Sweet and Savory: Carmelized Garlic Chicken

Heather says:

This dish is simple and very kid friendly, but is unlikely to recieve approval from either Weight Watchers™ or the Surgeon General.

Carmelized Garlic Chicken

• 1 stick butter
• 4 garlic cloves - minced or pressed
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 whole chicken - cut up

Heat the oven to 350°F.

Melt the butter in a pan with the garlic over low heat.

Place the chicken pieces in a baking dish.

Add the brown sugar to the butter and garlic and increase the temperature to medium high.

Stir constantly, but gently until the butter and sugar begin to combine. Immediately turn off the burner and stir vigorously until you have a smooth sauce.

Pour over the chicken pieces. Do not worry about coating each piece perfectly, the sauce will thicken the moment it touches the cold chicken and will slide off if fiddled with.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes at 350°F or until the internal temperature reaches 180°F.

Enjoy.

I can see clearly now that the spots are gone

Another good comment:

I’ve always hated cleaning shower walls - they just seem so impossible to clean. And now we have a shower stall with clear doors that shows sports from our hard water in DAYS (even with squeegee-ing after every shower). And if I really want to get them off, I have to scrub them several times with Glass Plus.

Heather says:

Hard water can be a royal pain. After thoroughly cleaning the doors with a product such as CLR to remove all existing waterspots apply a coat of car wax and buff to a shine. I have heard of using Rain-X, but I have not personally tested this product indoors.

An alternative to car wax is lemon oil, but it will need to be reapplied more often.

Once the product has been applied and buffed to a shine a quick squeegee after showers is all it should take to keep your doors sparkling.

Good luck.

P.S. Try not to get any on the floor, things will get mighty slippery, otherwise.

When YOU are the dishwasher

Ivy says:

We got a good question from the comments:

The dishes, we do not have a dishwasher, so should you wait till you have a stack or do them right a way and feel like you are always doing dishes?

When I was in college, I lived in the sweetest little 2 bedroom cottage. It had hardwood floors and was clean and bright. It also had no dishwasher and only 2 tiny closets. The closets are a rant for another day entirely, but I wanted to speak about the no dishwasher situation.

It was a situation we struggled with mightily. Nobody WANTED to do the dishes, so they often stacked up and became a nightmare to wash with stuck on food bits and all. When I suggested we rinse off the dishes and set them aside to be washed in the evening, my roomie complained that we might as well wash the dishes the minute we brought them into the kitchen.

Finally, we decided to skip eating at home and go out to eat all the time. Just kidding. We started using a soap filled dish scrubber. By using that, we could wash dishes quickly and with a minimum of fuss. The best part was, nobody had an excuse as to why their dishes weren’t done, so it cut down on fights about doing the dishes exponentially.

So, if everyone in your house is old enough to do their own dishes, that’s the route I’d go. If not, I’d still wash dishes after every meal. I think when you have a whole bunch of dishes to do all at once, it becomes easier to procrastinate and you end up with a ton of dishes.

Is it safe to drink it yet?

Dear Home Ec 101:

I live in Hurricane Country and there are often boiling water advisories after a storm. How long am I supposed to boil the water before it is safe to drink?

~Avoiding the Runs in Ravenel

Heather says:

Boil water advisories are more common than you may think. They are quite common if the power is disrupted for an extended period of time, but they are also issued for line breaks, positive tests for contamination, and occasionally when maintenance is being done.

Water should be brought to a roiling boil and boiled for one minute. Begin timing when the bubbles appear. Allow it to cool and place in a clean, covered container.

These advisories also apply to more than just drinking water, it affects toothbrushing, cleaning produce, and ice making. Be sure to use boiled water for these purposes, as well.

Showering is typically safe for adults and teenagers, but young children should be given spongebaths.

Dishes can safely be washed in hot water with a small amount bleach (one tablespoon per gallon).

After the advisory has been lifted flush the pipes by running each cold water tap for one minute. If you have an automatic ice maker, discard the first three batches.

Remember most filters, such as those in a fridge are for taste and odors, not harmful bacteria.

Food Storage: Butter

Dear Home Ec 101:

How long will butter last in the freezer?

~Freezing my Assets

Heather says:

It depends, at 0°F butter will last 6 - 9 months and still retain its quality.  I have frozen it for much longer with no noticeable change, but our deep freeze is only used for long term storage.  If a freezer is frequently opened, food may lose quality due to exposure to moisture or fluctuating temperatures.

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