Whiffle & Hamlet

If you haven't seen on Facebook or Instagram lately.....Dusty and I got pigs!

Two big fat, adorable pigs.

Growing up, Dusty use to show pigs for 4-H and absolutely loved it. All the stories and pictures of Dusty's pig showin' days makes my heart melt. How cute is this little guy with his pigs????

So now that Dusty is farming and we are loving our life on the farm, we thought it would be fun to have some pigs back on the farm again. According to Dusty, he hasn't raised pigs since he was 9 or 10 from in the late 90's, and boy is he happy to have them again.

I know it's not smart to name your future bacon and pork butt, but how can you not!?!?!? The pink pig is named Whiffle due to the holes in his ears, like a whiffle ball from elementary school PE. On the hutterite colony were we got the pigs, that was how they tagged them, so we thought the name would fit. The brown pig (my favorite, and the most friendly), is named Hamlet! Get it, Ham-let. Hehehe!

One of Hamlet's favorite things in the entire world is to get his belly scratched. You start scratching him and he will roll over and let you scratch him anywhere and everywhere. He is super friendly and Dusty says he has never met a friendlier piggy. I love that pig. Maybe I can convince Dusty to keep him :)

Now that we have pigs, I'm trying to convince Dusty we need some cows, goats, chickens, etc.

The more farm animals, the merrier!

 

Sweet & Smokey BBQ Roasted Chicken

Well, I've gone over to the dark side....of nursing that is. Last week I left my day shift orientation and started working nights, which is what I was actually hired to do in the first place. All I can say is that it has been quite the adjustment....but I absolutely love it!

The nurses I work with on nights are an absolute blast. In order stay awake all  night it is essential that you snack on food (preferably healthy) throughout the night. I knew I was working with the right sort of people on my first night when we had a potluck of buffalo chicken dip, crab salad and root beer floats. These ladies know how to work in style!

Sleeping through the day hasn't been hard to do either, even though my neighbor plays the guitar ridiculously loud (and awful) all throughout the day. When I get home from work at 6:30am, I drink a bunch of water, take some Advil so I don't feel hung over when I wake up, put on my face mask and fall right asleep.

One thing I like about working nights is that I get to have dinner with Dusty just before heading off to work. It's a good way to start the work day ;) I usually wake up around 3:00 in the afternoon, take a shower and then make something quick for us. I roasted this Sweet & Smokey BBQ chicken on my day off and then used it multiple nights to make this Summer BBQ Chicken Pizza and Southern Chicken & Black Eyed Peas Salad....both recipes are delicious and ridiculously quick. By the way, the Summer BBQ Chicken Pizza is one of the best pizza's I've ever had. Soooo soooo good!

 

For some reason, I'm always surprised to find how easy it is to roast a chicken. I rarely do it, but when I do I ask myself why I don't do it more often because it's so easy and absolutely delicious. Plus it makes the house smell wonderful and the leftovers (if there are any!) can be used for days.

 

When you make this chicken, serve it with a big green salad or roasted veggies with some creamy chive mashed potatoes. Mmmm mmm good!

 

Sweet & Smokey BBQ Roasted Chicken

{Serves 6}

 

1 (3-4 pound) Whole Chicken

4 tablespoons softened salted Butter

1 tablespoon Tastefully Simple Sweet & Smokey BBQ Seasoning

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F) and grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

 

Rinse the chicken off and pat it dry with paper towels. Rub both sides of the chicken with the softened butter and then season the entire chicken with the Sweet & Smokey BBQ Seasoning. Place the chicken in the 9x13 baking dish. Bake for 70-80 minutes until the internal temperature is 160 degrees (F) and the chicken is cooked through. Take the chicken in the baking dish out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving. Enjoy!

 

Interested in getting the Sweet & Smokey BBQ Seasoning or anything else Tastefully Simple????

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Visit my Independent Consultant page by clicking on the Tastefully Simple Consultant icon on the top-right hand side of this webpage or click here!

 

This post was not sponsored by Tastefully Simple. I am an Independent Consultant for Tastefully Simple and purchased the products myself. All opinions and thoughts are my own. I just really love there products!