White Trash Orange BBQ Chicken

For our Memorial Day Cook-out we prepared White Trash Orange BBQ Chicken. The secret was in the sauce!

Here's the recipe:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
1/2 cup white wine vinegar (truth be told, we ran out of white wine vinegar and I supplemented with some red wine vinegar

1/4 tomato paste

1/2 Tsp ground ginger
1 Tsp dried onion powder
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp butter
Salt & pepper
zest of one orange

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sauce becomes a thin syrup.

Grill chicken 20 minutes on first side, 10 minutes on second side, baste with sauce and finish cooking final ten minutes.

Enjoy!

Thanks to White Trash BBQ for the recipe.

Memorial Day Weekend BBQ

Today, Bryan and I invited several friends over for an evening of fun, food, and friendship. Bryan donned his finest apparel to cook up a batch of White Trash Chicken.
Our friends, Randy, Kim, Nick and Carol joined us for the evening. Randy and Nick told many a tale of their life in various bands that played in the Amarillo area - and farther - from back in the day.

Each tale of mishap seemed to end with the line, "and we played the gig". "And we played the gig" became the theme for the evening.

Here, Nick tells us tales of a band that was the Amarillo version of the Partridge family, there was a band house, a band bus, kids from one family playing together and a mom that booked all of their gigs.

For dinner, I was able to show some of our patriotism with our patriotic colored Fiestaware.

I channeled my inner Iowa girl and shucked some corn for the dinner. I'm a bit proud of the way the prepared corn looked - the husks were tied with single husk and prepared for grilling - a pretty sight, don't you think?

The corn was grilled alongside the White Trash chicken and the Margarita shrimp skewers.

For dessert we served strawberry shortcake. I made the shortcake from scratch - and yes, it was tasty!

Bryan and I learned that we are not capable of cooking a meal for only six! We probably could have served 20 people with the spread we had prepared!

The conversation lasted well into the evening. And, we are gearing up to do it again on Monday!

Baby Shower

This weekend I co-hosted a baby shower for a friend here in Amarillo with two other symphony ladies. The weather on Saturday morning was grand for our mid-morning brunch. Karen was showered with many fun gifts for the baby to be.

These are the fun animal shakers that we gave Karen. (Our gifts had a strong musical influence!)

And this, the Croc-o-Glock. The pitch was fairly pleasant - but, as Casey indicates, the mallets were a little stronger than we needed.

Casey shared her collections of hats with those in attendance. Little Anna was very fond of this hat/wig combination.

Kellie even toasted Karen with a special champagne toast. The toast was special because Kellie included a special opening of the bottle of champagne - she used a sword! It's a trick that she learned in GQ.

And yes, there was food!

This is the fruit platter that Bryan helped me create. The recipe for the fruit dip will come later this week.

And these, these my dear friends, these mini-breakfast quiches are nothing short of divine. Savory and splendid!

Kellie channeled her inner Martha Stewart by cutting the cheese into these charming duck and heart shapes.

The showere was a delightful way to spend the morning with lovely friends.

Congratulations, Karen!

Midnight Stroganoff

Late last night Bryan and I returned home after a day at the GNC for load-ins and symphony rehearsal. Around 11 p.m. Bryan announced that he was really hungry for prime rib stroganoff.

At first in shock, I said really? Then agreed to whip something out with the contents of our fridge. I'm still to sleepy to say much, but here are some images from Bryan's photo essay.

A tasty treat for sure!

Bronc Riding in Clarendon

This past weekend Bryan had a gig running audio for an event in Clarendon, Texas. The event included music from 3 bands - and in the afternoon a bronc riding event.

I traveled with Bryan to this gig so that he would have a stagehand - once I had provided the necessary muscle (Yes, I am the muscle behind Digital-One, at least I was for this gig. I had the entire trailed unloaded - except for one speaker - by the time Bryan returned from connecting the distro to the generator), I went exploring and found myself watching the bronc riding events.

These are not pro-rodeo guys, these are honest to goodness cowboys practicing some of their crazy cowboy skills.


The afternoon also included a shetland pony bronc riding event. I didn't know a Shetland could bronc until today - some of those ponies were vicious! One kid was trampled pretty good - left the arena under his own power - but his white shirt left the arena in pieces and red.

There's something about the 5 and 6 year old crowd in chaps that just gets to me.

This young rider was a little sad that he couldn't ride - but he did have cool boots. Check out those spider webs!


Yes, I had a camera all day - and only took pictures of the cowboys - sorry rig! You are just not as photogenic as a pair of chaps.