UTES sign

My husband is a huge University of Utah fan! Although he now attends BYU for his JD-MBA (U of U's biggest rival) he will forever be a Utah Man, and bravely wears his red shirt on BYU campus to show his support. He sings the Utah Man song to our son all the time, and always happens to find Ute clothes for him too. Even though I am a BYU grad myself, I decided I had to come to terms with the fact that my husband loves the Utes forever. :) Therefore, I made him this little sign for his office. 

I created the stencils myself thanks to an exact-o knife and stencil pads from Walmart. I downloaded the font I thought would look the best (I think it was called Freshman), traced it on the stencil pad, and sliced away. I painted the board black, let it dry, and then traced the letters onto the board with pencil. I painted in the red and then outlined and fixed mistakes with a black sharpie marker and a ruler.  I really like how it turned out, but I never want to make it again. ha ha. It took a huge amount of time, mainly because I had to create the stencils. But, I'm glad he can now represent his love for his favorite school at work, and that I was able to make a "manly" craft that he wouldn't be embarrassed of. :) 

Lemon Pepper & Garlic Chicken

Pictured: lemon pepper and garlic chicken, lemon herb potatoes, and strawberry and spinach salad.

I am pretty proud of this recipe because I honest to goodness made it up myself. Kyler and I had been married a little over 6 months and I desperately craved some yummy chicken. I looked up my mom's recipes and various other ones online, and realized I didn't have most of the ingredients needed for anything. I am not a lover of going to the grocery store more than about once every two weeks, so I decided to get creative. Surprisingly, my make shift chicken dinner turned out so delicious! Now it's a McCarty family favorite. And now, without further ado, I give you my recipe for lemon pepper and garlic chicken. :) 

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2-3 Chicken Breasts

Lemon Pepper to taste

Garlic Salt to taste

2 tbsp Butter, divided 

1/2 tbsp Parsley

1 cup Chicken Stock 

Cut the chicken breast into thin slices. This helps the chicken cook quicker and keeps the chicken pieces moist. 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees

Cover both sides of the chicken breast in lemon pepper (as much as you’d like. I cover it lightly, otherwise I think the taste is too overwhelming.) 

Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a skillet. (I also use a little bit of olive oil to help the butter not burn.) 

Lightly sprinkle garlic salt on one side of the chicken breast. Lay the chicken in the melted butter in the skillet. Sprinkle the garlic salt on the other side once you turn the chicken over. 

Continue to flip the chicken over periodically with tongs until the chicken is completely cooked through. (If you watch it closely and cook it on a medium to low setting, the chicken won't burn and will stay nice and moist. Check it frequently and once all signs of pink chicken are gone, remove it from the skillet. The longer is stays on the dryer it will become.)

Once the chicken is cooked through, place it in a shallow baking dish and put in the oven. (Note: this step is to only keep the chicken warm, not to cook it anymore. It should only be in the oven for about 5-10 minutes) 

While the chicken is keeping warm, pull the skillet off of the stove to let it cool. Once it’s cooled down (after about 5 minutes) sprinkle as much garlic salt and parsley as you’d like on the skillet. (You could use a new, clean skillet if you’d like, but I like the added flavor from the skillet that cooked the chicken.) 

Pour chicken stock into the skillet. You will want enough to cover the chicken that is in the shallow baking dish. 

Bring it to a light boil. Add a table spoon butter for added flavor. 

As soon as it slightly starts boiling and the butter is melted, turn the stove off, remove the chicken from the oven, and pour the chicken stock over the chicken. Enjoy! 

note: after we've dished up our chicken, we often drizzle the seasoned chicken stock over it for more flavor.