Packing some heat and Vince's latest kick-butt culinary creation

Would it be wrong to let my son set up his pellet gun in my bedroom window and pick off the bird that sits in our neighbor's tree and CHIRPS LIKE A FREAK every morning at 5am?  Because I am SO going to let him do that one of these days.  Just once we'd like to sleep with our bedroom windows open, but even with them closed this freak bird is loud enough to wake us up.  Remember how ridiculously unnecessary it was two years ago when we first moved in?  Yea.  It still is.

I haven't wanted to kill things very often in my life.  Maybe the dog.  And once in a while the children.  But I have a death wish for this bird and I'm pretty sure my son would be thrilled with the idea, 'specially since he already asked if he can shoot the hummingbirds that visit the feeder we have hanging above our deck.  I said no, but who knows...maybe if the word got out to the birds in the neighborhood that we are packing some heat, they would be a little more respectful and let us sleep. 

I was able to go back to sleep this morning, which was nice.  However, once again we overslept and were not able to make it to church.  GAH!  I guess I should have set my alarm, but since we are usually awakened in plenty of time to get ready on Sunday mornings, either by animals or children, we have always thought it unnecessary to set an alarm.  We did, however, wake up to the yummy smell of cinnamon rolls made by Nick and Vinny!  They have been really interested in cooking recently, because of the mad skills they are learning in their FACS class at school.  FACS stands for Family and Consumer Science which sounds much smarter than "Home Ec" but that's what it is, Home Ec.  Last night they made puppy chow and a couple weeks ago they taught me how to make yummy nachos in the microwave (which launched me on a short lived nacho kick). 

I know the picture is blurry, I just noticed that.  But it's to late 'cause they are so gone!

Ok now that I have rambled my way into talking about food (shocking, I know), the other night Mr. Wonderful made the most awesomest and yummiest burgers that I think I've ever had in my entire life!  We were actually planning on going out to eat, as the kids had already eaten earlier...but after watching an episode of "Diners Drive-ins and Dives" on the Food Network and seeing these yummy burgers being made, we decided to try them ourselves, and oh. my. word. they were amazing!  Vince took some house seasoning (I'll tell ya 'bout that in a minute), onion powder, and liquid smoke and mixed it into the meat.  Then he made them into patties with his very cool hamburger patty press and placed them in the frying pan.  I know, he usually grills them, but you'll understand why he didn't in a minute.  When the burgers were just about done, he took a handful of freshly shredded colby jack cheese and piled it on each of the burgers...enough (and this is the crucial part) so that some of the cheese spilled off onto the frying pan.  Then he covered the pan, and let the cheese melt onto the burger and carmelize into a nice crispy brown on the frying pan.  Then he place each one on a nicely toasted bun and voila....an unbelievably yummy burger that will have you moaning like Bob Whiley did about the fried chicken in What About Bob.  I'm pretty much certain that this baby won't make it into the Weight Watchers Cookbook, but it has certainly made it into Vince's repertoire of kick-butt culinary creations!  Next time he makes them I'll be sure to take some pics.

* House seasoning is our favorite seasoning and we use it in almost everything we cook.  I learned about it from Paula Dean - and it does not even involve "a pound a buttah"!  It is simply this: 1 cup salt, 1/4 cup black pepper and 1/4 cup garlic powder.   We mix it all together and keep it in our cupboard in a small tupperware container.  I don't bother putting it in a shaker - just using some side-to-side motion with the container to sprinkle it on works just fine for me.