Football, Chicken, and Gifts

  Gary and I had a fantastic weekend. It's always nice spending such great time with him.

     Friday night, we went to our gym. I finally convinced him to go.

It's been upgraded just a bit with newer features (a towel system so you don't have to bring your own towels, newer machines, etc) so it was a little more fun. Gary spent time in the weight area (behind the photo taker, so you can't see it) while I ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill at a pretty decent pace (over 2 miles). I noticed I run more miles when I'm running outside and couldn't figure out why I ran a shorter distance on the treadmill in that time. But then I read something about stride and it made more sense. I take bigger strides outside, therefore I cover more distance.

 Anyway, it was a good and excellent workout. Gary did about 20 minutes on the treadmill as well, so he got some cardio in, and I lifted some weights so I got some strength training it.

The next morning, Gary requested biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Okay, not the healthiest meal, but I used fat-free and wheat ingredients, so the meal was still under 500 calories per person; so better than the norm at least.

We spent the morning doing some chores, making the place look nice, making ourselves look nice, then headed out for some light shopping. For lunch, we headed over to try a new Sushi place called Mononoke.

Not only was the sushi delicious, it was insanely affordable. $2.99 for a regular roll and $5.99 for a special? Incredible. We ate a spicy tuna roll and some sort of beef roll.

After a light yet delicious lunch, we did a little more shopping at TJ Maxx where Gary was able to buy himself a nice carry-on from Hilfiger for his upcoming business trip. He'll be leaving me for a week by going to Houston. When he comes home, he'll be back for a day, then he'll head back out again to Costa Mesa for a few more days. He's definitely looking forward to it and I'm excited for him. He'll be going with a colleague who has experience traveling, so I know he'll have a good time.

A few more stores later, we decided we wanted to have a nice healthy dinner that evening. So, we stopped at our local Whole Foods Market and ordered a couple of fresh sandwiches from their deli department. We came home and began watching the 3rd season of Merlin (which we were so excited to realize the 3rd season was released). Merlin is a BBC show you can find on Netflix. It butchers the King Arthur story a bit, but the show is so awesome and revolves around the wizard Merlin. I totally recommend it.

One of the many discussions we had while we were out shopping revolved around football. Gary used to be a football fan and even played a bit in high school. He mentioned how he missed playing and was also kind enough to go over all the rules for me since I asked (football was never my sport). So, after a few Merlin episodes, we watched some football on TV, as well as played some football on the PS3. While we were out, we also purchased a football so we could go out and play more. It was quite fun. I think he's looking forward to getting into this football season thing, and I'm kind of excited to tag along.

We also had a fantastic day today. Church was wonderful and we enjoyed our Marriage and Family Relations class which just recently opened up for the 2nd hour (this is the 4th week I believe). It's so wonderful, nice, and always brings us closer together.

After church, we had a light lunch, then pulled out the special dinner we wanted to try out and prepare together. You see, when we were first married almost 5 years ago, one of the wedding gifts we received was a Baby George Foreman Roaster-rotisserie. However, we had never opened it nor used it and I always assumed rotisserie's were always for large-portion cooking. However, I decided a few days ago I wanted to try it out. Today was the day. I pulled it out of storage and the first thing I asked myself, seeing the features, was "why did I wait this long??" Silly me.

Anyway, we pulled out our thawed young chicken and got to work. Trussing, as I assumed was a very easy task, proved different. This was mostly because we couldn't find the cooking string. So, Gary tried dental floss at first and just couldn't get it because it was so thin and slippery; and he couldn't find satisfaction with his work. Luckily before we tried anything else I was able to find the cooking string. Much better. So, we tied that sucker up and I went to town with seasoning. I stuffed the inside (after taking out the gizzards, of course...not our thing) with garlic cloves and freshly squeezed lemon juice and decorated the outside with rosemary, thyme, crushed red peppers, and a little salt and pepper. I suppose I should put the recipe on the cooking blog, but that thing is so badly neglected. Anyway, here are some photos of our first time roasting a chicken.

Gary's first attempt with the floss.

After the  real tie down. We totally left the sticker on the front.

     We set the timer then headed out and walked to the Promenade park to play catch with the football. I wish I brought my camera-we had so much fun laughing at ourselves. Hey, I had a pretty good throw if I do say so myself.

    By the time we got back, the chicken was nearly done.

 We were actually impressed- it turned out fabulously. We were expecting some error our first time around, but there was none. The meat was fully cooked and juicy in every part and nothing was undercooked at all. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this rotisserie. For real.

 This is when we pulled out another wedding gift untouched- our electric carving knife. We unwrapped it and Gary did a marvelous job carving off the meat. A delicious and successful dinner indeed. Yes, we do have leftover chicken. We sealed it away and hope to use it in our meals throughout the week. Anyway, that was our new adventure.

In other quick news, we had a super-rainy couple of days here. It. was. cold! The rain wouldn't stop. I loved it. But hated the cold. But it was beautiful.

 Okay, so I suppose it's time to end this blog. Happy October everyone!