Great great weekend!! My awesome match support coordinator alerted me to a sweet camping event going on with Big Brothers Big Sisters.  ’little’ and I, along with 6 other matches met at Fort Snelling State Park for a fun filled camping trip put on by a cool non profit, Wilderness Inquiry.  They are a group that puts on camping trips for all sorts of groups like public school class outings and field trips, people looking to go camping that may not have all the knowledge or equipment needed, and organizations like BBBS.  It was perfect!

Wilderness Inquiry sent me a packing list for both ‘little’ and I which really only included warm clothes, and simple equipment.  I was nervous about ‘little’ staying warm enough throughout the night in the tent due to the cold weather we’ve been experiencing recently, but he was just fine.  Doesn’t he look like a natural?

What a trooper

We arrived at the park on Saturday at 3:30 and were welcomed by the ever kind Wilderness Inquiry staff that were so great with the kids.   Right away we were greeted by the friendly smiles of he other matches at the camp area in the park designated only for youth groups/organizations.  After introducing ourselves to everyone and getting to know one another we passed around a frisbee for the next half hour.  We did some great “get to know you” activities where we learned each others names and were able to interact with each other.

Next we had a tent set up demonstration.  There were two types, A-frames and domes.  We chose an A-frame because we hadn’t ever set on up before. We finished pretty quick and ‘little’ quickly ran around our tent city and asked if anyone else needed help. He loves helping.

A-frame tent

Next was dinner. We volunteered to help for dinner that night with another fun match.  We cut up tomato’s, onion, green pepper, and minced garlic.  We boiled spaghetti, and made some delicious garlic bread! It was a great meal and the kids were so excited to be able to help. Something about eating outside makes everything taste better!  All of the little’s there this weekend thrived under responsibility. It was great to see them volunteer for work, and love doing it. Is a childhood actually complete without experiencing camping? I’m not so sure.

That night we lit a great bon fire, of course ‘little’ took a lead role in setting it up, and enjoyed a lovely evening.  S’mores were a huge hit!  We played some fun bon fire games. First we played telephone, where one person starts with a phrase and whispers it into the ear of their neighbor.  As it goes around the fire, inevitably someone doesn’t hear correctly and the message morphs before it hits the last person. It’s hilarious to hear the final out come.  Then we played one that I’d never heard of before and was a huge match favorite.  It was called Pass the Snort.  The point of the game is to make your neighbor laugh by making a funny snort noise in their ear.  If everyone makes it around the circle without laughing than everyone wins.  The kids were rolling on the floor laughing by some pretty creative snorts.

We finally hunkered down in the tent, to the protests of ‘little’, had a quick conversation on the events of the day, and fell asleep.  I woke up in the middle of the night, and ‘little’ had spun around 90 degrees and was sharing my pillow.  ha ha it was hilarious.  The rain came at night and it was beautiful to listen to as I feel back asleep.

Next morning, we made delicious pancakes and coffee.  The pancakes were wonderful but the coffee had everyone’s attention.  It was called cowboy coffee.  We boiled a half gallon of water, put in a couple handfuls of coffee let it steep, and without the top on spun the metal container around and around and around.  It was being kept in by centrifugal force and pushing the grounds down to the bottom like a french press.  DELICIOUS!! at the end of the spinning the spinner has to holler out YEEEEEEEHAAAAA!!! Great things for all of us to see.

Next we broke camp and headed to the lake.  It was pouring at this point in the day.  Surprisingly, no one was frustrated. We all just rolled with the punches.  We took the canoe’s out and played on the lake for about an hour. We learned the proper strokes, how to board a canoe properly, DON’T STAND UP, and don’t rock the boat.

Rainy Canoe

We came back into shore, munched on a lunch of summer sausage, bagels, cheese, veggies with veggie dip and cookies.  It was a lovely weekend and ‘little’ learned a bunch about responsibility and helping people out. I was so proud of how helpful he was and cordial to everyone. “please, thank you, yes ma’am/sir, etc. etc.”

-proud big

The  main theme in our relationship is “Becoming men, one discovery at a time.”  Every once in a while ‘little’ and I get down to the nuts and bolts of our relationship. What does it mean to become a man? Are you a man yet? How do you get there?

It seems that ‘little’ is on a precipice right now in his life. As a fresh teenager he’s starting to understand his lot in life. He understands that he has an up hill battle, as many people do, to get what he wants in life. He has to claw and scratch for what it is he wants. Now he can look at this situation and be sullen about it and not do anything, or get up, be strong, work is hardest, become a man, and be a leader in his family and his community.  We’ve decided together that his main responsibility right now is to work is hardest in school.  Math is by far his strong suit. Science is a close second.  Reading is  a little tough for him.  It’s not so much that he doesn’t know how but it mostly comes to content where he hits a wall.  Often times when we’re driving in my car he’ll read billboards as we’re driving, pick up literature in the car and read them to me unsolicited, or read bumper stickers on the cars as we drive by.  He enjoys reading and likes to show me that he can. I challenge him a lot and never give in to words he doesn’t know.  Once he sounds it out he can usually figure out the meaning.

I stopped by Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities today and my match support coordinator really came through for me.  She counciled me on the matter of reading and ‘little’ and that this is something he really needs to get a hold of before he reaches highschool. Whether the content is boring or not he needs to be strong in the matter.  It just so happened that a huge amount of books had been donated and she loaded me with an arm full.  I can’t wait to dive into a few of these with ‘little’ and to be honest I wish we had spent more of the summer digging in. It may be tough to find time during school but once the snow flies, it’ll be a good excuse to hunker down inside.  That’s right, those great white flakes aren’t too far away!!!

Coming back to the idea of becoming men, in order to give ‘little’ the best chance of success in the future he needs to start now. He needs to get good grades to give him the widest array of opportunities post graduation.  Hopefully he can make it to college and of course he needs the GPA to carry him there.  If he gets the GPA we’re shooing for he may be eligible for the Federated Insurance scholarship program where any match that reaches 18 months (which we have surpassed) is able to apply for a full ride to many colleges in the area (including Saint Cloud State, U of M, Saint Thomas, Saint Catherine’s, Saint John’s, Augsburg and a few others).  He just in junior high yet so we’re not going FULL force on this initiative but at least we’re planting seeds.

Here’s the pile of books.  See any good ones you think we should start with? I’m think either Hardy Boys (pretty sure I read them all) or Chronicles of Narnia. I haven’t read the later yet and I would love to read along with him!

Here goes!!

Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities Free Books

I took her recipe and switched it up a bit.  Partly due to inventory resource level and partly due to my inability to follow direction…

First Marinate the chicken.  I took 2 juiced oranges, 2 juiced lemons, 2 juiced limes (actually I didn’t have limes so I just dumped in the equivalent jarred juice), 2 large white onions quartered and a bit of salt and pepper, and a healthy pour of olive oil to coat… half cup maybe.  Pour this all whole concoction over a dozen to 15 or so chicken drummy’s and leave in the fridge. If you don’t have a big enough bowl put it in a couple zip lock bags to sit for a while.  Leave it for at least 2 hours, but more is better.  Give the bags a shake or the bowl a toss over half hour or so if you can.

While you’re waiting, cute up some tomato, maybe 3 roma’s, half a vidalia onion (those are Shea’s favorites!) a jalapeno pepper, and a half a handful or more of cilantro.  Cut them up small, add to a bowl with lime a splash of lime juice and a few pinches of salt and let sit for at least a half hour.

Now for the easy and best part! Home made chips!  Heat up a pan (i used my wok) of canola oil.  2-3 cups.  Quarter about 20 rice tortillas and toss them in the hot oil.  Watch out for splash.  EEp!  They go fast so if you see a color change in the chips take em out.  Put them in a pan lined with paper towls to soak up the oil and toss plenty of salt on them.

**Hint – Pacifico goes great with this meal, especially if it’s so hot out!

When the chicken is ready toss it in the oven on broil for 20-25 minutes. Flip them once. I don’t have a broiler pan which would work great but I put down some aluminum foil and threw a great on top.  Works nice to get the bottom of the chicken and it cooks through more thoroughly.

Time for the sauce.  SUPER EASY!  Add tree dolips (sp?) of mayo in a blender/food processor and chipotle chili’s if you can find them. I couldn’t so I added salsa.  Keep adding too taste.  I did about a half a hot chipotle salsa jar from Trader Joes.  Blend until smooth.

There it is! A great meal.  It feeds probably about 4.  Prep time is 2 hours, cook time is 30 minutes.  Wonderful meal and super easy!

Ree, my friend The Pioneer Woman, likes to shave the meet and put it in Tortillas. I bet that would be great too.  I like to eat it off the bone.

As far as the entertainment for the evening, I know I’m digressing here a bit,  but whatever you do, don’t watch Season 5 Friday Night Lights. You may start talking like a texan (Coach Taylor) and really embarrasing your fiance/wife/gf/dog/children/whoeveris in the vicinity!  And especially don’t start watching it around 9:00 because 4 episodes takes a long time!! Yikes!

GREAT DATE NIGHT!

Thank you weather.com for helping my make my decision for tonight’s beverage of choice! The fine folks at Thomas Liquor were also of great assistance.

New Age win

Here it is. Glass of ice, fill with new age wine which has some sparkle…some spritz to it, squeeze half a lime, sit back… ahhhhhhhhhh!

The best thing about my friends is their willingness to just BE with me and not need activities to participate in.  All we did this weekend was drink, eat, run around with the kids, bask in the presence of each other, sit outside and enjoy Minnesota while we can, drink, read, drink, and sleep. First of all, it was eye opening to be with two children under 2 for the weekend, and what I have to look forward too with my marriage, and second life is still going on Monday morning! Here we are, everything is still on my plate, I’m still behind where I was behind, and ahead where I was ahead, but what’s changed is that I have just deepened two friendships that were long overdue for some deepening.  I lived this weekend! It’s not often when I get to say that.

Hook and Ladder

PS Anyone ever heard of Hook and Ladder? Apparently a “Penny in Every Pint, and a Quarter in every Case” is part of their mission.  Every sale sends money to the firefighter retirement fund.  Okay… I guess I’ll have one… only it’s for the firefighters though! Keep it up boys!

I’m not the biggest breakfast guy. I’m just not that hungry in the morning. I can easily make it to dinner without eating anything during the day but maybe a litte snack. I think it’s strange because I LOVE to eat but my body doesn’t tell me to eat… I have to tell it.  I know it’s not the healthiest thing in the world but it’s just how I role and I have to remind myself to eat.  I’ve been feeling sort of tired lately around 9-10(maybe this is my body speaking now?)  and I’m wondering if I change my eating habits that maybe my energy levels will fluctuate.  So here goes step one trying to change my habits.

I need to MAKE myself eat in the morning now.  That’s tough but not the hardest part of the experiment. Surprisingly enough time is the toughest wall to scale.  I’ve worked my day around doing things that don’t include eating. Now I have to shift, and shuffle to make this work.  Second hardest is keeping breakfast appropriate food in my house.  I hate wasting food so I try to practice a strict form of  inventory management on my perishable foods… “try” is the key word there. I want to buy in close proportion so everything runs out together and I don’t have to trash anything

To try and break down these barriers to my nutritional goals I’ve decided to keep it easy.  Something, quick, nutritious, and light.

First week Menu:

Fruit Parfet

Old Home Yogurt

Raspberries (2 for 1′s at Cub)

Black Berries (2 for 1′s at Cub)

Quaker Oats Oatmeal  - Does this stuff ever go bad? I bought a huge one.

Quick? Check! Nutritious? Check! Light? Check!

Energy level? Still the same but I’ll let you know as the week goes on.

In the middle of our lunch he said his brothers were having fun that day over at Target Field.  I asked if he were going to the game that night with them, and he said “no, they’re there right now.”

Me: “Well that’s silly, there’s not a game until 7:10.  What do you mean? It’s only 2:00″

‘little”: “My brothers are playing with the Twins players right now at Target Field.”

Me: “What?? You didn’t get to go?”

‘little’: “No, i was invited but I wanted to hang out with you. It’s been a while and I missed you”

Me: “<heart melt>” (that’s right you could hear it)

I guess he loves me!

‘little’ passed on Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Denard Span, and a few others of the home town boys just to hang out with me! Not to shabby!

First here are the ingredients (minus the burger)… really it’s what I had in my fridge but it all seemed to come together… (except for the pineapple and the mozzarella, i bought those)

Take about 2 lbs of burger put it in a big bowl.  Crack one egg over the meat, and tear up 3-4 pieces of white bread into the ground beef. Season with Lowry’s or something similar.  Just give it some healthy sprinkles. This concoction makes the meat have a great consistency for adding ingredients in the middle.  It will hold much better.  Work it all together with your hands until you feel like it’s all together. Make sure you rip the bread up pretty small. I usually don’t include the crust. I think it gets to chunky if you do.

Next, shop up the pineapple.  Of course fresh is better.  Make sure the pieces you use aren’t too wet though…

Cut the sides…

Cut it in slices….

take slice…

cut off the sides…

That gives you a pretty good idea of how to go about it right?  Cut the final pieces pretty small.  Like slivers of the chunks in that last picture.

(Shoot I forgot to take a picture here)

Take the burger, make it into a patty, dig a little hole in the meat and push out the sides, add in mozzarella cheese, and slivered pineapple pieces.  Dust it with a bit more Lowry’s.  Next fold up the meat so the ingredients are tucked nicely in the middle of the patty.  Wrap in bacon, around the edge, double cross over, swirl, whatever you prefer.  I like to use slimmer bacon.  Thick doesn’t seem to hold very well.

Preheat grill to medium high.. toss the burgers on.  Optimal to only flip once. Longer on side 1 than side 2 because you don’t want it to fall apart.

I like to grill some of the extra pineapple, and heat your buns on the upper shelf of your grill, or the outside, if you’re using coal, about 30 seconds before you pull the burgers off

Last night I became a Sweet Baby Ray’s convert.  I added some simple yellow mustard, and the bbq sauce. Perfect.

Any of these will work too…

YUM!

‘little’ just rang me up yesterday. We actually haven’t seen eachother in about three weeks. I hate when that happens, but with summer coming up, wedding planning with Shea, traveling a bit, and the craziness of life our scheduales are so hard to coordinate sometimes. Anyway he gave me a ring and first wanted to hang out soon, but second and more importantly wanted to cordially invite me to his graduation!! Oh my gosh my heart jumped! This is really one of the first major times in our relationship that he has asked me to participate in something in his life.  Our time together is always me coming up with an activity and us doing it together.  He’s excited to graduate, and he wants me to be a part of it!! I couldn’t be more proud!

Now, what to get him for a graduation present? I posed this question on facebook and the answer that came back that I liked the most was a survival kit for the next stage in his life.  I like that idea. Fresh new notebooks!!, a nice hefty pen that he can proud of , mechanical pencils, deodorant (is that weird, i don’t think he knows about deo yet), Target gift certificate, candy… what else could I put in there?  He’s about to be a teenager!! Yikes

First start out with about 2lbs of chicken breast and chop it up.

Season the chicken with really whatever spices you think this will go with. I didn’t have anything to spicy so we went quite mild… this part is really up for grabs.  Add a few about 2 tablespoons of canola oil and start browning the chicken.  I also like onions so I add about 3/4 of a medium white onion diced.

Save those tomatoes until a little bit later….

When the chicken as lost it’s pinkness inside, add a small can of green chile’s.  Again, optional but it added great flavor!

The best way to go about this now is to get a bit of a congo line going.  Watch out to because the oil is going to splatter!  Fill a frying pan about 2 inches high of canola oil and flip it on high heat.  You’ll know it’s hot enough when you drop anything in the oil and it start sizzling pretty vigorously.   You can sort of see in this picture below.  It’s bubbling pretty good.

Back to the Congo Line. One person to put the Taco’s together, another to man the frying process, and another to wrap the fried food to degrease (for lack of better word) the delicious tacos!  So first, make taco’s look like this below… except minus the lettuce. Save that until afterwards.  Add sour cream, cheese, meat with onion and chile’s, tomato’s in a flour tortilla.

Then toss them in to the fryer… and wear an apron for gosh sakes. It gets everywhere!!! Side note: It may be nice to cover everything with in a couple foot radius that you don’t want grease on.

Start with one, like above. Once you get good go with a couple to a few at a time.  It’s okay to really submerse the tacos.  I’d say about a minute on each side, may take a little longer. Just wait until it get’s brownish on both sides.  It’s okay if stuff continues to fall out too. First it’s going to happen, second, you’ll get better as you go, third super super fried ingredients taste delicious after the oil has cooled down and you dredge it out!! Yum!!!

As you’re taking out the finished fried taco’s have your third man wrap them in a paper towel.  One towel per taco.  First shake out the taco a bit over the grease pan to drain as mucha s you can, drop on a stack of pre torn paper towels, have friend wrap them, shake for a few second, leave in towel for a minute and unwrap and put on plate to serve.  They should be eaten with in 20 minutes (that may even be a bit long) of taken out of the frier.

If you find time during one of your fry sessions, these taste delcious when you’re hot and sweaty and greased up!!

It can get a little sweaty in there… sorry for posting this one.

The finished product is delicious.  Enjoy with a few beers! Pacifico worked well for us too with a lemon wedge!

So you’re done reading this post and you think… i’m sort of confused and I’m not a 100% on how to make these tacos.  Look, everything tastes good fried. Put some fun stuff in a torilla and fry it.. vuala!