Some More of those Brickin’ Chick’n

Jess and PJ went from the wedding in New Jersey to a week a the cottage…one of the best weather weeks there this summer.  What better way to end the stay than to have a family party...since we were together with the Whitney-Fenton connections last week, it only made sense to have this week be the Swenson-Fenton connection…plus a few friends.

Cheri and I headed up on Friday night and stayed with Nana and Papa for the weekend—a comfortable bed where we could retire when the partying got late….not that it ever gets to late for any of us…it was just in case.  We got up fairly early on Saturday morning to get in some exercise—thereby justifying any over-indulgence later in the day…or possibly several days.  Cheri headed out with Kristina for five mile run / walk—she meant to run the whole time, but on her way back in along the rail trail she ran into (figuratively, not literally) Aunt Beth walking, so she walked and visited for a while as well. 

My plans included having Willis Ingram join me for a bike ride—we have both given up on most of our running and are focusing our energies on cycling instead.  By 9:30 I felt it necessary to call Willis (Kristina gave me his cell phone number) about our 9:00 ride.  He had experienced a “brain-freeze” about the whole event and was unable to make it so I headed out on a 30 mile loop around Franklin-Boscawen-Salisbury and back by myself…I was then ready for anything…including a nap (which never happened.)

Once we were all back, and showered we headed over to the cottage to start the day’s festivities.  Thomas and Robert Morris had shown up earlier in the morning and Kevin and Ashley had arrived just ahead of us.  It didn’t take long before people were enjoying the water.

Meanwhile, I sat with my closest friends  and began contemplating the afternoon’s barbeque. 

Before we knew it, the crowds were settling in to visit and keep an eye on the cooking.

It wasn’t too long before Willis showed up and joined my circle of empty chairs.

Being so successful the first time we tried it we decided to make some more Brickin' Chick'n for this crowd. This time I doubled the amount being made by deboning and butterflying eight whole chickens. I did this all on Thursday night, made a Tuscan-style marinade, placed them in individual gallon size freezer bags, and froze the birds in the marinade for travel. Saturday morning while I was out cycling Jess took the bags out of the cooler so they could properly thaw. Some time on the two grills—under a brick—and we had Brickin' Chick'n.

A little lesson learned...although it seemed that all of chicken was done and there were clear juices coming from the joint areas, the uneven heating of the grills meant I should have checked all of the chicken. As it was only one drumstick and one thick breast were undercooked...and we had plenty that was fully cooked, so those pieces went back to become part of a future salad (after a little more cooking time).

Everyone seemed to get their fill of Brickin’ Chick’n  and it wasn’t too long before evening started to settle in.  Since it was cooling off a little, and still a beautiful evening we decided a beach fire was in order.

As it got later we headed our separate ways to retire…as noted earlier.  Those remaining at the cottage played euchre—a card game—well into the morning hours, but it was generally a quiet evening.

Sunday morning we brought a ham and egg casserole to the cottage for breakfast and then…too soon…it was time for us to all pack up and head out.  We got PJ and Jess on to their flight to Denver and Cheri and I then went home to recover from another week of Adventures.