Cajun Chicken

We received a stuffed chicken for Christmas. A deboned, jambalya-stuffed chicken to be precise. I thought my 2.6 readers not from around here might want to see what it's all about, and even if you don't...I needed something new to post!

As you can see, it came with some extra spice all over it. We haven't fully adjusted to cajun seasoning yet, so I did wash off a bit (most) of the red stuff I thought might set us on fire.

You place the chicken string side down (where it was cut open to debone and stuff) and bake it for 75 minutes at 350*. It sure smelled good baking!

I sliced it open and SURPRISE! There is the jambalya!

You can get stuffed chickens here at the poultry market (or is it poultry store). We have had them stuffed with crawfish, rice dressing, and with pork. They have all been very, very tasty!

By the way~ it's still FREEZING here in the south South.

Out My Back Door....It's FREEZING!

Louisiana is a southern state. It is, without argument, in the south. When we describe where we live in Louisiana, we often say "south Louisiana".

Basically, we live in the south South.

So how does this happen?

I know there are people north of here that are even colder with more wind, more snow, more need for fireplaces. I'm not trying to say we are colder than they are. Just keep in mind~ this is the south South....and it's FREEZING!

(looking around....trying to find the guy that keeps talking about global warming.....)

Raising Readers

Last year I posted the pictures and stats of my kids' reading for 2008. It has become a yearly tradition that our kids look forward to....how many pages (completed books) did they read in the year. These are books the kids choose to read in their free time. Not school assigned books or required reading for anything. They have until December 31st at midnight to complete their books and record them. This year my daughter's eyes lit up about October when she realized with hard work and determination (and more free time than her brother) she might actually surpass his number of pages read.

His report for 2009~

12,342 pages read. Stack is 34 1/4 inches tall.
29 books total (Street Lawyer by John Grisham is not pictured).

Some of the titles included are~ Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, several Ted Dekker books, Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Louise De La Valliere and The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexander Dumas, Trivialization of God by Donald McCullough, and many others!

Her report for 2009~
13,120 pages read. Stack is 36 1/2 inches tall.
47 books total (Mighty Boy by Carol Sonenklar not pictured).

Some of the titles included are~ Several Nancy Drew books not read last year, Lily books by Nancy Rue, the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini, 17 books in the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, and many others!

I have noticed....no one is picking up any books and reading today. I think it's a well-deserved reading break!

Eunice Louisiana, Boomtown

Population: 12,000
Large Fireworks Tents: 6
New Year's Eve: Sleepless

Home For The Holidays

As our family traveled to New Orleans to meet up with family for Christmas Day, I looked up in the sky and saw tons of white lines streaking through the atmosphere. Often you can see one or two white streaks from airplanes in the sky, but at 10 AM on Christmas morning the sky was FULL of airplanes with people busy going, going, going.

It sort of caught my breath as I thought of all the people on all those planes with somewhere to go. Someone to meet. Someone to hug. Someone to give gifts to. Someone to sit down at the table with and eat a special meal with. Someone to visit.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and were in just the spot you wanted to be for Christmas Day!

The Church Family

Last night I had the privilege to sit in the congregation while our church choir performed the annual Christmas music program. I enjoyed the music. I enjoyed the Christmas sounds. I enjoyed seeing the children particpate and be adorable. I enjoyed seeing my son sing in the choir (and be so grown up).

BUT, mostly I just looked at a group of people that are dear to my heart. God continues to knit our lives together in this place, and that is so good. I prayed for each person on the stage last night. I thanked God for the blessing of knowing them all....my church family....a gift from God.

(I apologize for the quality of the pictures. It's hard to take a decent shot with dim lighting and spot lights in the middle of the performance.)

Sneaux Again!

Last year on December 1st I posted a blog about our Lousiana snow. Who could have guessed that I'd be able to post pictures of this year's Louisiana snow!?!

Sure enough, on Friday evening about 6 PM it started to snow here. The snowing lasted until about 10 PM, and the night stayed cold enough that there was snow covering the ground and roofs when we got up Saturday morning. On our way to church this morning there were still patches of snow to be seen on roofs and in shady, cool corners of yards!

This might be my favorite picture from the snow. It's our neighbor's house early in the morning as the sun was coming up. It is a rare sight to see the smoke coming from the chimney while the roof, trees, and yard are covered with a white blanket of snow.

Thanksgiving Update

The holiday season has begun! The blog posts will be slow coming as we head through the month of December and into the New Year, but check back when you can. You never know when a post will be up!

Before we get too far into December, I wanted to post our Thanksgiving pictures. You may be thinking you'll see a big turkey, a gravy boat, and the canned shaped cranberry sauce...well, not this year! On Thanksgiving Thursday we (my parents joined us) loaded up in the van and headed out on an adventure to visit places in Louisiana we haven't seen before. We ended up in Pecan Island, where we found a spot on the side of the road to pull over and eat our turkey sandwiches.




I hope your Thanksgiving was an enjoyable as ours!

Goodbye Global Wildlife

It's been a good week looking back at our visit to Global Wildlife. Who knew I would be able to make a WEEK's worth of blog posts out of a 1 1/2 hour trip on an animal feeding wagon!? Those of you that know me well, know I have a tendency to perseverate on something for a while, so you aren't surprised. (You also know that perseverate is one of my favorite and frequently-used words.)

Here are a pictures I have left from the visit.

Hope you have enjoyed the week here at Out My Back Door.

One of my favorite pictures from the day~

One Hump...Or Two?

Long Necks, Part II

Isn't this crazy!? All the animals just waiting for us to show up. In January our family made the trip to Animal Kingdom at Disney World. The safari ride there was alright, but my children declared that the trip to Global Wildlife was BETTER than Disney's safari. You KNOW it has to be good for them say that!

Long Necks, Part I

I have so many great pictures (in my opinion...plus they are my favorite animal to see) of the giraffes at Global Wildlife, I've decided to separate them into 2 blog posts...one today, one tomorrow. As I said while the giraffe was standing RIGHT in front of me eating out of my cup, "It seems all is right with the world when a giant giraffe is eating out of your hand." They are magnificently odd creatures with such stature.

Check out the giraffes gathering for some food~

(I called the bison a 'buffalo' in the video. Sorry Mr. Bison.)

Long Necks, Part II coming tomorrow!

Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open...

or with your tongue hanging out!

Having been to Global Wildlife once before, we knew what to expect when we got to the 'big cows'. (That is what we call them. We understand it isn't their proper name or scientific classification.) Even when you know what to expect, it's still hilarious to see the big cows come up to your cart, stretch their mouths out wide, and then stick those big tongues out. Evidently we are charmed enough by these strange antics that we fill our cups with feed and POUR it into their mouths.

Watch the pattern here...

Open mouth, stick out tongue.

Someone dumps food in the mouth.

Open mouth, stick out tongue.

Someone dumps food in the mouth.

If you don't have a very large tongue and 4 hooves, I don't think you should try this method of getting fed.

White With Black Stripes?

Or black with white stripes? You tell me!

We were told not to feed the zebras at Global Wildlife. Evidently they bite....hard. So we couldn't pet them or feed them by hand or by cup, but we threw the food down to the ground for them to eat 2 feet away from us. They are unreal creatures. So odd looking and fascinating.

Tomorrow....the 'big cows' are coming with their nasty, long tongues! Stay tuned.

A Louisiana Must-Do

http://globalwildlife.com/

Our family enjoyed a visit to the Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, Louisiana this past Saturday. The rest of this week I will post daily pictures from our animal trek. If you are in the area....it's a must-do!

Passengers ride on these long, open-windowed carts.

The animals KNOW that the passengers bring the food. You can buy a bucket full of food (enough for the 6 of us) to feed all the critters during your ride. Most of them eat out of the cups provided.

We just lean over and find just the animal to feed.

The picture below is from out the back of our carriage. We were in the last one, so the animals all followed as we went. I wonder if this is what Noah must've felt like as the animals began coming 2 by 2 to the ark...