Brandi & Luke

This Friday was a long time coming. In August, for our first anniversary, Luke being the sweet guy he is surprised me with two tickets for Disney on Ice. Luke’s fabulously thoughtful present combined, what he knew to be, two of my favorite things (1) Walt Disney World and (2) Surprises!!!! (The other part of the present was a blind date, meaning that I had NO IDEA where we were going… we went to Ruth’s Chris and the waitress knew it was our anniversary and treated me like a queen)

Anyhow, Disney on Ice was extremely worth the two-ish month wait. Luke and I were all smiles and laughter from the very second we arrived at the Van Buren Center and the excitement increased with the passing of each and every souvenir table. There were caramel apples, lemonade, Mickey hats, Stitch drinking cups, and Flounder hat popcorn… and this was just the hallway around the ice. The show was amazing combining lights, music, ice capades, and creative props that moved around the ice to create a mood and setting for each sequence.

It was all hosted by Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy as they took us around the globe on one big vacation adventure. We visited a little girl named Lilo on the island of Hawaii. Of course, we all know the story of Lilo who is being raised by her older sister and her experiences with the pet from another planet. Other vacation stops was a tense, teenage moment under the sea with Ariel, King Titan, the Prince Eric and an Evil Octopus. Peter Pan, the flying boy who never ages and his selfish desire to keep three very-Brady type siblings in his land of Neverland. The whole show began with a very impressive reproduction of the Lion King both baby Simba and Man Simba.

On Saturday, we hit Monte Sano with our bikes. Actually, the whole day was our version of “The Perfect Day”. I woke up around 6 a.m. and did an hour of yoga while Luke fiddled on the computer and sporadically made fun of the yoga mantras… ok, yeah, yeah some of them are pretty corny. Then we headed out to try a new coffee shop on Hughes and Atlanta Bread’s cinnamon rolls. By this time, about 9a.m., we headed back to the house to pack up our bikes and water packs and head to the mountain.  Earlier that week, Luke let it slip that he always had to wait on me when we ride bikes because I don’t like to take the rocks fast… OH NO You Don’t…  Girls, do you understand how this might prompt me to declare WAR!!!  With a 12 oz. caramel macchiato in my system, I set out to prove him wrong. At the end of the day, he was very impressed. I took the lead several times, pushing my bike over only the roughest of spots. There was no way I was going be the “girl” of the trip! =)

That night, he stayed in the kitchen with me, and together we re-created Alton Brown’s version of 40 Garlic Chicken. I’m copying the recipe underneath this paragraph because it is sooo good. I have never been a huge garlic eater. I’ll mince a little in a chicken dish but never made it the center of my culinary arts. However, when you cook the garlic clove (you leave the pod whole) for this long, it becomes really sweet. Once, it the dish is finished, you take the garlic and spread it on a piece of toasted french bread and have instant garlic bread! Luke loved it!! (By the way, for a 12 oz. chicken breast, I only used about 15-20 garlic cloves)

For more pictures, look under 2008, Monte Sano Park.

40 Cloves and a Chicken

Prep Time:

10 min

Cook Time:

1 hr 30 min

Serves:

6 servings

1 whole chicken (broiler/fryer) cut into 8 pieces ***I used chicken breast***
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
10 sprigs fresh thyme
40 peeled cloves garlic
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Toss with a 2 tablespoons olive oil and brown on both sides in a wide fry pan or skillet over high heat. Remove from heat, add oil, thyme, and garlic cloves. Cover and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

Remove chicken from the oven, let rest for 5 to 10 minutes, carve, and serve.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 4:02 pm and is filed under All. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.