step .5

Tonight at the Lawrence Arts Center.


This is Mel Chin. He was visiting the Lawrence Arts Center tonight to promote his Fundred project. The goal of Fundred is to persuade the federal government to clean up lead contamination in New Orleans. I colored a Fundred Dollar Bill with a self-portrait and picture of my house.

This week has turned into a series of run-ups to the kickoff event of 28:It's What You Feel Like After Oprah Gives You A Makeover.

Monday: Choir! The Lawrence Civic Choir is BACK.
Wednesday: Slim victory over Baylor for the Jayhawks. I had D&D's tickets.
Thursday: Saw the KC Strawberry Hill Museum and had a meeting at the National Archives for work. Dinner at Blanc Burgers in Westport with Erin & Katie.
Tonight: See above.

I also need to get back to the Sunday cooking from my shelf of books, since for the last three weeks I have been making ham & vegetable soup. Different every week, delicious every week. And perfect for January.

pact

Erin has a great idea. A recent episode of Oprah featured a makeover (no kidding) where the recipient said she felt "28 again!" If 28 is the age to feel when you've had a makeover, then we had better experience 28 to its full potential. And it's up to us to define exactly what that means.

There are no rules. We simply agreed to take more chances, seek out new experiences, and enjoy the many freedoms that our happy lives permit.

We begin with drinks at Pachamama's on Saturday. 8:00. Come find us for some of the Star Bar's finest cocktails.

old house

I set my DVR to tape episodes of This Old House. No matter what the guys do to this house in Newton, I'm amazed by the transformation.

OMG, the lazy susan in the cabinet SWINGS OUT.

They just POURED A NEW DRIVEWAY.

My house is pretty great. But there's no swing-out lazy susan, and the driveway only goes halfway to the garage...

easier than previously thought

That stop at Great Harvest on the way home was delightful. Not only did I get a slice of cinnamon-chip studded bread, but a loaf of sunflower seed whole wheat. Yum. Brought it home and ate it as toast with poached eggs. But the best part? I'd never poached eggs in a pan before. Really--we always had a microwave poaching cup, which is a pretty good shortcut. But this worked so nicely, I won't bother buying a new microwave poacher--instead, I'm considering getting a couple of those little egg circles that you put in the pan so they come out in pretty circles instead of the freeform figures I had tonight. Three minutes and done.

cold continues.

I saw Youth in Revolt last night with Crystal and Megan. It may be my favorite thing he's done since Arrested Development. Francois Dillinger? Fantastic.

Now, after an hour banging at the three inches of ice on my sidewalk with a garden shovel ($70 fine if your sidewalk is reported as uncleared 48 hours after a snowstorm), I'm on the couch with Sasha. He's cuddled under my arm, his head on the laptop. Looks like I'm not going anywhere. I emptied a bag of rock salt onto the sidewalk before coming in. Let that do the work for awhile.

snow day

When you have an unexpected day off work due to snow, it's better to get out of the house. In fact, it's always better to get out of the house, at least for awhile.

For instance, you can go to the library and get books for free.
You can also drink a $5 pot of tea for an hour and a half, while reading a book given to you by a great friend.
The local fabric store has the buttons you need for the mittens you're knitting.
Elliptical machines might call your name for a midafternoon workout without the post-work crowd. So does the sauna.
Your out-of-town friend's plants need watering.
And there's always Target.

Of course--it's a good thing you have a shovel, because before you can do any of these things, the driveway needs to be shoveled. Get to work! It will help fix the sour mood you've been harboring all week.

mid-week bonus!

I know! It's not even Sunday! Sometimes, I also get to cook in the middle of the week. Like when there's a federal holiday and I don't have to go to work.

Sauteed Tarragon Chicken Breasts with Orange Sauce
From The Best of Jayni's Kitchen Cookbook, a gift from Diana (whose recipe for pork roast with fennel appears on page 79!)

The chicken wasn't anything special. I went on a hurried search for fresh tarragon yesterday, believing that the dish would suffer if I used dried. Should have guessed that if the first Dillons I tried had every fresh herb but the one I needed, then it would be the same story all over at the second Dillons. This logic is only apparent to me when I'm standing in the fresh herb aisle in the second grocery stop in 30 minutes, and I don't see what I came for. In any event, I found fresh tarragon today and made the chicken tonight, only to decide that the flavor would have been better with the bottle of dried tarragon already in my pantry. Lesson learned.

The sauce will definitely be repeated. I want to drink it from the pan. It's shallots in the buttery chicken drippings, plus orange juice and zest. Citrus and chicken are a winning combination.