Tune-in Alert!

This week on Facebook former Miss America contestants are posting crown shots or pageant pictures on their profiles to advertise the pageant this weekend. I managed to find this shot of a gorgeous S.D. crowning me! Not a great picture of me but I suppose it conveys the emotion of the moment. Tune in to Miss America this Saturday night, 8/7 central on TLC!

Oh yeah, I did that!

I'm determined to find a set of recipes that I can rotate into a schedule for my family (if you can't tell from recent postings). It can be hard to find time to cook at the end of a long day, but I think it will be extremely important as Franklin grows up for us to have that quality time together. Yesterday, I tried cooking a whole chicken for the first time. Yes, buying a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store is easier. However, I like the fact that I can control the ingredients used on the chicken myself. And nothing beats the visual reward of pulling a perfectly browned, crispy-skinned chicken out of the oven!

I used a recipe from Barefoot Contessa (the chicken queen) with only slight modifications:

Ingredients

1 (5 to 6 pound) whole roasting chicken
Kosher salt (I used gray sea salt)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks (I used baby carrots instead)
2 bulbs of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges

1 bag parsnips cut into chunks
Olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string (NOTE: I did not have kitchen string and chose to neglect this step as a result) and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, parsnips, garlic and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil.

Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

Here's the result:

Do you guys eat parsnips? I love them. If you've never had a parsnip, I think you're missing out. You can find them in the grocery store near the carrots, they actually look like white carrots. You treat them just like carrots too, and they get sweet and juicy when they are roasted as well. Super yummy and good for you too. I served the chicken with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, by the way. Frank seemed to enjoy it! This was one of those recipes, like a pork tenderloin recipe I got from L years ago that I still make all.the.time., that you can fix the night before or in the morning, and just pull out of the fridge and put into an oven at the end of the day. An hour and a half later, dinner's ready.

My baby is THREE MONTHS OLD!

Oh my goodness, where did the time go??? Our little bundle of joy is growing up too fast, and is getting bigger every day. Franklin know definitely knows that Frank and I are his parents, and grins at us all the time! That gummy grin just makes my day. He's still such a good baby, we are so lucky and I've got my fingers crossed that future siblings follow his lead. He regularly sleeps from around 9 PM until 6:30 or 7 AM, and takes two good naps (and a couple catnaps) a day. Recently, Franklin found his thumb (much to Frank's dismay). On the baby monitor at night, we can hear him sucking on his hand and thumb when the pacifier falls out. Our little piglet sure is a noisy baby boy! He's grown out of many of his 0-3 month clothes, and I packed a lot away last week. Franklin still hates tummy time, but likes his activity mat and loves to bounce! I'm looking forward to putting him in his doorway jumper, and I have no doubt that he will LOVE it! Just a few more weeks and I think he'll be ready. Franklin still has amazing neck control, and grows stronger every day. He can sit with very little support and does the mini-push up like a champ. We're singing lots of songs in our house these days, and his favorite seems to be "Old McDonald." I think he likes the animal noises. He likes Gloria Estefan too... I need to find a few more songs to sing him I think.

He giggles at us when we act silly (which we do all the time to make him giggle because it's soooo cute) and loves his swing. Bathtime has also become one of my favorite times of the day due to Franklin's hambone thighs and the major splashes he's already creating in the bathtub. I have a feeling I'm going to get very, very wet when he gets a little stronger. He still makes sweet noises when he takes a bottle, and after he finishes the "kitty" noises appear before you burp him. And oh, those chubby cheeks!! Don't you just want to squeeze and kiss them?? (I do, about a hundred times a day!) He's also growing hair, finally, and at the moment it's standing on end... it kind of looks like he has constant static electricity, which makes him even cuter. He really seems to enjoy school, and is a pretty good boy according to his teachers. I can't wait until he can actually play with the other babies in his class, although it may be awhile! This little man is more than we could've ever hoped for and has made up for the horrid 9+ months it took to bring him into the world (ha!) Isn't he the cutest baby you've ever seen??

Nom nom nom...

A few weeks ago during the national championship game, Frank and I ate one of the best tasting dips I've ever had. The ingredients included Conecuh sausage and lobster tails, and it was cooked on a Big Green Egg. YUM! I'm always on the hunt for good appetizers, and I wanted a version of that dip that I could make myself (sans lobster and Big Green Egg). Here's one we tried this past weekend that turned out really well:

HOT BAKED CHEESE AND CONECUH SAUSAGE DIP

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 package Original Conecuh Sausage, cut into small pieces

1/2 an onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1/2 cup sour cream

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1 round unsliced loaf rye or sourdough bread

Preheat oven to 350°. In medium skillet, over medium high heat add the oil and saute sausage, onion and garlic until lightly browned. Beat together sour cream, cream cheese and Cheddar until smooth. Stir in the sausage mixture and artichokes. Cut a slice off the top of the bread and scoop out insides, leaving about a one-half inch shell. Pour cheese mixture into bread and wrap in foil. Place on baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes, until dip is heated through.

I liked this recipe because you cook it in the bread bowl, which makes serving and cleanup easier! Dad, I have a feeling you'll be all over this one.... Happy Monday!

Congrats!

I forgot to post this last week, but congrats to our cousins Ashley and R.J. on the birth of their beautiful baby girl Campbell May last week!! We hope to introduce Franklin and Campbell very soon!

Hose, Hose, Hose

A recent posting on Corporette made me think about a dilemma many women seem to face during the Spring and Summer months in the corporate world... what to wear with a skirt/dress when you have pasty legs??

When I started this blog, it was one of the first topics that I posted about. A brief post, but I think it made my feelings pretty clear. Some of you may disagree with me, but I think nude hose are gross. Why, following the creation of Spanx, anyone would feel the need to wear them is beyond me. There are a million, trillion different self tanners out there, and I promise- no matter your skin tone- one will work for you. No additional sweating caused by man-made materials constricting your legs all day long, no worries about snags or runs. Here's what Stacy London of What Not to Wear had to say about hose:

"First of all, the only "hose" I really hate are the semi-sheer ones in "suntan" or "black." They look dated and remind me of a time when women would walk to work in their suits, those hose, white sweat socks and white leather aerobic sneakers. Blech. Might as well throw in a whole can of hairspray, too. Too '80s! Stay away from anything that has a mid-range "denier" number that indicates the sheerness of the hose (10 is very sheer, 30 is semi-sheer and 50 is opaque). I recommend a good self-tanner for the pale-leg situation, but also realize that won't help with spider veins. Look for opaque tights and try them in a subtle color, like a burgundy or deep purple, when wearing a neutral-color knee-length skirt or suit. They will hide your legs and add a visual punch to your outfits!"

I very rarely disagree with anything that Stacy suggests, but I disagree with a few things that she suggested above... colored tights might work for some careers out there, but if you work in a corporate environment please stay away from burgundy or purple tights. I'd like to see a partner's face if I showed up in purple tights with a gray suit. Nevermind, I take that back. I'll avoid that look at all costs. I think the rules are simple: Black very sheer (I agree with that part of Stacy's suggestions) hose with black shoes and a black skirt suit in the middle of winter are acceptable. I choose to wear opaque black tights instead--they provide extra warmth in the middle of our very brief winter down here, and look professional as well. Another tip: Heidi Klum doubles her opaque tights to make them very opaque. The rest of the year, I use self-tanner.

And while we're on the topic of hose and tights, I'd like to comment on another common phenomenon that I personally consider a fashion "don't"-- knee high boots with bare skin showing. Take this look, for instance:

As beautiful as she is, don't you think the look would have been a little less, well, trashy looking, if she'd had on opaque black tights instead of leaving the area in between the top of the boot and the bottom of her dress bare? If it's cold enough to wear the boots, it's cold enough to throw on a pair of black tights as well. Would've made the entire thing a lot more streamlined and slimming... instead she managed to cut off the line of her body in the middle, making her legs look shorter. Here's another one I take issue with:

Boots with a suit = fine. And thank goodness she at least managed to put something on her legs... but wouldn't this have been soooo much better if she'd just worn black tights? Particularly at her age?? It clearly would make the fact that she has on boots with a suit a lot less "look at me, I'm fashionable and have on boots with a suit!" Don't you think?

So, here's how I think you do it the right way:

Classy, fashionable, warm. Just my humble opinion.

Under the Sea

Franklin loves his Under the Sea Activity Gym! He figured out today that if he kicked the side of the gym he could make the octopus and rattle hanging from the top of the gym make noise an swing back and forth. My son is ALL BOY!