How do you know when you have tired out your kids? That is one very tired Dustin in the picture. You may also notice the happy face of ketchup he is holding. He decided he didn't want to eat his fries because that happy face is his friend. After a few tears I convinced Dustin that the reason the face was smiling was because he knew he was going to be eaten with some fries.
We had another long day spent between a couple different pools, a lazy river and the ocean. So far we have only had a couple melt downs, they usually mark the end of the day in the sun. Today we headed to a movie to get away from the sun. Atlantis has a theatre that is free for guests so we went and saw Puss in Boots. We started to wander back looking for the pizza place that was supposed to be close. When we couldn't find it we headed into Johnny Rockets for supper, that is where the ketchup face made friends with Dustin. Ended the evening picking up some food to make lunch and got back here to put the kids to bed. I think they were out within 5 minutes. Now it is time for us to relax and watch a movie on the iPad.
Monday, 19 March 2012
Sunday, 18 March 2012
A quick lesson in shopping on Paradise Island
I decided to run out and get something for Steph and I to drink while we took a break from the sun this afternoon. A trip into the liquor store was great. Pop is 80 cents, a beer is $2 for a can and a 375ml bottle of rum is $4.30. I believe I may drink more rum this week! Of course what goes good with some drinks, a bag of snack mix. I went to the corner store and grabbed a 260g bag and headed to the till. I was a little shocked to find out that bag of mix was $6.40. We will not be having anymore of those this week!
Day 1 at Atlantis
Some quick stories from our trip so far.
Arrived yesterday and the kids were excited to see everything. We decided to head to Atlantis before supper to try and get our bearings. After wandering for a while, that place is huge, we decided to head down to the ocean to show the kids the sand and water. We kicked off our sandals and walked close enough to get our feet wet in the waves. Dustin and Logan were both a little sad that we couldn't get to the pool but were very happy to get their feet wet. So happy in fact that Dustin got a little close and got knocked down by a wave. You would think he would be upset but instead he was laughing like a madman. Logan was next to hit the sand/water and then Dustin decided to just sit down as the next wave came in. Of course we were trying to get them out of the path of the waves but they were both having way too much fun. So now we had two soaking wet kids covered in sand. I told Dustin he looked like a breaded pork chop, he failed to see the humor in in that. All we had to do was walk back through this huge hotel with two soaking wet kids, good thing we didn't have towels and the air conditioning is cranked in the hotel. did I mention we are staying a block away from Atlantis as well? Needless to say they were cold by the time we got back to the room. I thru them both in the shower, right around the same time everyone else in the hotel was getting ready for supper. After ten minutes of cold water they were sand free. We did finally get to a restaurant and get some supper during which Steph and I had some rum and realized the whole thing was kind of funny.
Today was a full day in the pools, we had some fun on a couple small water slides and took a couple trips through the lazy river. Unfortunately the kids are under 48" so that limits the slides we can go on. E spent some time in the kids area where they have a play structure in a shallow pool. They have a bunch of pipes with leaks as well as some that have valves so you can control the flow. Dustin took great glee in trying to spray the adults who were walking around. Each time he would get someone we would here this evil giggle followed by an emphatic "HaHaaaa" Lucky for us he didn't have enough range to get the ladies that were walking around in there with their fancy DSLR cameras.
We also wandered through the aquarium and checked out all the marine animals. We saw giant mantra rays, sharks, stingrays, eagle rays, turtles...too many sea creatures to mention. Tomorrow will be another full day in the pools I'm sure. Kids are finally relaxing in the bed next to us as I write this. I'm surprised they made it to 8:30 at night after getting up at 7am. That was a bit of a kick in the butt for us, I don't think our bodies were ready for 7am since that is 5 am our time. Oh well, rather get time in the sun rather than sleep in the room.
We'll try to update this again tomorrow, no promises.
Darren, Steph, Logan and Dustin
Arrived yesterday and the kids were excited to see everything. We decided to head to Atlantis before supper to try and get our bearings. After wandering for a while, that place is huge, we decided to head down to the ocean to show the kids the sand and water. We kicked off our sandals and walked close enough to get our feet wet in the waves. Dustin and Logan were both a little sad that we couldn't get to the pool but were very happy to get their feet wet. So happy in fact that Dustin got a little close and got knocked down by a wave. You would think he would be upset but instead he was laughing like a madman. Logan was next to hit the sand/water and then Dustin decided to just sit down as the next wave came in. Of course we were trying to get them out of the path of the waves but they were both having way too much fun. So now we had two soaking wet kids covered in sand. I told Dustin he looked like a breaded pork chop, he failed to see the humor in in that. All we had to do was walk back through this huge hotel with two soaking wet kids, good thing we didn't have towels and the air conditioning is cranked in the hotel. did I mention we are staying a block away from Atlantis as well? Needless to say they were cold by the time we got back to the room. I thru them both in the shower, right around the same time everyone else in the hotel was getting ready for supper. After ten minutes of cold water they were sand free. We did finally get to a restaurant and get some supper during which Steph and I had some rum and realized the whole thing was kind of funny.
Today was a full day in the pools, we had some fun on a couple small water slides and took a couple trips through the lazy river. Unfortunately the kids are under 48" so that limits the slides we can go on. E spent some time in the kids area where they have a play structure in a shallow pool. They have a bunch of pipes with leaks as well as some that have valves so you can control the flow. Dustin took great glee in trying to spray the adults who were walking around. Each time he would get someone we would here this evil giggle followed by an emphatic "HaHaaaa" Lucky for us he didn't have enough range to get the ladies that were walking around in there with their fancy DSLR cameras.
We also wandered through the aquarium and checked out all the marine animals. We saw giant mantra rays, sharks, stingrays, eagle rays, turtles...too many sea creatures to mention. Tomorrow will be another full day in the pools I'm sure. Kids are finally relaxing in the bed next to us as I write this. I'm surprised they made it to 8:30 at night after getting up at 7am. That was a bit of a kick in the butt for us, I don't think our bodies were ready for 7am since that is 5 am our time. Oh well, rather get time in the sun rather than sleep in the room.
We'll try to update this again tomorrow, no promises.
Darren, Steph, Logan and Dustin
Monday, 23 May 2011
A BBQ Post - Smoked Chicken
So I didn't take long to decide what to post first. I was looking through the fridge and I ran into the smoked chicken that I did on Saturday and I figured I might as well start there.
A little preface to the story first may be in order. A few years ago my wife and I went out to Kelowna for Thanksgiving. While enjoying the wineries and all the samples I ran across a barbecue cook book in the gift shop at Mission HIll. After looking at the intro I decided to pick up Barbecue Secrets and take it home. I initially thought that I would find some great recipes to do on my gas barbecue and maybe some hints for cooking in general. I did find that but I also found a bunch of recipes that called for the slow and low approach on a charcoal smoker. By the spring I had read enough of these to convince myself to take the plunge and by a smoker! I'm now seven seasons in and my barbecue book collection has grown and I even managed to take a workshop from the author of the first book to add to my knowledge.
With all that said here is a post about the chicken that I cooked on Saturday.
Above are the chickens butterflied and ready to go on the smoker. I have coated them with mustard and a rub and that I made up from the Barbecue Secrets book. For those that are interested here is the recipe. I can't honestly remember what I used for signature spices in this rub but I think it was cayenne, curry and oregano.
I loaded up the smoker with some Kingsford charcoal and put in a couple of chunks of hickory and a handful of applewood chips. Since the chickens are a "quick" I only put in two layers of charcoal. After using a starter chimney to get the coals going I dumped them in and loaded up the chickens.
This photos was about an hour into the cook. I highly recommend taking advantage of smoking a meal to get a few other items on the grill that can be used later. In this case I didn't plan far enough ahead but in the past I have added a tray of kosher salt, whole raw onions, heads of garlic, and even tomatoes. Things like garlic and salt can be used later to add flavour to other meals that you would like a smoke flavour in. The onions I used to make onion soup and the tomatoes are awesome in guacamole!
Six hours later the chickens had reached temperature and were ready to eat. One of the things I enjoy with chicken like this is the flavour and how moist the meat is. Only drawback is that skin looks great but has the texture of rubber because of the low heat used in the smoker.
This isn't the most detailed post on the process. If you want all the details on cooking the Virtual Weber Bullet site is an awesome resource as well. That is all for now, time to get back to lunch for the family!
Later,
Darren
A little preface to the story first may be in order. A few years ago my wife and I went out to Kelowna for Thanksgiving. While enjoying the wineries and all the samples I ran across a barbecue cook book in the gift shop at Mission HIll. After looking at the intro I decided to pick up Barbecue Secrets and take it home. I initially thought that I would find some great recipes to do on my gas barbecue and maybe some hints for cooking in general. I did find that but I also found a bunch of recipes that called for the slow and low approach on a charcoal smoker. By the spring I had read enough of these to convince myself to take the plunge and by a smoker! I'm now seven seasons in and my barbecue book collection has grown and I even managed to take a workshop from the author of the first book to add to my knowledge.
With all that said here is a post about the chicken that I cooked on Saturday.
This isn't the most detailed post on the process. If you want all the details on cooking the Virtual Weber Bullet site is an awesome resource as well. That is all for now, time to get back to lunch for the family!
Later,
Darren
First Post
Just so everyone knows, I don't know where this blog is going. So why am I blogging? Every once in a while I do get an idea about something that I think may be a good blog topic. It ranges from sports to my kids to work to BBQ. Who is going to read this? I don't know! I'll be interested to see who visits and I do hope that people leave comments. Hope you enjoy reading!
Darren
Darren
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