Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Museums, Chicken and Crowns

What do museums, chickens and crowns all have in common?  They filled my day from morning till night.  Let me explain.


MUSEUMS
Even though we've lived here for over seven years, today was my first trip to the Seattle Art Museum.  I think I mentioned before that I have a severe aversion to the city.  I get sweaty palms just thinking about the traffic, the parking, the maze of one-way streets.  Ay, ay, ay....

But we made it to SAM this morning, despite the rain and wind, and we had a great tour! The Hammering Man out front of the museum is a local icon.   He's been swinging that hammer non stop for years!
We were able to meet up with friends.

A series of cars suspended from the ceiling tell the story of a car rolling and exploding.  Cool.

And unfortunately, they don't let you take pictures of the exclusive exhibits.  But we got to see Rembrandt  Van Dyck and  Gainsborough paintings.  I asked my 7yo what her favorite painting was and to my surprise she said it was this oneby Gainsborough:

The one in the museum was extremely large.  I'd like to think that's what enthralled her so....??

Then there was a workshop on creating portraits.  The girls loved it.  My boy....not so much.  I told you, he's hard to engage when it comes to art. It's not his thing.



They had some very cool crayons that act like watercolors when you get them wet.  I promised myself to buy some for the kids.



CHICKEN
So from there I went to pick up my Zaycon chicken order.  Every year or so I get my year supply of boneless, skinless chicken breasts from Zaycon.  If you live in the northwest, I bet Zaycon has a drop location near you.  You can check their site to see where they deliver.  It's supposed to be antibiotic and hormone free, but not officially organic.

The chicken comes in 40 lb boxes.  I trim, separate and individually wrap the breasts before placing them in freezer bags. This makes it so easy to get just enough chicken out of the freezer to prepare a meal.  I also pressure can quite a bit of it.  Today I canned 12 pints of chicken.  That should last me a while!  I love using my canned chicken for a quick dinner of chicken tacos, chicken pot pie, tortilla soup, or a cold chicken salad.  So convenient. And I love knowing there are no preservatives or additives in my food. It is just chicken and 1/4 tsp. of salt.
You can see that most of my jars are topped with white lids.  Have you ever tried canning with Tattler Reusable canning lids?  I've been using them for a couple years now.  I really like them!  They are BPA free, which cannot be said of standard canning jar lids. And the fact that they are reusable means less trash to the curb.  I like not having to purchase lids OVER and over again.  Bonus.  I do recommend them, but I have to give you one tip first: The directions say to only gently close the rings on them.  Doing this led to a slightly higher incidence of unsealed jars coming out of my canner.   When I started using the same pressure and amount of tightening that I always used with standard lids, I got better results.  
Check them out!  


CROWNS
Ok, I went directly from canning my chicken to the dentist where I finally had my temporary crown removed and a permanent one put in. Sorry...no pictures of this lovely event.  Let's just say I'm glad it's over and I can't wait to have feeling back in my lips.  

It was a good day. But I'll be glad when it's all over. :)

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