Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Just Another Night in the 'Hood

Last night I was standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes after a wonderful dinner. (Parmesan chicken with roasted red and sweet potatoes and cauliflower.) The window over the sink gave me a face to face view of my hubby who was standing at the backyard patio table in his camouflage bib overalls cleaning birds from the afternoon dove hunt. (Yes, we eat dove. In our house the motto is “if it flies, it dies”. Cute hun?) Anyway, we were laughing about our very gender specific duties when my husband took off running. There was a strange high pitched squeal coming from our neighbor’s yard and I joined him to see what could possibly be making that tormented sound.

A herd of deer were feeding in the yard next to us, and in an effort to join his elders a small fawn had attempted to jump the fence. He didn’t quite make it and he was hanging from the chain link fence by one back leg. David quickly ran over and picked up the fawn to take the pressure off of its poor little leg that looked as if it would snap at any second. But the deer’s leg was still wedged tightly. He told me to run across the street and enlist the help of our neighbor Mike and his crowbar. I burst into Mike and Candis’ house (the best part is they were in the middle of a dinner party) and told Mike to grab his crowbar and come help save this poor little deer.

Now at this point I need to point out that Candis and I are fighting and unending battle against the local deer population who view our flowerbeds and vegetable gardens as salad bars. Daily we plot our plan of attack to scare off the creatures. But in this time of need no one cared that this may be the very same suspect who had just that afternoon stripped my pepper plants of their leaves.

Anyway, back to my story, Mike hurried over followed by Jeffry, one of the dinner guest. Mike pried open the chain links far enough for David to free the fawn’s leg. By this time most of our neighbors were standing out on their front yard to see what all the hubbub was about and if they could be of assistance.

As the fawn ran off to catch up with his herd, people slipped quietly back into their homes and within seconds the neighborhood returned to normal. I am sure that most of the people who live around me will not remember anything peculiar about last night. Just as they find nothing odd about the morning a moose sauntered through our front yard on its way over the mountains (we don’t even live in moose country). To them it will be just another night in the “hood”.

Parmesan Chicken (Quick and easy!)
 
4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
2 tbls. soy sauce
4 tbls. melted butter
Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
garlic power
grated parmesan cheese
 
Mix melted butter and soy sauce together in shallow pan. Dip chicken in mixture coating both sides. Place chicken in baking dish, cover with parmesan cheese and season with Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and garlic. Bake on 350 for 20-25 minutes.