Besties

   And to top off the six-hour diving extravaganza, Britten and Rich stopped by the shop with lunch from Haus for me, and to drop off my race packet for the Groundhog Run tomorrow morning. After all those hours in the pool with only my breakfast of coffee and oatmeal to hold me, you have no idea how good homemade bratwurst with sauerkraut and sautéed onions on a pretzel bun & hand cut french fries taste. Yum! I'm so lucky to have such thoughtful friends. THANKS GUYS!!!!

   And this is my dinner experiment for the week: BBQ chicken sandwiches with fresh mozzarella, Oklahoma Joe's sauce, and either avocado, or pineapple, or both! My twist on the pickles are miso-sesame-cucumbers, and jalapeño-lime salsa (Kristin's recipe). Success!

Cooking up a storm

   Today one of my generous coworkers, David H, brought me a bag of tomatoes and fresh herbs from his garden. Though I'd intended to spend a quiet evening recovering from Roatan (read: zonking out on the couch), it inspired me to cook a big meal: marinara and spaghetti squash, and roast chicken and vegetables. Yum! So lucky to have such awesome friends. :)

   I forgot to add roasted red pepper to the label, but you can taste it for sure. And the cayenne and red pepper flakes too. I made up the recipe, but it is my best batch of sauce yet! Here's what I did:

- chop the ripe tomatoes and sauté them with olive oil and garlic

- roast carrots with a little olive oil

- separately (they cook faster), roast the red pepper, onion, and garlic 

- when veggies are roasted to carmelized perfection, throw them in the food processor until smooth. Blend with sautéed tomatoes.

- add a can of tomato sauce to thicken 

- add fresh basil, rosemary, thyme, and sage

- stir over low heat as the spaghetti squash roasts (45 min at 425 degrees)

   Eat and enjoy!

   The chicken was adapted from this classic Ina Garten recipe: http://m.foodnetwork.com/recipes/21404 . It's as good as it claims to be, or better. Which is good, because with these quantities, I will be eating this meal for days!

Best Dinner Ever?

   I blog about my food mostly so that when I am hungry and without inspiration, I can search for one of my food tags and be reminded of dishes I've made before. This one may be the winner, though: roasted chicken (I cheated and bought rotisserie to save time), roasted acorn squash with homemade chili-lime vinaigrette, and spinach salad with fruit, goat cheese, and raspberry dressing. YUM. The chili-lime vinaigrette upstaged everything. It's so good I may have to put it on my cereal in the morning. Okay, maybe not. But it's really, REALLY good!

* * *

   And two hours after dinner, I had a craving and went to the kitchen for a little dessert... another plateful of squash! This is some seriously good stuff.

Apres-yoga

   I must have looked really, REALLY hungry to the guy at Maui Express, because he gave me about 10 pounds of teriyaki chicken & veggies! Note to self: walk in 5 minutes before closing, and looking weary & pathetic after yoga, more often!

Bittersweet Farm: Charming Chickens

   The ladies in the chicken coop at Bittersweet Farm are particularly charming, with their fancy feathers and demure clucking.

Hen committee

"Hey up there, quit hogging the spotlight!"

"But I'm GOR-GEOUS!"

This little Bantam was my favorite. She had such perfectly exaggerated proportions and a wildly confident strut. Nobody's messing with THIS hen!

Kickin' chicken

Flying the coop?

"Eyes off MY nest!"

The fruits of their labor: perfectly beautiful eggs in exquisite hues; Easter bunny, eat your heart out!

Chicky dinner

   My plan was to roast a chicken for dinner, but inexplicably, the grocery store was out of chickens! I already had all the other ingredients in my basket, so I looked until I found little Cornish hens... you know, the Jen-sized chickens!

Chicky time

   Tonight I made roasted chicken and vegetables again. I had just made it in Colorado a few days ago, but we only ate it for one meal, and it was so good that I was already craving it again. Easily one of the yummiest—and easiest—things I've ever cooked!

   The chicken I purchased included the liver and some other assorted parts, which I decided to cook up for the mutts. It made my kitchen a little stinky, but it made the dogs very, very happy. Aaaand Taylor gets to start on the diet... tomorrow.

   I need to be careful... I have been so careful about never sharing "people food" with these mutts, so that they don't learn to beg while I'm eating. I will say that they have been lurking about every time I've heated up the leftovers, but then they go and chill out. Unlike those ungrateful cats, who try to climb on my lap and knock food off my fork as I bring it toward my mouth. Oh yes, I am quite the animal trainer.

Sunday cooking

   Tonight I had some leftover produce & chicken to use up, so... perfect time to make my favorite soup. (And thanks to Kelley for teaching me the recipe!)

It smells SO GOOD when the veggies start to soften & caramelize!

I recommend serving with garlic bread, which I have a profound weakness for.

   Check out this photo set from the French Laundry that Israel sent to me. The food is art. But I cracked up when I read some of the names of the dishes: Compressed Summer Melons, Salad of Toybox Tomatoes, Fairytale Eggplant? Well in that case, you can call my soup "Terrine of Earthly Delights & Wilted Spinach with Crackbread."

French Laundry Menu

Around the neighborhood in Cottonwood Falls

Following our Prairie hike, we took the dogs for a walk around the little town. (Is it just me, or is the sky a lot bluer out in the country???)

Some large, beautiful homes in the area:

What's all that clucking??? Aki wants to run off & find dinner.

Oh, here's dinner now! The rooster that crows at all hours:

And his harem of chickadees, posing in a ridiculously charming & pastoral manner:

...And we spotted Kittler! (Or is it just Gypsy with a disguise?)

I'm a little jealous after running across these photographs tonight.

While I wasn't cleaning...

I love having more time to cook! Tonight it was baked chicken, garlicky sauteed swiss chard & tabouleh.

Midwest lunch

The pickings were slim in Ye Olde Crown Room today, so I ended up with the half-chicken & fried green beans. It was, quite honestly, delicious. But utterly unnecessary. Who eats HALF a chicken?! I'm no vegetarian, but I find it unsettling to have on my plate a dish that looks so entirely like the animal from which it came. Like the little chicken is just reclining there in front of me, in peaceful, rotisserie-glazed repose. I need to go to the gym.