3 Ring Binder

Ever since I began to flirt with cooking again, I've been making some combination of this delightful chicken salad using Well Fed mayonnaise which we always have on hand.  Also always on hand are cooked chicken breasts as my family became partial to the dark meat seemingly overnight! Armed with those two ingredients I came up with a chicken salad that I love! And I never liked chicken salad. Here is my perfected recipe, but you can throw in whatever colorful “charms” you might have in the veggie/fruit drawer that can hold their own in the melange. 2 whole cooked chicken breasts, cubed into ½ inch pieces, 1 large, or 2 small celery stalks, diced, 5 large, or 10 small chive stalks, chopped to ½ inch pieces, 1 large or 2 small carrots, peeled and diced, 15 walnut halves chopped, 4 large or 6 medium strawberries, diced, ¼ cup of blueberries (if they’re not too tart). Add a heaping spatula full of Well Fed mayonnaise and if you're very daring, 1 tsp. of cinnamon . This one h...

Last night, after a fun and exhilarating workout at the gym I had several hours of euphoria before I crashed into my pillow falling immediately dead asleep. I have not achieved either of these welcomed conditions for many months now, and I cannot help but think it is in large part due to the way I’ve been eating. I just finished Day 15 of my second go with the Whole 30 . (See my report on last fall’s nutty effort here.) The Whole 30 is an eating program which requires the removal of processed foods, sugar, dairy, and grains – all thought to be responsible for crazy cravings for empty calories and a myriad of often elusive ailments related to inflammation – from one’s diet, and the inclusion of good fats, good meats, nutrient-dense vegetables and some fruit, seeds, and nuts for thirty days.  It does require effort to make sure what you’re eating doesn’t have hidden crap in it, but if you stick with food still in nature’s packaging (or recently out of it – hello gorgeous grass-fed ...

I suspected early on in our relationship that it might come to this. After twenty-five years of hijinks, what else could a policeman, a librarian, a health agent, an artist, a journalist, and a homeschool mother expect from our midsummer Girls Night Out?   Sadly, our night in jail was not for any form of civil disobedience, but rather spent at the Liberty Hotel , formerly the old Charles St. jail in Boston. Happily. Beginning at the spectacular 90 foot rotunda and ending at the dungeon-like bar, Alibi, we thoroughly enjoyed our romp through the erstwhile jail which, in its day, played host to notables such as James Michael Curley, Malcolm X, and Sacco and Vanzetti. The dinner was excellent, and my drink, the Charles St. , was divine (gin, lavender bitters, and cucumber water).   The patrons milling about seemed to cover an impressive range of ages, and everyone seemed right at home there.   If you’re ever in the area, I recommend stopping by at least for a drink. T...

It doesn’t rhyme with Morton (sigh, Morton ), or Gordon.   The nearest way I can describe how to pronounce it is cau’-tauh n .   It’s French Canadian for the pure delight that is yummy pork fat spread. I was recently reminded of its delicious goodness on Friday when talking to my mother-in-law.   For a portion of her young life, she grew up in the exact same 12-house neighborhood that I did prior to the age of nine! Now that’s a little weird if you think about it too hard – so don’t– but this connection allows us to enjoy reminiscing about the oddities particular to these early influences. We discussed the houses: she lived in the one with the biggest yard at the far end of the street and I lived in the one with the barroom parking lot for a backyard on the main street.   We discussed the neighborhood: generations of family from her youth who were still there in mine.   And we discussed the area: the market on the corner of our neighborhood and the main street...

Arugula salad with toasted pecans, ripe D'Anjou pears, and a white truffle oil vinaigrette (my favorite). Flank steak with basil and Parmesan (Bobby Flay).  This was Stephen's first foray into flank steak. Flank is a typically tough cut of beef, but he seared and grilled the rolled "roast" so it stayed juicy. I would have never thought to put basil in with steak, but it added an unusually bright note and enhanced the taste. (I snapped the shot before the garnish police got ahold of it.)

I'd like to tell you exactly how warm it is outside right now on this last day of March, but my Classroom Thermometer is in the chick brooder. Sadly, this is the first year in a while that I have not started the month with the big head of a lion drawn on our blackboard which I morph slightly every day until it finally looks like a lamb on the last day. In fact, I can't even find the photographic evidence of that fun little activity. (Now that's frustrating.) Never one to be defeated by my own bad filing, I recreated the slow, painstaking process in 10 minutes (with the help of my youngest) and present to you March: In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb quick chalkboard morph. Okay. So what it lacks between steps 4 and 5, it more than makes up for in low contrast and blurry picture taking. And I forgot to put a colorful bow on the last picture. Darn it. Oh well. I'll leave you with some lamb cooking tips . And a simple request: To anyone who reads this and might have some...

about the days of the whole face-eating kisses.

This is too wonderfully creative not to share. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. (via Cake Wrecks - a hilarious blog about all things cakey.) Update: I just found out that this is from a 1993 video called Opera Imaginaire in which twelve arias are animated. This one is done by Guionne Leroy and there is even one on the Lakme aria I posted about a few days ago.

Okay, this is not the work I needed to prepare for next week, but I just had to make certain you took a gander at today's Martha Stewart's Halloween Idea of the Day today. It could be that I am making great strides in eating right and therefore cannot have such treats so it looks more appetizing to me than it really is, or it could be that it just screams YUM!