Falling into Adventures

Saints Peter and Paul Church

Things have been busy lately. On November1st, the St. Louis Publishers Association again offered a class at the Meramec campus of the St. Louis Community College. I have written about the book publishing class on my other blog, Write Formation. Later that day, my friend Caren and I went to Soulard to walk around the area and take photos. I am so grateful because she is an avid photographer (a professional photographer, in fact), so we both like to stop and take pictures. Of course there are four cakes in the area we were walking, so I had to get additional photos of those. We went to McGurk's for an early dinner, and though the day had been a comfortable temperature we decided to eat inside. They have such a beautiful outdoor dining area there, but it is not so much fun if you are cold.

9th Street Abbey

Trinity Church

unlucky chicken foot

On Wednesday I was doing some gardening as the day was very nice. I was pulling out annuals and tidying things up when I heard the dog chewing on something. He likes to gnaw on sticks, so I didn't think too much about it at first. When the crunching continued I decided I better check it out. Much to my dismay, I saw part of an animal leg on the ground next to him. Now, Kirby has never mastered the "Leave it!" command. There is no way he willingly gives up anything, be it a toy or something gross. Utilizing the fine art of distraction, I ran towards the gate shouting "Look who's here!", which faked him out enough to run off to guard his territory. I hurried back and scooped up the parts (thinking back to the old commercial "parts is parts"), and being thankful for my gardening gloves. Normally I am squeamish about picking up things like this, but desperate times call for desperate measures. As I dropped the pieces in the trash, I noticed the larger leg piece still had a foot attached. Ugh! I guess there is one less clucker from the yard across the alley now. They have a chicken coop but they also let the chickens roam. Sometimes I see them in the alley. They cannot get into our yard because they are too fat, and our dog never runs loose, so Kirby is not the fowl killer. He just takes advantage of the situation if someone else does the dirty work.

When I relayed this story to my husband later, I couldn't resist telling him that we were having chicken for dinner. After all, the dog usually eats the same thing as us.

Beer Butt Chicken

So on our way back from Cincinnati we stopped in Indiana to visit Megan's parents. They graciously offered to make supper for us since we had the trip from hell on our way over as we traveled through Louisville. I'm not quite sure how this came up in conversation, but Alan mentioned making beer butt chicken. I was quite certain there was a joke coming, but no - he was quite serious. Even though it sounds kind of fowl, he explained that you insert a half empty beer can into the cavity of a whole chicken and grill it. Cheryl even has an awesome stand to hold the chicken upright in the the grill, which makes it an upstanding recipe after all. I'm thinking Christmas gift idea here - I wonder if the Wal-mart in St. Louis carries the chicken butt stands?

I have to imagine that a fraternity brother came up with the beer butt chicken idea. I picture the guys all standing around at a woodsie (that's what we called it in the '70's), with one bemoaning the fact that his beer can was half empty, so to speak. "What can I do with a partial warm beer? Seems a shame to waste it. Hey, I know, let's shove it inside a chicken and grill it!!!" And so, beer butt chicken was born.

Little did the guys know that this idea would catch on, and that special implements would be developed to aid in the process. Or perhaps they developed the butt stand as well. Who knows? The bottom line is that apparently a half empty beer can inserted into the cavity of a chicken prior to grilling results in a moist, tender bird. I can see that I will have to try beer butt chicken for myself. And I'm not pulling your leg...