Posts from — July 2010

Battle chicken has been an ongoing project for the past 1-2 months. We were at the grocery store buying a whole chicken and saw a bag which included 3 whole chickens. That’s when battle chicken popped into my brain.

You see when packing our stuff in Calgary I realized that we had one of those ‘beer chicken contraptions’ which had never used. We also purchased a new BBQ when moving to Kelowna which has a rotisserie…. Hence, Battle Chicken!

The specifics
All chickens were seasoned with a peeled onion inside and rubbed with a ‘blackened’ seasoning. Basting might have been required or recommended but that sounds like a lot of work so was avoided.

Here’s how the chickens were prepared.

Oven Chicken

• Put Onion in Chicken.
• Rub seasoning on outside.
• Place in roasting pan
• Cover with aluminum foil
• Cook at 350F till done

Beer Chicken

• Open beer can and drink half the beer
• Put Onion in Chicken.
• Rub seasoning on outside.
• Place beer on “beer chicken contraption”
• Place chicken on “beer chicken contraption”
• Place on BBQ
• Cook with indirect heat till done

Rotisserie Chicken

• Put Onion in Chicken.
• Rub seasoning on outside.
• String together legs
• Place on rotisserie centering the chicken as much as possible…
• Cook with rotisserie burner till done

Note: DO NOT put on the bottom burners as that causes really cool flames that blacken the chicken….but are also a bit of a fire hazard.

The winner?

Taste
1. Rotisserie
2. Beer
3. Oven

Ease of preparation
1. Beer chicken (although, drinking half a beer is tough)
2. Oven (it’s probably simpler than the beer chicken but you aren’t rewarded with half a beer)
3. Rotisserie (centering the chicken is actually kinda tricky)

Funsies – ie: which one was the funnest?
1. Rotisserie – It’s fun to be a carnivore and watch your meal cook over an open flame.
2. Beer – You get half a beer
3. Oven – not really that fun compared to the others.

Jeff and I had a fantastic time in Toronto (well, Jeff less than me since he had to be at the conference). We normally don’t stay downtown as we stay with family in the burbs. This time we stayed at the Delta Chelsea right downtown in the heart of the action. We’ve stayed there once before for Canadian Ultimate Nationals in 2007, but we never saw much of downtown as we were busy playing. Staying at the Delta again brought back bad memories of losing a few key games and finishing a sad 9th at Nats.

We got to see a few of friends and lots of family. All visits were really short, but sweet. Thanks to everyone for the hospitality! Unfortunately there were a couple of friends we didn’t get to see as they were off playing at world ultimate in Prague.

We managed to find some time to go to Toronto Island for a round of disc golf with our friend Deb. The course is fantastic and a must-do if traveling to TO. Just hop on the ferry and you feel like you’re out in the country. I only made it through 13 holes as I was having a super low energy day. Must have wore myself out walking around the city in the days before and staying up too late….with the 3 hour time difference I felt wired every night at around 11pm (which was 8pm in BC). We’ll have to go back some other time when I’m not carrying a 20 lb weight and can enjoy the beautiful course a bit more.  I highly recommend an ice cold beverage at the marina after disc golfing as you enjoy the view of downtown as it lights up at dusk.

On Thursday afternoon we went to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). We should have gone on Wednesday night since visitors get in free. It was neat to see, especially the contemporary exhibits. It is very interesting what is considered art.

We spent Monday and Tuesday in Scarborough visiting my baba, gido, aunt and cousin on my dad’s side. After Jeff presented on Friday we headed out to Whitby to visit my nana, aunts, uncles and cousins on my mom’s side. Jeff did a fantastic job at his conference presentation. It was neat seeing how his research has progressed as it had been 5 years since I last saw him present.

I brought my camera everywhere and totally forgot to take pictures of my friends and family. We did get a few pictures of us enjoying the festivities at Dundas square:

My outdoor office at the hotel

It’s been about a month since our last post and the subject line describes what we have been up to.

My mom came for a visit and brought a little pug named Dexter that she was dog sitting. We didn’t mind having the little guy around as he pretty much just followed my mom around everywhere she went. Willow however DID NOT like Dexter. She spent the weekend in the basement or upstairs in our room, on top of the dresser, behind the TV, just to be sure that she was out of harm’s way.

Our very unimpressed cat

Dexter

It was a busy weekend. We took my mom to the beach, the goat farm, the farmer’s market, Art Knapps and the bingo hall. Jeff and I have been to bingo 3 times in the last 10 years and that’s about often enough. I find bingo really stressful. So many different shapes, numbers and utter chaos. I think I have attention span issues. It didn’t help that the minimum number of cards they would allow me to play was 6…1 would have been better. To think I have a university degree and find bingo challenging. Wouldn’t you know that the only thing we won was a free bingo night, which I quickly gave to the little old ladies next to us. The expiry date wasn’t 3 years so it was of no use to me.

At the end of June I flew to Vancouver for work for a day and then headed to Calgary for a whirlwind work trip. I got to Calgary in time to catch the semis and finals of ho down. On Monday evening I went bowling with Rheanna, Matt and cute little Ava. She truly is adorable and was so well behaved at bowling. It’s really neat to see how much she grows and changes from month to month. I spent Tuesday night working (reporting deadline – bleh) and then met my dad, Susan, Rheanna and Ava for a quick bite to eat before catching my flight on Wednesday. Didn’t get to do much catching up with them as we all pretty much stared at Ava the whole time.

Adorable Ava hanging out with her favorite toy

After Calgary and Vancouver I was exhausted and slept for a few days to recover. We checked out the festivities down at the waterfront on Canada day. We also spent the long weekend kitty sitting. Willow DID NOT like the kitten Minou (I see a trend here). Instead of hiding like she did with Dexter, she stalked Minou like she would a mouse or a bird. We have raised a spoiled, jealous monster. Having a baby should be interesting.

Minou playing with the flipflops for 2 hours

Minou

Last weekend Jill, Mark, John and Aniko (Jill’s bro and wife from Hungary) came to Kelowna for a visit. We went for a tour at the brewery and wine tours aplenty of course. Played a fantastic game called Solo from Hungary. We even found time for a few art galleries. We’ll definitely have to go visit John and Eniko in Hungary as it sounds like they come from a wonderful city and it was so nice to get to know them – such nice people.

Now we are in Toronto for a work conference for Jeff, but more about that (and our landscaping updates) later!