I'm Gonna Wife the HELL Outta This...

I'm psyched for domesticity, y'all. A while back a friend found out that I really enjoyed cooking and he told me (with a good deal of embarrassment) that I'd make a great wife. I think he thought that I'd be offended. Hell no, I'm not offended! I'm going to make a TOTALLY kick-ass wife.  Sometimes when I'm cooking dinner I just think, "Damnit, this is AMAZING!" and I wish I could communicate how  beautiful and enjoyable and satisfying and calming and invigorating and lovely and robust it can be.  Have you ever noticed how beautiful a halved blue potato looks next to green onions or felt how cool rice flour is or smelled toasted cumin seeds or used turmeric and watched that marigold color just bloom in the pan?  That kind of thing just fills me with awesome.  Since I can't capture emotions, sometimes I take pictures (Joanna, here's some more food porn for you). 

Last weekend I went to the farmers market and saw these guys and couldn't resist making a classic Sunday dinner: roast chicken.  I'd never roasted a chicken before, but how could I say no to that tragic little carcass, looking all vulnerable and delicious?

I'm gonna wife the HELL outta this stuff.

I made some tasty lemon garlic butter to rub under the skin.  This dim picture can't really do justice to the fresh, happy look of the butter, but trust me, it was summer in a bowl.

Now, in order to butterfly the chicken for roasting you have to turn it so the drumsticks are facing you, then cut along both sides of the backbone, removing the spine.  Two weird things: (1) You may not realize this, but when plucked, the chicken still has a tail - a floppy, weirdly unsettling little triangle of flesh. (2) The chicken was looking coyly over it's shoulder at me.

Gaaaaah!

Let me tell you, you do NOT want something looking over it's shouler at you, WATCHING you while you grab it by the ass and slice out it's spine.  You just DON'T.  Once the butterflying process was done, the chicken looked decidely...relaxed.   I couldn't stop laughing because it was just so limp and stretchy and pathetic.

Once cooked on a nice bed of potatoes, though, it just looked plain ol' delicious.  Fortunatley it TASTED delicious, too. 

Darcy Tested, Mother Disapproved

Cupcakes, cheese, coffee - NOT a part of a balanced breakfast.

My Life (or parts, at any rate)

My first sweater!

Two color knitting = super fun
 

It's not very flattering, but I made it and it's mine!
 

Now, to stitch up the armpits... 

This is the cat who came to visit.

She just wandered in...

And then it was bath time.

Goodbye, kitty.

The Greening of My Thumbs

Things I Found To Be Lovely

Well whaddayaknow?

Interesting (probably only to me) note: I am currently at the exact same new vs. repeat reading percentage that I had last year: 59% new to 41% repeat. I wonder if this trend will pan out through the end of the year?

Vacation Exhaustion

I am back from a week long vacation with The Fam through Seattle and the Cascades and with Casey in So Cal. I am thoroughly wiped out. Today is my first day back at work and I started the morning at a coffee shop (COFFEE! CAFFEINE! LIFEBLOOD!) doing a brief interview as part of a background check for one of my friends/guy I once dated who apparently needs to get security clearance for his job. It made me feel vaguely important (I know someone who needs security clearance!) and laugh a lot because I was asked questions regarding any questionable activities, unexplained absences while abroad, hate groups he's involved in, run-ins with local or international police, trouble crossing borders, etc. My friend is one of the nicest, most honest, upright people and my facial expressions must have been really entertaining because the thought of him being a hate-filled, sneaky criminal was so ludicrous I had to refrain from laughing several times. Also, the interviewer obviously doesn't know me and has basically a check-list, but it was interesting to be asked questions implying that I might knowingly dating someone who participated in questionable, illegal activities and hate groups.

More about vacation later, possibly even some pics. For now, work, and then sleep. Much more sleep.