reboot.

This blog has fallen by the wayside.  There have been a lot of changes in this family over the past six months and we are finally starting to get back into a routine.  In an effort to shake off the old and restart, I've decided on a new name for the blog.  I had this long post about why it was first called "Just Makin' It," but I never posted it.  Maybe one day I'll share. However, I don't want to be contained into writing about only things we make - I want to feel the freedom to share other things on my heart.  So, hopefully I'll be "just sayin'..." a lot in the time to come. 

Perfection Does Not Come From Restaurants

Building the Perfect Buffalo Wings

When I was little the only football team that I could watch was the Atlanta Falcons. However, I never became a fan of them because they always lost when they were supposed to be good. This was supposed to be the year for them and they were seeded No. 1 in the NFC Playoffs. I mistakenly bought into the hype for one night and decided that we should do Buffalo Wings, Chicken Fingers, and French Fries.  I will not give an account of the game. I will spare all of you the wasted reading and attempt to teach you the secret to our awesome Buffalo Wings.

Step One: You will need a  two paper grocery bags, flour, black pepper, cayenne pepper, kosher salt, and 12 whole chicken wings that have been separated.

 Step Two: You need to take one cup of flour, one teaspoon of both peppers, and one teaspoon of kosher salt. Place them in the grocery bags and shake up and down. This is of course after you have cut the wing tips off and properly cut them.  

They should not look like this. The little pointy ends of the wings should have been cut off but I got in a hurry.

Step Three: You will need to take the wings out of the bag and place them on a cooling rack with a sheet of wax paper underneath it so you don't get flour all over the counter. They will need to sit out for an hour.

Step Four: Go ahead, grab your package of Hidden Valley Ranch Mix and make it so it can chill in the refrigerator.

Step Five: Let the wings dry out for about an hour; meanwhile, heat up the peanut Oil and get the wings ready to fry. The temperature should be around 335 degrees and not any higher. Drop the wings into the fryer and wait for them to turn golden brown. While the wings are cooking quickly take a cup of Franks Hot Sauce (Original) and one stick of butter and place them in a sauce pan until the butter is melted and the sauce begins to simmer.  Add a teaspoon of lemon juice and a teaspoon of dried basil. 

Step Six: Pull the wings out of the fryer and place them in a bowl. After they are in the bowl cover them with the sauce and dig right in. Your ranch dressing should be cool and ready to serve. Don't forget it for the faint of heart when it comes to eating Buffalo Wings. 

Enjoy all the yummy goodness you are about to receive.

Happy eating.

Recipe by Sunny Anderson.

Book Review #1 - Tandem, by Tracey Bateman

Yay!  A book review!  In our house, we love to read.  In fact, if you've seen some of our previous posts regarding (ahem!) some new bookshelves or if you've been to my house, you know we have too many books for the space we have.  We even check books out of the library to minimize what we have, but nevertheless, we have a lot of books.  So, because of my love for reading here we are....a book review!

Have you enjoyed any of the recent vampire fiction available?  To be honest, I love good books.  Books that inspire and fictional works that are also social commentary.  I love for my thoughts and opinions to be challenged and to come away from a book with something.  Also, I don't like reading things out of my comfort zone...I know, I know.  But I just don't read things about paranormal things. And vampires are paranormal and vampire fiction is definitely out of my comfort zone.  As soon as I realized (as I was reading) that this book had several vampires as main characters, I was curious as to how these characters would be woven into a Christian novel.  So I begin as both a book reviewer and vampire fiction neophyte.  And since this is my first, I'm going to structure it into a few parts for my own sake.  I'll give a quick synopsis of the story and then, what I thought was good and what was bad about it.  And then a few finishing comments.  Sound good?

Tandem, by Missouri author Tracey Bateman, is a departure from the traditional Christian fiction I have previously read.   There are two strong female characters introduced to the reader, Amede and Lauryn.  The reader is taken through the story from their perspectives alternately.  Lauryn McBride is a young woman struggling to find peace in her life as she is busy taking care of her ailing father and run their family estate management and auction business, McBride Auctions.  Her father has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and is rapidly declining, leaving Lauryn to sort through the estate of the mysterious Markus Chisom on her own.  Markus was a mysterious character to many of the people in the small town of Abbey Hills and his Victorian home is being auctioned off by McBride Auctions following his fiery death.

Many of the spine-tingling and intense moments of the book take place at the unnerving Chisom home as Lauryn is sorting through the owner's belongings alone.  Lauryn has a unique relationship with one of the local deputies and childhood friend, Charley.  Lauryn and Charley depend on each other for friendship as they both deal with tragedies in their lives.  Lauryn clearly struggles with her family relationship shift as a result of her dad's illness and Charley needs a friend after his sister was mysteriously and viciously murdered the previous year.  Lauryn is thrown off-kilter when childhood flame, Billy returns to town. Lauryn is the catalyst for bringing the other main character, Amede, to Abbey Hills.