Decorating Our Tree and Sweet & Sour Chicken Thighs

  

Have you gotten your tree up yet?  What about your shopping, done? Or should I ask if you've started?

 

We put up our tree Sunday night and decorated yesterday.  It's real so of course we needed to give it the day to fall into place.  Josh is at the perfect age for Christmas this year (he will be 5 in Jan).    As he takes each one out, he declares "this one is my favorite".  Who says he can't have 67 favorites?

 

Each and every ornament is special to him for one reason or another. We have the obligatory 1st Christmas ornament for each kid.  My mother in law buys them all an ornament each year as well, which I love.  Another ornament tradition I have, is we spend a lot of time at The Christmas Place, which is a very adorable Christmas store, where we buy 1 ornament, have a chat with Santa and of course hang out in their café for hot chocolate and gingerbread men and/or fudge.  Josh chose this year's ornament very carefully.  This process took no less than a half hour with a lot of "maybe that's not the best one for us" direction from me.

 

I used to long for the days of a beautifully crafted tree.  One that doesn't don the paper ornaments made of pipe cleaners and craft sticks.  One that was beautifully lit with perfectly twinkling lights and silver balls and a great big bow on top.  But for some reason this year, I am embracing the memories these ornaments will bring in the years to come.  Once the kids are grown, I'll have that perfect tree but for now, I think my tree is just that, perfect.

 

 

What does this tree business have to do with my sweet & sour chicken?  Absolutely......NOTHING.  I'm sure most of my posts over the next weeks will have nothing to do with the delicious recipes I will share.  I've never been much of a rule follower. So there.

 

 

 

SWEET & SOUR CHICKEN THIGHS

 

PRINT RECIPE

 



INGREDIENTS:

• 1-2 T olive oil
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 sweet onion, sliced thinly
• 1 C sweet and sour sauce
• 3/4 C BBQ sauce
• salt & pepper

 

DIRECTIONS:

• Heat oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat.  Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Add chicken to skillet and brown both sides, about 4 minutes each side.
• Remove chicken to plate and set aside.
• Add onion to pan and cook for about 2 minutes until softened a bit.  Add garlic cook 1 minute more.  Add BBQ & sweet and sour sauce.  Stir together well. 
• Add chicken back to pan.  Simmer about 10 minutes until chicken is cooked and sauce has thickened.

 

Serve over rice with roasted broccoli or vegetable of your choice.

 

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY:

 

Do you have any traditions for ornaments?

Do you have the beautiful tree you always imagined or is it covered in kid made paper gingerbread men?