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Lousy day today....through no one's fault but my own. Oh well. My lunch, although I ate it late and somewhat distractedly, was delicious.....leftover chicken, little yukon golds mashed with kale all made in my BEAUTIFUL 9 QT LE CREUSET FRENCH OVEN!
So as always....I guess I do believe life pretty much balances out.
Here is my little baby in action:
For dinner last night I actually followed a recipe! And...overall it was pretty good but I'd make some changes. Basically you brown a cut up chicken in a skillet, take it out, brown shallot (oops, no shallot, used onion) and garlic, delgaze with a cup of sherry. Cook it down halfway add in the chicken along with chicken broth, orange wedges (I used more than I should have but they were SO pretty) and green olives. Then put the whole thing in the oven for awhile. Take it out, remove the chicken, cook down the sauce a bit and add a bit of honey. I think I would use less honey and lots more olives...and maybe nix the added chicken broth. It made for a gorgeous sunny looking dish though.... We had it with couscous with a bunch of spinach stirred in along with a bit of the sauce on top.
This is the sauce cooking down after I had removed the braised chicken....
Preheat oven to 425°F. Heat oil in large ovenproof skillet over high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken to skillet; cook until skin is crisp and browned, about 6 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate. Reduce heat to medium-high. Drain all but 2 tablespoons drippings from skillet. Add shallots; stir until soft and beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add garlic; stir 30 seconds. Add Sherry; boil until reduced by half, scraping up browned bits, about 3 minutes. Add chicken broth; bring to boil. Return chicken, skin side up, to skillet. Place orange wedges and olives among chicken pieces. Transfer to oven and braise uncovered until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.
Transfer chicken to platter. Bring sauce to boil over high heat. Stir in honey; boil until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour sauce, oranges, and olives over chicken, or return chicken to skillet and serve.
Well. THAT'S one way to make the week go by quickly.....be sick for a couple of days in the middle of it. At this point Ernie, Leo, Owen, our contractor Todd, and me have ALL had it so hopefully it's onward and upward.
I've kind of got the mid January blahs...perhaps I'm just spacy from not feeling great and watching more tv than normal.
Perhaps, unlike others, I NEED snow come January.
No news.
I filed our taxes and am seriously considering blowing part of the refund (most of which will go toward the credit card bills) on a Le Creuset dutch oven. Well French oven as the case may be I guess. I've always wanted one and you know how obsessed I get..... But then....all the QUESTIONS....what color? Classic Flame or the Cobalt Blue? Or what about sunny Dijon? What SIZE? One that is perfect for cooking for the family....or one big enough for a big batch of something for a house concert? What SHAPE? Oval, round?
Questions....questions....questions.... Any thoughts?
Other than that I've got a blank mind sad to say.
I'll leave you with pictures.
The other day we were leaving Fries and Peanuts (the boys no longer approve of me calling it that...sigh) and the late afternoon light was gorgeous on the Lincoln Building. Note the little line up of birds on the chimney.
The winter mantel arrangement: my beautiful Julie Sola (a gift from our beloved Van), my calligraphy and the abominable snowman.
I'm home sick today. I guess I can't harass Owen since I got it too. I'm the last one down with it so hopefully we'll all be better soon. I slept most of the morning and worked on our taxes sporadically this afternoon. I think I'm done for the day though. The bright spot of the day? A package from Bomp marked "phonograph records."
Love that Peter Case.
And my guy....
I almost murdered my youngest child last night and I wasn’t too fond of certain other members of the family either. Actually I didn’t REALLY want to murder Owen….mostly I wanted to throw a glass at the tv. That just seemed SO appealing to me. I totally understand why Elvis shot his TV….well not that I’m a gun person and I suppose Elvis and I had different reasons but honestly if the fact that we can’t afford a new tv weren’t in the way I swear I would have done it just for the sheer satisfaction of it. MAN that would have felt good. Although I would have felt obligated to clean it up. So…..I restrained myself.
Of course Dr. Howard called this morning and Owen was in the nurse’s office sick so perhapssssssssss I’ll say it was because he didn’t feel great. Yesterday was just one of those days. Unsatisfying. I worked on our taxes a bit but some of the 1099s I need won’t be available for import until the 27th so I couldn’t finish them. I went grocery shopping with Ernie That was actually the highlight of the day---I like shopping with Ernie. So many people seem to be getting divorced….perhaps they should spend more together in the produce section---we have a delightful time and he didn’t even reign me in so I got starfruit and pineapple, collards and kale, lots of fresh basil, carrots and spinach, baby bok choy, sugar snap peas and some walnuts among other things. I suppose not everyone loves buying produce with their spouse though.
Leo had really wanted to go to lunch at Fries and Peanuts but I said no because I wasn’t in the mood. Then I felt kinda bad because Leo hardly ever asks for things so when we got back from shopping I told him if he carried in the groceries he and Ernie could go together. Owen and I hung out and he talked to me about Ezio and taught me how to swear in Italian.
That was pretty much my Sunday. We had curried oven-fried chicken, spinach and roast carrots for dinner. Pretty damn good dinner…thank you Ernest for making the chicken so perfectly. Then, God help me, I watched the atrocious Rachel vs Guy Celebrity chef thing on the food network. Then I went to bed.
Bleh.
HowEVER…..I think Phil Lee is going to play CynthiaFEST this summer. We don’t have a definite date but sometime in June or July.
Something to look forward to.
1. When Ernie plays Tom Verlaine singing Walking Home from Stalingrad.....it's a good night. That, and a gorgeous fire in the fireplace, made for a lovely evening last night.
2. Owen told me he was a little tired this morning because he stayed up so late last night talking to Leo. He seemed kind of excited about it though and then he went on to tell me they talked about a lot of things: God, the universe, the Big Bang, etc. He seemed so happy. I wanted to ask more but I kind of didn't want to intrude on their private conversation. I just told him how pleased I was that he had a brother with whom he could talk about all sorts of things. He nodded happily and kissed me before darting off. Man, I love those boys.
3. I felt rather smug that when I went in to kiss Owen goodnight last night he was humming Whole Wide World to himself.
4. Can we talk duckfat? I mean I know the legend of duckfat fries, etc. but good LORD yes. I made a five hour roast duck just before we went out of town. It was really good but for the price you pay for duck I didn't know if I was something I'd do too often. But I used some of the duck fat to saute some potato wedges and they almost outshone the duck. Then the night we got back from Birmingham I was scrounging in the refrigerator to figure out something for dinner. There was just a little leftover duck and the saved duck fat. I threw a bunch of potatoes in a pan along with the diced leftover duck and duck skin, some leftover orange bell pepper and a bit of garlic. I cooked all of that in the duckfat and once it was done I cracked a couple of eggs on top and finished in the broiler. That simple leftover hash dish was worth every penny of the WHOLE duck. Duckfat....yes....absolutely amazing!
These are the potato wedges I made to go with the duck the first night:
6. Judi's house in South Carolina was set into a hill so that the main level was on the first floor in the front, and on the second in the back. There was a huge magnolia tree on the side and it always felt like you were in a treehouse. The landscape in Birmingham reminded me so much of South Carolina. I hadn't quite expected that. Sort of scrappy with southern pines and the kind of strung out development that comes with a lot of cheap land. I love the magnolias...this one was at Arlington, the antebellum house we visited.
7. Yesterday I told the guys that we were going to go to Allerton today. This morning? Feeling kind of lazy. So then I decided we'd work on cleaning upstairs---which we dearly need----and yet? Still feeling kind of lazy. I had to work a bit yesterday---not for long but it still feels like it's been awhile since I had day with nothing in particular calling to me. Maybe I'll make the boys go get some more firewood and we'll just all be lazy together....
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