Tag: BBQ

A Regular Ol’ Southern Meal

6 Comments

Hey friends! I don’t know about you, but hot, summer weather just screams BBQ to me. Since I have yet to buy a grill, I thought of other ways I could achieve the feel of a summer BBQ meal. Enter: pulled chicken. After 7 summers working at Shaw’s Ridge Farm with some of my favorite people (Meredith, included!), I’ve developed a very soft spot in my heart for all things BBQ: pulled chicken, pulled pork, ribs, baked beans, coleslaw… you get the idea. On Sunday, since the weather was so hot, I decided to put my Shaw’s Ridge BBQ Barn skills to use and make myself a Southern Meal!

I found this recipe over at Eat Live Run and have made it a bunch of times. Every time, without fail, we all rave about about how GOOD it is. And, my favorite part about this recipe is that it is really easy. Although it is technically a crock pot meal, every time I’ve made it I do it on the stove and let it simmer for an hour or so and I think it’s probably just as good!

I copied Jenna’s recipe exactly, except I added 1/2 cup minced onions and I did not cook it in a crock pot.

BBQ Pulled Chicken- recipe from Eat, Live, Run

Serves 4-6

  • 1 and 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (dark meat has the most flavor!)
  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped onions
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1 T Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 T Apple cider vinegar
  • 1 T yellow mustard
  • 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp garlic salt

IMG_4164

1. Chop onions and cook until they are clear. Add in the remainder of the ingredients (ketchup through garlic salt) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let the sauce simmer for an hour or two, depending on how much time you have!

IMG_4165

2. While your sauce is simmering, cook your chicken. Normally, I would boil it or bake it, but the pot was dirty and it was REALLY hot, so I cooked it in a pan. When it was cooked through I removed it from the pan, let it cool and then shredded it.

3. When the sauce had thickened and reduced, I added in the shredded chicken and stirred to combine everything.

IMG_4167

I served my BBQ pulled chicken with baked beans, rice and corn on the cob; the only thing missing was coleslaw. Next time!

IMG_4170

This meal totally hit the spot for a hot, summer night and I am already looking forward to leftovers! I bought some wraps so I may make a BBQ pulled chicken quesadilla or wrap later in the week.

Questions for you: Do you prefer pulled chicken or pulled pork? Do you make your own BBQ sauce or buy it?

Pampered Chef Party in NH, Apartment Hunting, Poolside, Lakeside

6 Comments

Hey there! I am currently en route to NYC for a quick work trip (I’ll be back tonight). How is your Tuesday looking?

Last Friday night, I got together with most of my St. Michael’s girls at our friend Nikia’s new house in New Hampshire. She and her boyfriend recently bought a brand new home in the country and WOW was it beautiful. Seriously, I couldn’t even believe it! I am so proud of all that they have done to make it “theirs”.

IMG_4019

IMG_4020

We got together both to see the house and to attend a Pampered Chef party. Has anyone been to one of those parties? I love Pampered Chef kitchen stuff SO much. You’ve seen the stones on my blog quite often.

IMG_4022

The host created these delicious, healthy pepper strips that were a huge hit. They were so easy, too. She combined some ingredients, mixed them with a Pampered Chef seasoning, placed a scoop on each pepper strip and baked for 7 minutes.

IMG_4023

IMG_4024

I ordered a few things, but told the host to get in contact with me in Sept/Oct so I could host a party at my new place!

It’s always a fun time getting together with my SMC girls, but we missed you Kelly and Jessi! These girls are my rock- seriously we all just “get” each other, even though we are all pretty different. That’s what makes it so fun, though!

IMG_4026

Thanks for an awesome party, Kia!

On Saturday, I woke up, packed up and headed out to see an apartment at 9 before teaching my 10am kickboxing class. Even though the apartment is a basement level, I really liked it! The ground goes at an angle so the back of the apartment is not underground at all and there is a door from the bedroom that leads out to a back patio. Everything has been recently renovated and the landlord is awesome. I have a few questions, but I think I might take it- eeek!!

IMG_4030

IMG_4031

After my class, I headed north and met mom and Danielle at the Mahoney’s pool. Pure bliss, if you ask me!

IMG_4034

Mom had a whole cooler full of goodies, which I quickly dug into when I got there since I was starving!

IMG_4035

Shortly after we finished, the other Jean and Colleen and Emma showed up! Look how stinkin’ cute she is in her little bathing suit!

IMG_4042

We even brought her in the pool. She was loving the water and splashing her hands around!

IMG_4041

We left there around 4 so we could head over to Sara’s house on the lake to get some Zeke snuggle time. Boy are we lucky to have so many friends with access to water!

IMG_4049

Zeke gets cuter and cuter every time I see him!!! And he is so GOOD. Literally just sleeps and eats… barely ever cries.

IMG_4045 IMG_4052

Sara looks phenomenal. Seriously. A beaming mom for sure! I got my mommy multitasking practice in

IMG_4048

Haha. It’s easier than you may think 😉

We took the boat out for a nice stroll before heading home.

IMG_4056

Dad had hamburgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob ready for us upon our arrival. How’s that for fantastic service? Per usual, we had a blast laughing and joking and drinking wine!

Questions for you: Ever been to a Pampered Chef party? What’s your favorite kitchen tool? Do you prefer a pool or the lake?

Memorial Day Weekend at the Gagnon’s

9 Comments

Hey everyone! Who else is feeling a little bit of a let down after the long weekend? I was so happy the sun finally decided to come out yesterday, but where was it the rest of the weekend?! Thankfully, we had loads of fun inside and really didn’t notice the gross weather too much. Since my weekend in Maine was filled with so many fun things, let’s get right to recapping them!

Saturday

Danielle and I met mom in Springvale for lunch at the Springvale Publick House (clearly, we love that place). Dad dropped mom off and took Chuck home so he didn’t have to sit around in the crate for any longer than necessary. After lunch, we grabbed Dairy Queen and puttered around Ocean State Job lot and the Dollar Tree and decided to grab margarita’s at Fresco Mexican Grill. Holy Yum! I had the Pineapple Mango Sage infused margarita with dry ice- such a fun afternoon treat!

014 013

After drinks, we came home and got going on our homemade pizza on the grill night! Dad made his homemade dough and we split it into 6 pieces so that we could have lots of mini pizzas. I made a caramalized onion, zucchini and fresh mozzarella cheese and I think it was the best out of all of them!

019 025

We had such a fun night filled with lots of laughs, good food and wine (duh!).

Sunday

Since we were going to 11am mass, we had plenty of time to hang around and relax when we got up on Sunday. And, with rainy/gross weather, being lazy was totally ok. After church, we all went to Lowe’s and Wal-Mart to get plants and whatnot. By the time we got home, I was STARVING and couldn’t wait to dig into the left-over pizza! Late afternoon, before our BBQ, mom, Danielle and I went for a 1/2 hour walk which felt great!

Sunday night, we hosted a Memorial Day BBQ for our close family friends. There ended up being 15 adults and 2 babies! So fun!

003

005

My mom obviously has lots of friends, but she has 2 best friends that she is always with: Jean and Jeanne, aka “The Jeans”. One cannot do something without the other two, so it is no surprise that when the Jean’s went shopping earlier in the weekend, they had to get mom a matching shirt!

007

It was an extra special party because Matt and Courtney came and brought their new baby boy, Alexander! What’s really neat, is that they are letting people choose their own nickname for him: Alex, Xander, Al (although, I wouldn’t call him Al since that’s what my dad’s name is and that would be weird).

010 011

And no Maine post is complete without a picture of one of our favorite babies… Emma Jean! She is getting SO big and is so much fun.

012 014

Sara, as you remember, is so very pregnant at this time! She is due on Wednesday and could give at any moment. It was fun to see her with the babies and know that she will have her own so soon! Come on out, Zeke, we want to play!!

016 Sara baby pose

As always, the food was delicious! Asian salad, broccoli-cauliflower salad, pasta salad, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, steak, pork, and so many desserts!

018It was really so fun to see everyone, and even more fun that everyone was referencing Burpees to Bubbly! I love to hear people say “let’s get a pic for Burpees to Bubbly”. Music to my ears:) This pic seemed only fitting since we were most definitely drinking bubbly!

019

We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends around all the time! Never a dull moment at the Gagnon’s 😉

Memorial Day

I woke up to a bright, sunny sky and immediately decided that it would be awesome to go for a run! As I was running, I realized how quiet it was compared to the city running that I usually do. No sidewalks, no cars, no people, just my music, the pavement and a sunny sky. I really focused on being present and enjoying the moment, something I should probably do more often!

021

I made my run more fun by adding in strength exercises after every mile- I’ll post it later this week!

Here are some pictures of “Shapleigh Corner”… I am from a very small town and this is the “center” of town. A whopping blinking light!

022

023

024

028Yup, you’d call this Maine, small town living!

The rest of the day was filled with LOTS of planting and gardening with dad and visiting with our cousin, Karen, who is visiting from Michigan. Always nice to visit with family!

And now we are back to the grind! This week got a little busier when I agreed to sub back-to-back classes tonight (Kickboxing followed by SHRED at the South Station BSC).

Questions for you: Best part of your weekend? Did you have or go to a BBQ for Memorial Day? Are you from a big city or small town?