Engagements, Chicken Wings, & Job

My very best friend in the whole wide world is engaged. It’s really crazy and of the utmost excitement. Of all the boys she has dated…and she has dated some interesting characters…I’ve never been excited like I am with her fiance now.

I remember when we were obsessed with these two unnamed characters in Memphis, and we would document every “sign” about how we were destined to be wed to them. For an indisputable example, I painted my nails orange in 7th grade and my future husband was wearing an orange shirt on the same day. On top of that, we breathed in and out at the same time at church while wearing the same color. If that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is.

I thank God every day for my husband. And I should also probably thank him for not letting me marry everyone I thought I would. There is no telling what Mari-Kate and I would be doing now if we had gone with our 7th grade boyfriends. I shudder to even consider it.

So…I had an exciting night on Sunday. The Cowboys played at 7:30, so I began cooking around 5 for the throngs of people waiting to eat what I prepared (about 5 of our closest friends). Taylor wanted me to make hot wings (which I will give the recipe for later) and french fries. Both of those require oil, so I heated it up to high to get those suckers good and fried. I leaned over the pot to get some garlic salt for the fries, and since my spice cabinet is so crowded, I knocked some garlic into the oil causing it to splash an outrageous amount of ridiculously hot oil all over the place. I saw some land on my hand but thought “huh, that doesn’t really hurt” so I focused my efforts on scooping the garlic container out. Once I saw how badly the oil burned the plastic, I began to worry about my hand and about that time….my hand caught on fire. Not literally – that would be way cooler. Figuratively, it caught on fire.

I go to work the next day with an Albertson’s burn bandaid (we spare no expense) thinking my burn was no big deal. Everyone around me, however, scared me into going to the doctor the second I got off work. I was afraid the gangrene would spread faster than we could control it. Instead of choosing a reputable doctor’s office, we went to the Minute Clinic at CVS. It was fast and cheap, and I still didn’t think it was a big deal.

We walk into an airplane-sized patient room and met the RN. [Note: not a doctor.] Nurse Israel was super cute with holey pants and a ripped jacket, and about 10 hairs on his upper lip that he forgot to shave. Here is a diagram for effect:

When I showed him my burn, he immediately turned around, grabbed a 3-ring binder, and turned to the “burn” section. After many “hmmmm”s and “uh-huh…”s he pulled out a ruler to measure the burn. After he measures, he goes back to his informational binder for a while, and then informs us that he is going to call a doctor friend to consult. Apparently the burn was 1/2 centimeter away from being big enough that CVS Minute Clinic RN couldn’t treat it.

You know you’ve made a terrible decision when the “doctor” that you go to see pulls out a binder before doing anything, says a lot of “Well…we just don’t get a lot of burns here”, and then calls another doctor to ask what he thinks. How can you make a prognosis without looking? I don’t know, but he did. I now have antibiotics for a 2nd degree burn. End of story. The moral: don’t overcrowd your spices. Also, don’t take it out on the wings. They were delicious.

Buffalo Chicken Wings

Ingredients

• oil for deep frying
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• 1 dash ground black pepper
• 1 dash garlic powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 10 chicken wings

Directions

1. Heat oil in a deep fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). The oil should be just enough to cover wings entirely, an inch or so deep. Combine the butter, hot sauce, pepper and garlic powder in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir together and heat until butter is melted and mixture is well blended. Remove from heat and reserve for serving.
2. In a small bowl mix together the flour, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt. Place chicken wings in a large nonporous glass dish or bowl and sprinkle flour mixture over them until they are evenly coated. Cover dish or bowl and refrigerate for 60 to 90 minutes.
3. Fry coated wings in hot oil for 10 to 15 minutes, or until parts of wings begin to turn brown. Remove from heat, place wings in serving bowl, add hot sauce mixture and stir together. Serve.

Have you ever read Job 38-40? The NLT says that God straight up goes, “Brace yourself like a man. I have some questions for you and you must answer them.” It goes on and on after that about all the things God has done and how mighty and powerful he is. At the end God says, “You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” Burn. Job must have felt like an idiot. I recommend reading it. If you don’t leave with an overwhelming feeling of God’s power, read it again.