Alone With A Fully-Cooked Chicken

I did something yesterday that I'm not planning on doing again for long time. I cooked a whole chicken. It was disgusting. I really hate cooking meat and seeing organs makes me gag. I have been wanting to cook homemade chicken and noodles though and I've had a couple of people tell me how they do it so I thought I would give it a try. I debated about buying a whole chicken because I know how I am about meat. But I went ahead and bought one and then I left it in the fridge for four days because I was scared of it. (I really didn't want to see what was inside of it.) On Wednesday after school our 16 year old babysitter/friend Calli came over to go to church with us. She was telling me how great her chicken and noodles had turned out earlier in the week and made the chicken cooking thing out to be no big deal. This was from the girl who used to have a pet chicken. I decided to make her my official chicken cooker. She agreed. She took the chicken out of the IGA bag and put it in the crockpot for me. This was at around 4 o'clock. We decided to let it cook until about 8 o'clock and then after church she would deal with the bones and "other stuff". It would still be homemade in my kitchen, I just wasn't necessarily the one doing the dirty work. So far, so good. But then something came up and she ended up not coming back to my house after church. So there I was, alone with a fully cooked whole chicken in my kitchen.

I seriously considered dumping the whole thing in the trash and being done with it. (Remember, I really didn't want to see what was inside.) I gave myself a pep talk, got out two bowls (one for good meat, one for "other stuff"), some forks, a big spoon, and a canister of bleach wipes. I managed to not actually touch any meat in the course of the dissection. I shredded the super tender meat easily and threw away a lot of "other stuff". I gagged three times. I managed to not throw up. It was nasty. There were a lot of organs and bones and other ugly parts of the chicken that I did not wish to see. I managed to get a lot of good meat and broth out of the crockpot and threw away a lot of nastiness. I put the good stuff in the refrigerator and then today I took it out, put in back into a clean crockpot, along with a bag of Amish homemade noodles. It is cooking now and it better be worth all of the trouble. It's still homemade even if the Amish made it in their home, right? Maybe one day I'll figure out how to do my own noodles, but I think I might have to buy the broth next time and just use some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. That's more my style.  I am so thankful that I was born in the 1970s and not the 1870s.  How on Earth did those poor women of the past cook up all different kinds of animals and still manage to eat it?  I suppose if my life depended on it I would be able to do that too but ewww! 



I hadn't gotten a chance to tell you about our Easter yet...

We had a great Easter this year.  It was a little cold and chilly but we still had a nice day.  The girls both looked pretty in their Easter dresses.  We had to find some little sweaters to wear over them but that was okay.  The girls both got new swimsuits, beach towels, Play-Doh, and Crocs in their Easter baskets.  They were both very happy with that. 

Totally fake smile here.

Checking out her presents...

"Seriously?  Another picture?"

Looking pretty in the first Easter dress that she picked out by herself.

She's had enough of the camera...

We had a great breakfast and services at church.  Then we headed home, changed clothes, relaxed for just a bit, got our four dozen deviled eggs and headed to my Uncle Randy and Aunt Janet's house for a meal and Easter Egg Hunt.  The meal was delicious and it was fun to hang out with my family for awhile.  After we ate we had an indoor egg hunt in Randy's big shed.  It was great because it was raining, cold, and super muddy outside.  The girls found lots of eggs and won some super prizes.  Maleah found one egg with $40 in it.  She walked away with over $60 in cash, $5 in McDonald's money, and $10 in Dairy Queen dollars.  She also won a kite, a stuffed bunny, a fishing pole and tackle, bubbles, tons of candy, and other stuff I can't remember.  Carissa won around $20 in cash, $5 in Dairy Queen dollars, a stuffed bunny, an Elmo blanket that she adores, bubbles, and several other things.  I was amazed at all they walked away with.   I think I would like to hunt eggs myself next year.

Carissa got into some of her sister's Hello Kitty stickers the other day.  This is what she did with them:

Little Carissa has also not been wanting to keep her clothes on.  She wants to be "nakey" all the time.  But who says you need pants to roller skate?

Here's a cute one of Maleah Rose without her teeth (still!):

Maleah has about two and a half weeks of school left and she is getting super excited about summer vacation.  She is going to be hard to entertain for three months but I think she will enjoy it.  She is planning on taking swim lessons for sure and I am currently trying to come up with other ideas to keep her busy.  If anybody has any great ideas let me know...

There isn't much else going on around here.  I'll let you know how the chicken and noodles turned out...