Tennessee Walkers Caramelized Chicken

Tennessee Walkers Caramelized Chicken 

Ingredients:

2½ lbs chicken legs or leg quarters 2 tablespoons olive oil (to help it stop sticking to the pan)
½ cup low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
½ cup brown sugar

½ cup Jack Daniels
2 -3 garlic cloves, minced End up with about 1 tbs of minced garlic.

If you don't have fresh garlic use: 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

2 or 3 ears of fresh corn on the cob

4 to six slices of bacon

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Serve with a green vegetable with no sauce. And of course, macaroni salad, baked lentils, chips, pretzels, beer, and sodas. And cold watermelon to watch the fireworks with!

Directions:

1. Whisk together the sauce: place chicken in bags, add sauce to marinate for at least 2 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

3. Place chicken skin side down in a 9x13 inch baking dish lined with foil and sprayed.

4. Mix 2 tbs of cornstarch into the marinade and pour over the chicken.

5. Bake in preheated oven for one hour, first starting with the chicken skin side down, so it soaks up the sauce, then turn it over at the half hour mark, while basting every 15 minutes.

Use caution when turning the chicken over, that sauce will be hot and messy.

At the end of one hour, turn up the oven temp to 400 for another 15 minutes or 20 minutes just until sauce is caramelized.

Note: while chicken is cooking, peel the husks off of the corn, wrap each ear with a piece or two of bacon. Then wrap up each ear in foil well. You don't want bacon grease to drip into your oven, keep it on the cob – you will love it, Just limit yourself to one ear, no one likes to eat with a pig!

Now when you crank up the oven to 400 degrees for the last bit of cooking on the chicken, put the well wrapped ears in a pan next to the chicken.

You won't find a Fourth of July cook out any better!

The aroma will bring them from miles around :-)

Dilemma of the Independent Slave

Friday we celebrate Independence Day. The day our country was born. The day these thirteen colonies decided “we can do this ourselves!” England was not going to let us. They put up a fight. Those men, mostly farmers, took on the most organized military power in the world. All for the right to be independent.

Comparisons are often to be avoided. Every person, slave or Master faces their particular challenges with different abilities. One can not compare how hard it is for them any more than compare how they view color, you don't know how they see it. At most, the thought that others have faced their difficulties can provide us with the question: “why can't I?”

For many slaves, the thought of becoming independent strikes fear. Yet we know that we MUST be independent to even be a slave. Being a slave has become the most important driving force for our lives. Once we have felt what slavery to a Master brings, we would literally walk through fire to maintain that.

Again, independence does NOT mean a separation nor an abandonment. It does not have to equal being alone, or being deserted. What independence should encompass is developing our own ability to maintain ourselves.

Slave loves old cars! My mom told me that my first word was “car”! So slave uses the thought: “I can't offer to drive someone to the doctors if I haven't taken care of my car.” By extrapolation: “How can I serve, if I have not taken care of myself.” Does this mean that slave's have to become self centered? Not if you want to be a slave!

Instead, we must adjust our viewpoints. Our culture has drummed into us to see things based on “what's in it for me”. As slaves, we have discovered on our own, what we must see is how to “serve another” (what's in it for them?) Thus our slave's dilemma!

Might I suggest a change in the angle of our view.

Perhaps if we see our tasks from the point of: “Which of my own good abilities, do I use to handle this the best way?” That might not appear to be a big difference, but it is. It is a difference that spells success.

Each night Master has slave ask himself: “Did I do the best I could to reflect what I have learned?” What I have learned becomes one of my abilities. The more abilities I have, the better I can serve. The better I reflect that training, the better I can reflect on my Master. As I learn, as I grow, it all becomes a statement of how good my Master is!

It is a praise for my Master, to show the world how much I have been transformed into.

How is this being independent? It shows strength and pride in my subservience. It gives value to my gift. How can I truly honor this Man with a gift or tribute that I do not feel is the Best?

Now how does a slave get to that different angle, that different viewpoint? How does a slave become an independent slave? Well, it does NOT HAVE to mean walking out the door. (although there might come a time when that is the best and only path to take). To build your self assurance, to build your abilities is just like building a muscle in the gym. Take your time! Stretch yourselves. Start small. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition! Stretch again. Don't give up.

Think to yourself, how long has it taken me to get this weak? Getting strong will not be an overnight process. Give yourself time and praise. Stretch yourself by thinking of small steps you can take. Ask Master, if you have one. If not, ask another Master. This is a core thing that Masters enjoy! Work on how you approach a problem. Start small. Then stretch yourself again when you have accomplished it, by thinking about what you have done, how you viewed things, how you thought about things. You change your world when you change the way you think.

Then at night, ask yourself, did I improve? Did I reflect what I have learned? If so, celebrate a little, not too much because tomorrow you are going to have to do more. If not, don't beat yourself up, just be more determined than ever tomorrow you will! Wipe off any dust of failure you might feel clinging on you and rest. Each day is new, will you be? Each day can be great, can you make it great? That should be a resounding YES!

“Yes” always gets you further than “No” any day! As for our slaves dilemma: Can we be strong and still be subservient? How can we be any other way?

Both Master Indy and slave wish you a safe and strong Independence Day!

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes by Dan White http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via @amazon