Friday, December 25, 2009

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

5 months!



Another month has flown by. A few highlights from the last month:

*Van started eating real food! He had rice cereal and sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving and loved them. We have given him rice cereal, yams, bananas, and oatmeal so far. He will be trying avocado tomorrow. He has devoured everything he has tried so far and gets upset when it is all gone.

*He went to his first movie in the theater. He did so great that we took him to another movie the next week.

*4 month shots :( He did great and didn't have any reactions only a little crying.

*Van is now scooting to try to get his toys. Most of the time he ends up going backwards, but he is getting better and better and moving around every day.

*He can sit up on his own for a little bit at a time.

*Van is talking more and more. For 2 days at the beginning of the month he screamed/ squealed non stop. He screamed/ squealed when he was happy, sad or mad. Luckily that stopped pretty quickly. He also started to put his lips together and say "M-m-m-m-m" and also learned to do a little fake cough.


Pilot wanted to get in on the picture :)

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Turducken

Warning: Graphic bird butchering images...




For Thanksgiving we decided to make our own Turducken. Turkey- duck- cornish game hen. They are $80 at Vons and we managed to make it for about $30.

A few days before Thanksgiving we de-boned the birds. The hen and the duck were fairly easy, but both of us had to work together and break out the heavy artillery for the turkey. After all the bones were removed (except for the turkey legs which we left on) we seasoned the birds with Tony's Cajun seasoning and wrapped them up until Thanksgiving morning. Total weight after de-boning was 22lbs. of pure meat!

Since the turkey was cut in half in order to de-bone him, we sewed one side up before we sstarted putting everything together. We unwrapped the birds and layered them with cornbread stuffing, onions and bell peppers. After everything was layered, we closed up the turkey, tied everything up good and tight and put him in a bag to bake. He cooked away at 350 degrees for 4 hours (until 185 degrees).

The turducken turned out better than we even imagined. Because there are no bones, you just cut straight through the bird. It is cool seeing all the layers of the birds and the stuffing. And splitting up leftovers is a cinch, we just cut him in half.

It was so much fun and we will definitely do it again!

Anyone want to come over for leftovers?!?