Flowers on this Wonderful Wednesday

"Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same."

                     Helen Keller 

"Love is the  answer, and you know that for sure;

Love is a flower, you've got to let it grow."

John Lennon

                                                                                                          

When you younger do you remember taking a daisy and plucking off the petals? He loves me, he loves me not?  This is what comes to mind whenever I see a daisy.

This post is for Wonderful Wednesday. If you'd like to join in on the fun and link up, head over to Pictimilitude, which is hosted by Cyndi Calhoun.

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!



Where Have All the Flowers Gone is one my favorite songs.

Roasted Orange Chicken With Bacon

As you can imagine when I saw that Wonderful Wednesdays theme was food I was ecstatic! Thinking about it and knowing that I'd already taken out a chicken to roast, I had to of course get a little creative with the bird in question.

Roasted Orange Chicken With Bacon

My one son that actually likes chicken moved out on June 30th, which leaves the twins at home and they refuse to eat chicken as I've posted before. So for them I made homemade mac n cheese. Wait till they see the chicken come out of the oven draped in slices of bacon. I bet they'll want some :)

Okay so here's how I made the roasted orange chicken with bacon.

Ingredients

• 1 - 3 1/2  pound bird
• 1 orange cut into 1/4's
• Fresh ground pepper
• 4 slices of bacon

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F
2. Rinse off the chicken and place in a roasting pan. I used foil for easy cleanup because I hate scrubbing pans. 
3. Place the chicken in the roasting pan.
4. Cut up the orange and place 3 of the 4 quarters right into the birds cavity.
5. Squeeze the other 1/4 section of the orange over the bird and then place that 1/4 into the bird as well.
6. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper, add a 1/2" of water into the bottom of the roasting pan, and place into the oven.
7. Cook for approximately 20 - 30 minutes and then remove from the oven.
8. Cut the slices of bacon in half.
9. Drape over the chicken and then pop it back into the oven to continue cooking until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 - 170 degrees.
10. Be sure to baste the chicken when needed.
11. When the chicken is cooked remove from oven and set on a plate for five minutes before carving.
12. Serve and ENJOY!

13. 

    Stuff the orange into the chicken

    
    
    
    

    

    Placing the bacon onto the chicken

Did my two sons have any of the roasted chicken? No they passed even with the bacon on it. They just don't know what they're missing.

There isn't a 13th step above. For some reason I could not edit it out.

This post is for Wonderful Wednesday. If you'd like to join in on the fun and link up, head over to Pictimilitude, which is hosted by Cyndi Calhoun.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Capturing Flowers - Wonderful Wednesday

I've always enjoyed taking photos of flowers, but for some reason this years it's become an obsession. I suppose that's a good thing though. 

This last collage of pictures is a bush I have outside in my yard. I've been taking pictures of the flowers on it since they first started budding. Pretty soon the entire bush will shed all its flowers. It's been fun watching the process this spring and summer. 



This post is for Wonderful Wednesday. If you'd like to join in on the fun and link up, head over to Pictimilitude, which is hosted by Cyndi Calhoun.

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Wonderful Wednesday - At Home

This weeks Wonderful Wednesday post is "Favorite Places". I thought I'd start with a picture of my house because it is where I feel most comfortable, happy and content.

 It's true as Dorothy said, "There's no place like home!"

Florida

This post is for Wonderful Wednesday. If you'd like to join in on the fun and link up, head over to Pictimilitude, which is hosted by Cyndi Calhoun.

Dogs Are Smart

When it comes to my dogs I love to talk about them, brag about them, and let people know how smart they are.

Bruce (Newfoundland Dog) when he was a puppy

Maggie Magz (Newfoundland Dog) as a puppy

When we first got Maggie Magz I couldn't believe how easy it was to train her. We'd have a little treat for her in hand, hold it over her head and she'd instantly sit. 

Housebreaking took a little more time but still all in all it was quite easy. With both Maggie and Bruce I trained them the exact same way. Once an hour on the hour I'd either take them for a short walk or into the back yard to do their business. Twenty minutes after they'd have a meal out we'd go. As they got a little older I would increase it from an hour to an hour and a half. For the first two months  I would cut off their water around 7 pm at night. This really helped with nighttime accidents.

Bruce has always been a happy go lucky dog.

Maggie caught on one day that if she went to the back door and hit the doorknob with her nose it would make a rattling sound and if one of us were nearby we'd let her out. She does the same thing when she wants back into the house.

The amount of words dogs can understand has always amazed me. The other day my husband tried something with Maggie.and he was pretty astounded by it. He had a piece of a hot dog in his hand and of course Maggie wanted it. He said to her, "If you want this look at the fridge." She looked at the fridge. He continued doing this telling her to look at where the heat comes from, at the window, at the door, and then look at Mom. Seems like a lot of work for one measly piece of a hot dog but she did it and enjoyed her reward.

Magz at a year old

Bruce at a year old

One night Maggie and I were at obedience training and after class I asked the trainer/groomer if she could give me some tips on how to trim the fur on Maggie's paws. We went back to the grooming room and Gail showed me how to trim one paw then told me to take her home and do the other three. When we got home Maggie promptly headed to the kitchen, jumped onto the table, laid down and spread her paws out as if to say, Okay I'm ready now .... trim up the rest. At the time I wanted to chastise her for being on the table until I realized why she'd jumped up there.  

Maggie wanting her paws trimmed, outside this time.

These are my two Wonderful Pets. I can't imagine life without them. 


"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." Will Rogers


This post is for Wonderful Wednesday. If you'd like to join in on the fun and link up, head over to Pictimilitude, which is hosted by Cyndi Calhoun.