The Major Tribe

We are thanking God for our new baby girl, Evangeline Grace. She was born March 12th at 7:30pm our time. The labor and delivery both went fantastic! She is 5lbs 15oz, 19 1/2 in. long and has lots of dark brown hair. Her face was a little bruised from coming so quickly but she is a healthy little girl with a lot of spunk for being so small.

As missionaries traveling is a constant. Don’t get me wrong we enjoy traveling, the girls are always excited about going new places and seeing people but there are a few unpleasant things about it. For us the worst thing about travel is fast food.

It seems like its usually fast but rarely food and convience comes at a price. I’m sure y’all can relate. So we decided to be flexible and resourceful missionaries and deal with the traveling/fast food dilemma a different way. We would bring it all with us. Unfortunately sandwiches and string cheese only cut it so far. You really start to crave a hot plate of chicken or a nice warm fish fillet. Without bringing a microwave and an inverter your pretty well stuck with cold food unless… you care to throw your food on the half ton roaring grill nestled under your hood.

Welcome to world of “Manifold Destiny” and car engine cooking!

On our trip to Texas for Justin’s wedding we decided to attempt to cook some chicken in the car. Or more accurately ON the engine of the car. Amazingly it worked really well and was actually very tasty.

See Jared’s recipe below:

1) Preheat your car, in this case our Chrysler minivan.

2) Wrap one well seasoned chicken breast in 3 layers of tin foil and seal it up tight. Its a good idea to oil the chicken to keep it from sticking. Any oil will do but I’m sorry you can’t substitute it with 10-W30.

3) Pop the hood.

4) Place the chicken directly onto the exhaust manifold. Don’t sear your hand on the manifold (oven mitts would be good, I found that out the hard way) and don’t get your shirt caught in the belt. It needs to be wedged in good otherwise a good bumb is going to dislodge your meal.

5) Drive for 40 miles and check the meat. (For me its also a good time to check the transmission fluid as well

6) If the juices are running clear (the juices from the chicken that is, not the transmission) then your done. If not then give it another 20 miles or so.

Thats about it. It’s hot, its tastey, its cheap, and its real food! I’ve heard of guys cooking whole turkeys (thats gotta be a big car or a small bird) either way it also must be a long trip. Maybe we will give that a try around the holidays.