - just crumple up the paper and toss it out! God bless whoever invented parchment paper!). i dumped in some raw chicken wings that i picked up at No Frills. then i drizzled them generously (read: obscenely) with sauce. the stuff pictured above. then i tossed them in the oven to bake at 425F for the next hour or so (i don't do recipes, i don't do clocks. i cook it till it looks right. that's what i do, and it works for me. when i time stuff, it doesn't work for some reason. don't ask; i don't understand, either.)

i have tried doing wings in the crockpot, and they're lovely, too. when you cook them slowly all day, the meat just falls off the bone and they're a messy, meaty dream. but i've never used this sauce before. i think it's the sauce that makes all the difference. delish!

they turned out fantastically. and i mean that literally. if you could imagine your ideal chicken wings, this is them. yup, straight out of a beautiful, drool-y, carnivorous fantasy, they are! anyhoo, give them a whirl... you'll drool, too, i promise! :)

meet Sally

this is Sally, the newest member of our household. isn't she lovely? blithe found "her" at Springbank Park the other day and she just had to bring her home.

i'll admit, for a while there i didn't think Sally was even "with us" anymore, but then it occured to me that we hadn't given her anything to eat, so the night before last, i dropped two spinach leaves in there. by morning, there was only part of one leaf left. so, spinach it is. and actually, one of the most fascinating parts of the day is sitting and watching her eat (which would leave me unable to actually eat, if i had several people just sitting and watching me eat. but i have issues. obviously, sally is a little more well-adjusted than i am. lol)

i'm using this as an on-going science lesson for the kids. they're absolutely loving this caterpillar! they're both enjoying watching her eat and move around and sleep and... well, actually, that's about all she does. so far, there's no coccoon or anything. just a lot less spinach in my house. ;) but if anything develops, you know i'll post.

our evening walk

most evenings after supper we go for a walk to a garden/parkette nearby. bram calls it our "calming down walk." it (usually) helps the kids to unwind before bed. i thought i would share some pics from our walk tonight.

asher loves these walks. as soon as you mention "go for a walk in the stroller" he goes racing toward the front door and waits impatiently for the rest of us to get ready. tonight, he's learning how to whistle while he waits. :)

my mother introduced bram to these flowers, and taught him a funny little pun. it's now a running joke in our family, since these flowers are very popular in our area. they're now his favourite flower. tonight, he ran to the plant laughing, "do you sedom, mommy? do you sedom?" lol

ok, i have no idea what these are, but they were too Dr Seuss-ish to ignore. if you know what they're called, please tell me. their leaves look very marijuana-esque, and then the flowers are these hot pink spiky balls! how weird, yet how very, very cool. i dig 'em.
blithe loves to ride her bike on our walks. she's getting really good at it, gaining more confidence every day. it's so nice to see her grow up right before my eyes. tonight she was figuring out how to pedal standing up, and she's so proud of how fast she can go on her bike. she can be a surprisingly nervous girl; she wants to do something perfectly the first time, and she can get really down on herself if she fails. it takes a lot of encouragement to get her to keep trying, but as soon as she achieves some success, she keeps working on it herself until she's got it. i'm so proud of her!

a bedtime story

tonight, blithe was overtired and a bit fussy at bedtime. so, i turned on her bedtime music, cuddled up with her and started to tell her favourite story, all about Princess Blithe and her puppy Mufu. she didn't want that story tonight, she wanted another one. here's the story i told her:

once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a beautiful girl named Princess Heather. Princess Heather didn't want to be a princess, though. no, she wanted to be... a clown!

Princess Heather went to her mother, Queen Nana, and said, "Queen Nana, can i be a clown?"

"but Princess Heather," replied Queen Nana, "you are a clown!"

"no, Queen Nana, i mean a real clown!"

"but you are a real clown! look at your big red nose! honk honk!" well, they both laughed at this, because of course Princess Heather was not a real clown and did not have a red nose.

the next day, Princess Heather decided that the time had come for her to become a real clown. so she put on some enormous shoes and ran down the road to join the circus. she snuck in with the clowns. she put on a big rainbow wig, lots and lots of make-up, and of course, a big red nose... that honks! then she put on her silly costume, including a flower that squirts water!

Princess Heather the Clown had so much fun! she ran around playing and squirting people and dancing to the circus music and laughing the whole time! oh, what fun!

but at the end of the day, she was tired. she just wanted to crawl into her comfy bed and go to sleep. so she walked home, went to her room, and fell asleep. and she lived happily ever after.

now, i know what you're thinking...

"heather, how can afford to just go and buy a new camera? without saving for it? i don't understand." the answer, gentle reader, is two-fold:

1. VISA. 'nuff said.
2. FACTORY DIRECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i bought my new Kodak EasyShare, 8.2mp camera at Factory Direct for only $79.99! can you believe that?! i couldn't... at first. then i grabbed a memory card (yes, my memory card is gone, too. you can stop laughing now. lol). and a 2GB card was only $9!! can you believe that?!

i'm completely serious about those prices, folks! ask annie! she was there! she witnessed the whole thing!

moral of the story... if you need a new camera, go to Factory Direct, at Wellington and Bradley in London, right by Jack Aster's and McDonald's. awesome deals. just check out the link, and start coveting! enjoy! :)

http://factorydirect.ca/static/index.htm

ok, this is the funniest picture ever...

i have no idea who set this up, putting blithe's Polly Pocket purse on bram's monster guy. but seriously! this is just too funny!!! my kids rock! :D

career goals... and sit down before you read... bram's will surprise you...

ok, so tonight we read a little board book about different jobs/careers. sort of a "when i grow up i wanna be a..." kind of thing. well, here's what the kids declared:

• Blithe: a veteranarian (sp?). that way she can be a doctor, but also work with kitties and goldfish and horses. honestly, she listed those animals in particular.
• Bram: (are you sitting down? i'm not joking here, folks) ok, so, if you've met bram, you're likely thinking farmer or trucker. or perhaps a combination of the two. or a conductor on a train. nope. that's not what he said tonight. he has two goals: painter and actor. stop laughing. i'm not joking.
• Asher: he yelped something from the other room (he was already in bed, but likely heard my jaw hit the floor), but to be honest, i didn't quite catch it. something about "anything but paeds cardio for me, thank-you very much!" (or maybe i'm just projecting a bit there, lol)

there you go. my kids' career goals. interesting, wouldn't you say? ;)

yet another blog... yup, i'm obsessed... but only a little. lol

just so you know, i have started a new blog. it's called "homeschooling my kids" (the link will be on the sidebar later). it's about, you guessed it, homeschooling my kids. so i won't be posting too much about that subject here. check the new blog if you're interested in our schooling.

enjoy (once i post there, that is).