Another Update on the Big Move

So, my hubby is down in Florida this weekend doing job interviews and house searching.  I decided to hold a yard sale while he was gone, so that's what I did all day yesterday.  My very good friend and faithful sidekick came and helped me out and we sold a good amount of stuff.

This was our kitchen table for the past 2.5 years, but I sold it off.  We thought we would love the breakfast nook style of it, but we didn't.  Benches just aren't all they're cracked up to be and they were more aggravation than they were worth.  So it went to a new home and in the mean time...

this is our kitchen table and chairs.  : )

We'll look for something better once we get moved and settled.

Remember this shelf contraption that I picked off the curb?  I had intended to take it apart and turn it into something else, but that never happened.  So I sold it too.

A couple of years ago I redid our coffee table and took it from it's white chippy look (too chippy...as in the paint was falling off in chunks),

 to this soft yellow, aged look.  It was beautiful, but it just wasn't working out as a coffee table.  Just a few inches too high to prop our feet up on comfortably so it went on to a new home as well.  

(You can read about its makeover {here}.)

The same lady who bought the layered shelf thingy also bought the trunk.  She owns a cute little shop in a nearby town called "The Junk Ladies" where they resell great old "junk."  The trunk will have a home in their shop until it sells.

While I was helping her get her purchases loaded in her van she asked, "You don't happen to need a baby's car seat do you?"  I told her, "I don't need a baby seat, but I am looking for a booster seat."  (I've been scouring yard sales and thrift stores for awhile now hoping to find one.)  Out pops the perfect little booster seat in great condition and she said, "Here, it's all yours."

Can't beat that!  My pretty trunk went to someone who could truly appreciate it, she helped me downsize my stash, and I got a free booster seat out of the deal!  I call that a good day.  : )

Less, than a month to go 'til the big move!

                                                               

Oven "Grilled" BBQ Chicken

Today I'm bringing you a method of making BBQ chicken that I sort of discovered by accident thanks to my forgetful ways.  Now, let me just preface this by saying the best BBQ chicken comes off of an actual grill, charcoal preferably.  There's nothing that compares to my hubby's BBQ grilled chicken.  The smoky flavor the charcoal gives it puts it over the top. 

 BUT....if it's winter time and too cold to grill, or your hubby works 12 hour days like mine and doesn't always have the time to grill, this is the 2nd best thing.  Like I said, I discovered this by accident one day when I got focused on a project and forgot to start the chicken in the oven when I intended.  I cranked the heat up on the oven trying to get it done in time, and voila!   A discovery had been made!  It was dee-licious!

I decided to start taking pictures after I already started so I don't have the "here's what you'll need" picture, but I'm sure you'll get it all figured out.  :)

We prefer chicken thighs (with skin on of course, that's a must!), but I'm sure you could do it with drums or quarters as well.

You're going to start by par-boiling them for about 20 minutes.  This releases some of the juices so that you end up with nice crispy skinned chicken.  I've tried it without par-boiling, but I was left with a big juicy mess on the pan and the skin was soggy instead of crispy.

You'll also want to get your oven pre-heating to 450º.  

You might be thinking that sounds ridiculously high, but trust me on this, it works and it doesn't dry the chicken out at all.

I suggest covering your baking pan with a heavy duty foil just for the sake of making your life a whole lot easier during after dinner clean up.  I've used regular foil and just doubled it up, but it somehow doesn't work nearly as well, it always ends up ripping and leaving a burnt on mess.  You really should use the heavy duty stuff.

Give it a good coating of non-stick spray so the skin doesn't stick to it and rip off.

Lay them skin side down on your baking sheet and give them a good sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Next, you're going to give them a good thick coating of BBQ sauce.  (Our favorite is Sonny's Sweet BBQ Sauce.)  Put them in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, turn them all over so they are now skin side up.

Give them another good sprinkle of salt and pepper as well as another thick coating of BBQ sauce, and stick them back in for another 10 minutes.

Here's what they'll look like after that 2nd round of 10 minutes.  At this point, slather on another layer of sauce and put them back in for another 10 minutes.  Part of the secret of the gooey yummy goodness of these is the layered, thick sauce.  Some recipes will tell you to add the sauce in the last few minutes of cooking, but I say no way.  You want that stuff to soak in and get seared on there for the best possible flavor.

Ok, here they are after a total of 30 minutes in the oven (10 skin side down and 20 skin side up).  You might be tempted to call them done at this point, but hang in there for 10 more minutes!  Once again, trust me on this!  That last 10 minutes will sort of caramelize the sauce and finish them off to perfection.

So go ahead and slather on another layer of sauce and stick them in for one more round of 10 minutes.

And here they are, darkened up and caramelized.  The skin should be a good mixture of crispy and gooey.

I peeled back the skin so you can see that, in fact, it is not at all dried out under there.  See all that juicy moisture?  I think the higher temperature sears the skin and helps hold it in.

Pair it up with some yummy sides like mashed 'taters, and corn on the cob and be ready for your taste buds to experience a little bit of heaven!

(So all in all, your cooking time for these is going to be a little over an hour - 10 minutes or so for the water to come to a boil, 20 minutes of parboiling, and a total of 40 minutes in the oven.)

                                               
                                                                  

Fun Friday Finds #18

I wasn't planning on doing any yard saling today since I went all the live long day last week, BUT....I caught wind of a sale that said something about moving after 40 years in the same house.  Well now, that smells (literally, lol!) of vintage to me and I just couldn't resist.  I had to see what treasures were lurking there.

Total spent - $16.00

20qt. canning pot and accessories - $7

I was really excited to find this canning pot and rack.  This is something I've been wanting to learn to do for a good long while now.  Once we get settled in Florida I plan to start a garden and am looking forward to canning some of it.  The boxes of rings aren't useable as they have spots of rust on them so they'll be turned into some other project.  But all of the lids seem to be in perfect condition.

Stack of vintage tea towels - $3

My heart always skips a beat when I see these old 1940's-50's prints.  I was hoping to find some tablecloths too, but no such luck.  That's ok, though, I'm thrilled with these.  All but two of them will end up in the shop.

I'm keeping this one, and I'm giving one other one to a friend.

Wooden box with dividers - $2

I spotted this wooden box filled with nails, screws, nuts, bolts, etc. in the "man" section of the garage and loved it.  (What else did you expect by now?)  :)  I almost told the guy I didn't need all the hardware, I just wanted the box, but then I remembered how much fun I had picking through another tin of hardware I bought last summer and how a few of those pieces have come in handy since then, so I decided to just take it all.  

I think I spotted "the look" in his eye.  You know the one, "What in the world does a woman need with a box full of hardware?  She's probably one of those crazy hoarders."

Hot dog/marshmallow cookers - $2

Yard sticks - $1

We have a fire pit that we love to use, but our current "cookers" are just wire hangers that have been straightened and the kids have a hard time handling those without dipping their food into the ashes.  We plan to live out in the country once we move and will have another fire pit I'm sure, so I figured these would be a good investment.

Not sure what I'll use these for yet, but you just never know.  :)

I spotted this great industrial style filing cabinet in a corner of the house and just had to laugh to myself.  I bought one almost  identical to this last year and sold it in my Etsy shop.  But...it took awhile to sell and in the mean time it was taking up space in the garage and driving my hubby nuts.  Then when it did sell he had to help me box it up and haul it in his truck to Greyhound for shipping.  He said never again.  So, when I saw this one, in great shape (even better shape than the one I sold) it made me chuckle.

Vintage wool blanket - $1

On our way from that yard sale to McDonald's Play Land (to celebrate my daughter finishing up her Kindergarten year of homeschooling!) we spotted a couple more sales.  The only thing that made me break out my dinero was this great ol' wool blanket.  Most likely it'll be put up for sale.

Ok, so now I have a question for all of you.  In rummaging through my "new" box of hardware I found these and I'm stumped as to what they are.

They're little solid metal balls, bigger than ball bearings, but smaller than marbles.

Two of them have little images on them.

And three of them say "Hit Center."

You can see how small they are compared to my badly-in-need-of-lotion fingertips.  I had to break out the macro lens for these little guys.

My thought is that maybe they were part of an old miniature pin ball style game?  But I really have no idea.  

Do any of you happen to know what they are?

                                                                

Fun Friday Finds #17

I spent the day with my kiddos, my best junkin' buddy and her daughter, shoppin' til' we dropped.  A local town has community yard sales every year and I always enjoy going, especially with friends.  

Here are my treasures from the day.

Total spent - $26.50

First up are these little wood and canvas camping/fishing stools - $2.  

I plan to clean them up and list them in my Etsy shop.  They were my only purchase for the day that I bought for resale.  Everything else I'm keeping.

Cute little red and white vintage coffee can - $2.  

Y'all know I love me some red.  

Little glass milk bottle - .50.

I like for my decor to have some meaning to it and provide memories when I look at it.  I loved that this little bottle has the city where we live.  Since we're moving in just a few short weeks, it'll be fun to have this little memento of our time spent here.

Vintage baseball glove - $3

Someday I want to do my son's room in a vintage baseball theme and this will be perfect for it.

My non-vintage purchases.  

More jeans in future sizes for my lil' man - $2

GE toaster - $1

We've needed a new toaster for a.very.long.time.  Ours is like a fun little slot machine every time you drop in a slice of bread.  You never know what you're gonna get.  One time it might be very lightly toasted and you have to play the game another two times to get it just right.  But then sometimes it likes to throw in a change up and you get a burnt sacrifice on the first try.  I've just been too cheap to buy a new one, I think I was waiting for the old one to completely die before I thought a new one could be justified.  The funny thing is, I had been looking at this exact same toaster at Walmart for when the day of the dead happened.  I figure I just saved myself $24, so that makes me almost break even for the day.  :D

Dr. Pepper soda crate - $10

This was one of my favorite finds of the day!  I think it pretty well completes my crate collection.  I've been on the hunt for a divided one like this but they're always much more than I want to pay.  I asked if she was willing to negotiate on the price, but she wasn't and that was fine.  $10 was a fair enough price compared to the others I've seen.

And my very favorite find of the day was this long wooden box - $5

Hubby wasted no time in declaring it junk when he saw it, but I could just picture it sitting in the middle of my "someday" long farmhouse table filled with candles and greenery at Christmas time, or gourds and pumpkins in Autumn and I fell in love.

I stood there staring at it and mulling it over in my head for the longest time.  On one hand I really really wanted it, but on the other hand I could just hear my husband threatening to leave all my junk by the road if it doesn't fit in the moving truck.

The seller told me it was an ammo storage box from World War II.  I'm pretty sure he was filling my head with a bunch of malarky, but I didn't care, I knew I was in love with it either way.

It was marked $6, which is not a bad price at all, but in my head I was thinking, "Maybe I'll offer $5 and if he takes it, that'll be a sign I'm supposed to have it.  And if not, it's a sign I need to walk away.  But what if he doesn't take it?  Do I really want to leave this behind over one measly dollar?!?  $6 is a great price to begin with, I'd feel kinda bad offering him less."  

And on and on the argument went in my head.

After a few minutes the seller came back by and asked, "Are you still trying to decide on that?!?"  A big sigh....."Yeesssss."  And then, without any further word from me he said, "Well how about if I make it a little easier for you to decide?  How 'bout if I take a dollar off the price?"

SOLD!!!

I think it'd also be great turned upside down and used as sort of a pedestal centerpiece too.  

Cannot wait to have a place to use this someday!!!  I don't care that Hubby thinks I'm absolutely nutso, I know a great piece when I see it!  :)

How about you?  Did you have any great finds this week?

Anybody give you the "eye-rolling-you're-crazier-than-a-loon look?"

                                                                  

Sharing this over at:

Knick of Time Tuesday - Knick of Time