I saw this on a friend's blog and thought I would add it mine today. I tried another new recipe last week and O-M-G was it GOOD! You have to try it!

Deviled Chicken Drumsticks --- Gourmet | August 2008

Though they're quite irresistible right out of the oven, these moist and juicy drumsticks (with a slight kick) are perfect picnic food, since they're also terrific cold or at room temperature.

Makes 6 (main course) servings

by Ian Knauer

12 chicken drumsticks (2 1/2 to 3 pounds total) --- I used chicken wingettes
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
3/4 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1 1/2 ounces)
3/4 teaspoon cayenne ---- I used only about 1/2 tsp and it was the perfect amount of spice for us.
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in upper third. (If you use wingettes, adjust the temperature to what the pkg. recommends - I think it was 375 degrees)

Pat chicken dry, then toss with mustard until evenly coated.

Stir together panko, cheese, cayenne, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Drizzle with butter and toss.

Dredge each drumstick in crumb mixture to coat, then arrange, without crowding, in a buttered large 4-sided sheet pan. Roast until chicken is browned and cooked through, about 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cooks' note: Chicken can be roasted 1 day ahead and chilled.

You know your 3 year old is sick when she does this all on her own:

out cold at 11:30am. Poor thing.

I was unloading groceries and typing up my birthday blog post when I realized it was very quiet in the house. I went to her room and found her like that. She's whistling through her nose because it's so stuffy. Awww.

My birthday was Saturday. R was out of town having the time of his life. Before he left he scheduled a "spa day" for me to enjoy while he was gone and to ease his guilt a little bit. My parents took the kids for the day and night so I was really able to relax! I started off with a 30 minute back and neck massage....bliss! I think it was one of the best neck massages I have ever had. Then I had about a half hour wait between treatments so I relaxed in the meditation room with some lemon water, raspberry cookies and grapes. Then I had my facial - heavenly! I think this treatment is becoming my favorite. It just feels wonderful with the steam, face, neck and shoulder massage, the mask, and they way your skin glows after is just incredible. This lasted for a full hour. Then I moved on to my spa pedicure. Pedicures are always great, just wish I could afford to do it more often. I picked out a fun color: Catherine the Grape and I just love it! I was at the spa for about 3.5 hours. Awesome.

I headed home to get ready for my dinner out at the Cheesecake Factory with my girlfriends. It was yummy as always and we all shared a slice of the Kahlua Chocolate Cheesecake, such a good coffee/chocolate flavor with a brownie on the bottom. Then my best girlfriend and I headed out to do some dancing. What fun! We were so early to the club that the DJ let us create our own dancing play list and we had the dance floor all to ourselves! It was so much fun.

All in all a great birthday. I didn't have my camera, so I have no photos to document the day, but I have great memories.

36 - here I come!

First day of Kindergarten checklist:

Backpack - check

School supplies - check

Uniforms - check

Walking to school and realizing you left the lunch box in the refrigerator - check!

Aside from the first day faux pas, everything else went well. GA is very excited to be in Kindergarten, learning new things, meeting new people. She even drew a picture to give to her teacher on the first day.

This morning, walking up the ramp to her portable classroom, GA waves "bye" and runs to the door. Such excitement and eagerness - not on ounce of nervousness (her not me). We got checked in with the teacher and she sat down at her table. Immediately, she starts talking to her table-mate and he asks her to help him build with some cubes. I had a few tears, but managed to hold it together. This going to school thing is definitely harder on the parents.

Apparently, there are 5 girls and 7 boys in her class and she sat beside 2 boys at lunch today. The only negative thing about the day was the size of the playground at school. GA said "we couldn't run and everything was too hot to play on".

A few photos to mark the occasion:

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The second drop-off went much smoother. Imac started her first day at 3-day-a-week preschool. She was very excited to see her friends again:

And, in case you were wondering, I did not forget her lunch box!

I was lucky enough to receive some new scrapbook papers from Scrap Happy after I made a donation to her son's baseball team. I decided that the papers were a perfect match to the Mother's Day tea I took my mom & GA to.

I had some extra paper and an extra picture so I also made this:

Papers from Kaiser Craft, Bazzil cardstock, flowers by Making Memories, American Crafts letters, Heidi Swapp bling, miscellaneous ribbons.

The blog was down for a few days - server crashed and burned - was able to recover the data, so all is good and I can get back to blogging!

We just got back from our beach vacation! It was great! We stayed in a 2 bed - 2 bath condo right on the beach (Pointe Estero). It had a full kitchen, too, so we cooked most of our meals there. Both girls loved the beach and GA worked up her courage to play in the ocean waves a bit. Imac is fearless and would just walk right into the ocean. They loved building sand castles, too. We would spend the mornings at the beach and then head in for lunch and then spend the afternoons at the pool. Some evenings we would walk the beach, others we swam at the pool. So relaxing. GA met a 7 year old girl and they became fast friends and were inseparable for 2 days.

A couple of nights we went out for ice cream and that was fun. We found a few sand dollars washed up on the shore and a couple of jelly fish on the shore, too. Luckily no one touched them! We played frisbee on the beach and watched the sunset. All in all it was a nice, relaxing vacation.

Making sand angels! Can you see it?

Collecting shells at Lover's Key Beach Park GA floating!

We had this for dinner tonight and it was sooooooo good. Just the right amount of sweet and spicy. Made some roasted sweet potatoes and grilled asparagus on the side. Yum!

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs - We used 3 large chicken breasts and it was still very moist and juicy
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
Preheat broiler.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done.