More funny things, and an important lesson for cooks everywhere.

You know how so many times we hear the phrase: "I have good news and bad news..." Imagine this coming out of the mouth of a four-year-old and what might follow that phrase. It is great! Of course neither the good news or bad news is usually good OR bad, and occasionally they are flipped, but he says it, and it's funny every time! (and he is well aware that we think it's funny, unfortunately). Frequently these conversations go like this: "Mommy, I have good news and bad news." "Oh yeah, what is it?" "Well, the good news is that (LONG pause) the transformers are the good guys and the bad news is that they are not coming to our house." "Really, well that's interesting, why aren't they coming to our house" (because what else can I say to that???) And usually the conversation ends there, because David hasn't put any more thought into this and has been distracted by actually playing with a transformer, his current obsession.

We've added to funny things that come out of children's mouths with Jack, now. He has said doggie (his first word) for a while and mommy and daddy and David, but now he's added a few more: OH NO!, oops!, Doggie, NO! and NO! BAD! Are you noticing a theme? Jack has now learned how to be defiant (such an endearing trait in one's offspring...), and so I spend a lot of time (an unacceptable amount of time) correcting children and the dog, and so I suppose it is understandable that this particular array of words has been added to his vocabulary. The best part of these words is the drama with which he says them! If I can get them on video, I will post them, they are pure entertainment!

Finally, I have a public service announcement for cooks everywhere: Don't put a cup of water into a glass pan in a 450 degree oven, as it will explode.

Yes. I did this. I swear it was in a recipe! I decided to follow a different method for roasting a chicken, one from Real Simple magazine from several months ago. It's very basic: rub some olive oil on the chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, add a cup of water to the roasting pan and roast for 40 more minutes or until the temp reaches 180 degrees. VERY basic. Normally I just roast for an hour or so at 350 degrees, but I thought I'd mix things up and maybe get a crisper skin.

Now, to be fair, I did think that 450 degrees was pretty hot for using pyrex, but I already had the chicken in the pan and figured that since it didn't say NOT to use a glass pan, that it wouldn't matter. Clearly I am the reason there are silly notices telling you there might be a hot beverage inside a coffee cup! Anyway. I put the water in the pan and it IMMEDIATELY exploded, and that is NOT an exaggeration. There were little pieces of glass EVERYWHERE. Thankfully, the chicken was salvageable, and so I just stuck it in a different pan and waited until tonight to clean up the mess inside the oven, but it was a huge mess. I'm actually not going to finish the clean up until tomorrow. Hey, it does force me to clean the oven, though, and it did need it!