Then and Now

I joined a “crop swap” on a digiscrap blog and sent photos of Brentford Drive at the beginning and now.  I think my digiswapper did a fabulous job and wanted to share it with all my former culdesac dwellers!

 

Taming the Giant

I am sure everybody who cooks at home at all has discovered that there is a new species of animal in the grocery story….the giant chicken breast.  You pretty much have to buy organic at a high end grocery store to get a boneless, skinless chicken breast that is a anywhere a single portion size.

I have recently discovered that the chicken breasts at Aldi’s (a deep discount store with its own labels) are really, really big, really, really cheap, and really, really good.  What is not to like, except that size issue.  (I did some googling around the internet and these giant breasts seem to be a trend that is not going away).

So I decided to tame the giant.  I had bought a huge package of breasts on a good sale at Aldi’s and frozen them individually in sandwich bags and put them into a bigger bag.  I had cooked a couple as is and found it dry and boring. This time II took out one and partially thawed it.  While it was still about 1/3 to 1/4 frozen, I started cutting it into smaller chunks, and then sliced those chunks  into thinner slices by slicing horizontally.  When the meat is partially frozen, this is a breeze. 

Then I put those pieces onto plastic wrap, covered with another piece of wrap, and started pounding.  I ended up with a random pile of little cutlets.  I shook those cutlets in flour, dipped them in egg beaters, then in dried, unsweetened coconut and baked them on a rack.  Oh my.  No guilt coconut chicken tenders!

 

 

 

The next giant breast I attacked was shaken in flour and browned in a little olive oil.  Removed from pan and patted off extra fat, poured in some bottled asian orange sauce into the skillet and put the chicken back in the pan and glazed it.  This version was actually better, maybe because I love glaze or because it was pan sauteed?  Probably both.

Drizzle

It is an icky, drizzly day.  This was my volunteer day at my friend’s school….I prepare art projects for the kids…cutting and tracing, etc.  I decided to go tomorrow.  Am working on ruffles for the curtains for Jason’s little girl’s room-to-be and thinking about my blog.  I made two very bright layouts a couple of days ago and thought they would be just the thing to post on such a dreary day.
Several years ago we went to a hot air balloon festival in Callaway Gardens, near Atlanta.  Took a lot of pics and saved a few.  Since hot air balloon pics are a dime a dozen on the internet, I decided to do something a little more interesting with them.
This one has photos of the Energizer Bunny balloon inflating. 

This one has photos of a generic balloon inflating, but it was the best of the best photos we took that day. I made these pages by creating giant text titles and then clipping the photos to them. 

Spring Begins Here

Every spring we see bulbs pop up everywhere. Many of these bulbs were planted years and years ago and they continue to multiply and grace our yards every March and April.  We all go to the garden store and buy Holland Bulbs.  Have you ever thought about where those bulbs come from?

They come from here:

Here is the text:

One required trip of every expat family in Europe is to visit Lisse, Holland in the spring to see the source of the Holland Bulbs gracing every yard back at home in the U.S..  Acres and acres of the most beautiful and latest incarnations of tulips, daffodils, and every other bulb you can imagine. 
We stayed right in Lisse and walked to the gardens.  Our hotel was very cozy and our room memorable. We climbed a carpeted stair so steep it resembled a ladder; our room had four narrow beds, a tiny lamp beside each, a sink in the corner, and a shared tiny bathroom outside in the hall.  We were up under the eaves and felt somewhat like the seven dwarfs.Larry had asked the Belgium office to make our reservations...after that he made them himself, in more American style accommodations.  But it was an experience we will never forget.

Old Pics

Two old pics from a box.  A nice layered quick page from this month's ScrapGirls Club.  And, voila, a page is done and a memory presereved.

Fly Away

Kit is Over the Hill  by Southern Creek Designs via Plain Digital Wrapper.

Napa

We visited Napa a looooong time ago.....my Mom and Dad babysat the kiddies and we had not moved to Europe, yet.  Larry was even skinny back then.  Enjoy.

A Good Scout

I found this photo of Jason in his cub scout uniform and made a page.  Thanks to digi items from  Lisa Minor.  Sus Designs and Rhonda's Scrap Book-N