Popcorn Chicken

Yesterday I decided to make popcorn chicken.  I do not make it very often anymore; it is quite messy and tricky to do but it’s the meal that Roderick asked for the most.  When the kids were in elementary I would make extra and send it with them to school, I warmed it up in the morning so it wasn’t fridge cold and it was easy finger food for lunch with no sugar.

Cinnamon buns? YAY Sugar!!

One day as I walked by Roderick’s classroom and stopped to check if he was ready at the end of the day in grade six, the popcorn chicken came up. I’m not sure how it started but I think one of Roderick’s classmates made a comment about how good my popcorn chicken was, and another classmate walking by, heard it and said “Oh your popcorn chicken is the best?” in no time, I was surrounded by about five or six classmates oohing over my popcorn chicken and I looked puzzled, “how do you all know what my popcorn chicken is like?” The teacher stepped out and asked, “how come do I not know about this popcorn chicken?”

YAY Candy!

Roderick had a craving for sugar, everyone who knows him knows that, and in elementary we were trying to limit his sugar to try and keep his energy level down in the classroom but that afternoon his classmates told me they would trade treats like chocolate bars for Roderick’s popcorn chicken and whoever brought the best treats could get his popcorn chicken. There goes my plan of a nice sugarless treat.

notice the date
2 weeks before he
left for heaven

During the last months of his life he would text me from school saying, “Jazz is coming over can you make popcorn chicken?” and I couldn’t say no to that request so I would drop what I was doing, quickly thaw some chicken and make popcorn chicken for supper, so you can see why I will never again make popcorn chicken without remembering Roderick. 

It is interesting how it all started, or maybe it is not but I will tell you anyway, back when KFC came out with their popcorn chicken our kids loved it. As you can see mine looks more like popcorn then KFC’s does, just saying… When our layers are old and the flock is done producing eggs we get almost nothing for them because at that age the meat is not nearly tender enough for us Canadians so I would find ways to tenderize it and use it which would greatly reduce our grocery bill, meat being so expensive. Our hens have a lot of breast meat, one hen gives me 2.5 to 3 lbs of boneless chicken breast. Anyway, I figured out my own version of popcorn chicken and found I could make delicious popcorn chicken out of that chicken breast, but before you ask me for the recipe, I have none. I just know in my head what ingredients I throw together to make it.

The Ik should be
the last text

Here is my popcorn chicken story that I did not even know I had until yesterday when I made popcorn chicken and all these memories came flooding back to me. I even went on my phone and searched Roderick’s name on my text message app to check for those texts. His texts are still there four and a half years after he left, although some of them are not in the right order, as you can see in the screen shot it will sometimes place the response before the initial text.

If you are new to this blog and wonder what happened to our boys you can find it in the post titled Our Story, on the web version it is featured on the right side of the screen.

Another First?

 

In the beginning of September, we celebrated Angeline’s 17^th birthday. It was the first time she, our youngest child, celebrated a birthday that we had not celebrated with either of the boys. Neither of them made it to 17 with us but Roderick made it just past 16.  Those firsts are beginning to be rare, well maybe not though if we consider this a first then almost everything that Angeline will experience from now on, graduation etc. will be a first so maybe this wouldn’t really be considered a first but it meant something all the same.

Last Easter I made a small pillow to put in the Easter Basket for Angeline. I sewed three small bunnies on it; a red and blue one with a gold one in between. We all knew that red is for Roderick and blue is for Tyler but I'm not so sure about Angeline's colour. Jake and I decided gold was perfect for Angeline. She can be so funny, adventurous, chatty, curious, and boy does she have an imagination, it's incredible the things she can imagine up, if that's even a term, but these to most people are hidden treasures like gold that you have to find or dig for, usually she keeps that treasure locked and hidden in a box, but at home she opens it up and we so enjoy those treasures. Every once in a while she will open it up elsewhere but mostly she keeps those locked away while displaying only her sensitive, quiet, kind, composed and beautiful self. One day she will leave that treasure chest open for all to see, and throw away the key. 

We went camping to Kakabeka Falls for her birthday. I did not know we had such a beautiful big waterfall so close by. The campground there was beautiful as well. We did not tell Angeline where we were going so when she got the first glimpse of the water fall her face lit up “A Waterfall?” she exclaimed. She had only once before been to a small waterfall close up in Hawaii.  We decided that would be a place we would like to go back to sometime in the future.

There is this three-kilometre hike that the people used years ago to portage around the waterfall. At the end of this hike is another small waterfall in the trees, we spent a lot of time on this hike and took many photos. While hiking I kept thinking what it would be like if Roderick were there, how many times would he climb the fence, how many times would he walk to close to the sharp drops and how scary would that be, but then, before he left I wasn't nearly as fearful as I am now. What would he even be like at 20, how different are 20 year olds from 16 year olds? It was a bit chilly in the evening but we had a beautiful day to hike. It rained the day we arrived but stopped before we got there and rained the last night as well, but it was a good trip.

                                               

     

We have done quite a bit of camping this summer, more then we’ve gone before and five out of the six times we went to campgrounds and parks we hadn’t been to before. I enjoy these relaxing weekends in nature. Twice Angeline didn't go with us so that was another first this summer, leaving her at home by herself overnight. That's not the easiest thing to do, anxiety wants to rear its ugly head but it is a joy to see her grow up and become independent and she sure doesn't mind it. 

If you are new to this blog and wonder what happened to our boys you can find it in the post titled Our Story, on the web version it is featured on the right side of the screen.