coconut lime crock pot chicken.

I made fab chicken yesterday.  And it was too easy not to share.  Here’s what I did:

1. Put 4 bone-in chicken breasts, rubbed with garlic-cilantro salt, in the Crock Pot.
2. Added three enormous garlic cloves, mashed.
3. Threw in a lime, sliced in half.
4. Poured on some rum and coconut milk (like 1/3 cup each, maybe more of the milk).
5. Left it on HI for about 5 hours, then LO for an hour when I got home from work.

It was so yummy and juicy!  Try it!

tobymac, technical devices, and lowfat granola.

I heard a song on the radio the other day that sent chills all along my arms.  I know that’s corny and makes me sound like a mom in a minivan who relies on the radio for her spiritual kicks, but this song is really good, I’m telling you what.  

It was so good that I wanted to buy it to listen to while i run.  And I never buy music.  [If more visions of minivan moms are coming into your head, push them away and keep reading.]  So I bought it today.  And wouldn’t you know that today would be the day that my trusty iPod mini–that I first bonded with on the way to Big Bend on a Christmas trip long, long ago–let me down and would no longer scroll.  I clicked it on to my new song (I think it’s called “Lose My Soul”…but I’m having another mom moment of forgetfulness) and it wouldn’t budge from there.  So I listened to the song three times.  Which tells you how long my run was (not very).  In my defense, the song is over six minutes long.  I highly recommend it.

 

In another train of thought later, I started realizing that as much as I love people and love talking to them, I don’t actually like being attached to a cell phone.  I wish I could dump it into the toilet.  I’m basically chained to the thing, and am expected by random people I shop alongside at grocery stores to answer it.  If you leave me a message on it, it says something negative about my character if I don’t call you back.  

 

The reason I’m even telling you this is because I’m up way past the time I should be in beddie-bye, waiting on some granola that I made to finish cooking.  I made it to take somewhere, but I made it the way I like it, because I figure I’ll be the main one eating it.  

So obviously, I wanted to make it as healthy as I could.  The only problem with that is that then it doesn’t taste as good as IT could.  So I tweaked…and cajoled…and added some oil about 20 minutes ago when the oats were looking pretty thirsty.  

What…you want the recipe?  Really?

Okay, here it is.

 

Lowish Fat Spiced Orange & Cranberry Granola (but don’t blame me if you eat too much and gain three pounds)

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup orange juice concentrate
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup dried cranberries
[I also had every intention of adding 1/2 cup of the most delicious golden raisins know to man...but I ate them all.]

Preheat oven to 300.  Combine first five ingredients in a 9×13 baking dish, then mix juice concentrate and vanilla, and pour over the dry mixture.  Stick in the oven for 40 minutes, stirring from the bottom every 10-15 minutes.  After about 30 minutes, take it out and add some maple syrup and oil if you think it looks dry.  That’s what I did.  I guess you could do that first, too, before it got dry-looking.  At the end of the forty minutes, add in the cranberries, and put it back in for 10-15 minutes.  Stir and enjoy!

banana, maple, peanut butter cupcakes.

that’s what i made tonight with mary, my wonderful (truly delightful) roommate.  you should have the recipe.  the cupcakes were banana maple and the frosting was a thick, peanut butter thing that turned more into caramel than anything.  we used what we had.  and it was amazing!  a delicious splurge on a monday night.

 

 

and i am happy.  laughter is so close to the surface these days.

what people who live alone do.

I like food blogs as much as, or actually probably a little more, than the next person.  And the ones I like the very best are the ones with the beautiful, glossy, make-your-mouth-water pictures.

But I’ve started wondering if all these bloggers are largely (no pun intended) single.  Why?  Because I cooked something really great the other day.  And there was no one to look at it.  No one to share it with.  So I grabbed my camera and took some pictures. 

fresh tomatoes and eggplant from the garden.

It was embarrassing.  Have you ever stood in your kitchen all alone and pointed your camera at a plate of food?  It feels…odd.  To say the least. 

Other things people who live alone do include:

• swimming by themselves for five minutes, then getting out.
• turning in at 9:08 on weeknights.  on weekends, they stay up til at least 10:00.
• refusing to buy grocery items that don’t come in single servings.
• going to the office early, staying late, and reading business books at Borders on the weekends.
• keeping all their mail, even though, after a week of not checking it, it still only amounts to a coupon from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, a coupon for Chik-Fil-A, and a coupon for Sports Authority.
• having long internal dialogues about how glad they are they’re single so they don’t have to meditate on how much they wish they weren’t.

 

In other news, I learned to use a 15,000 dollar t-shirt printer today.  If anyone would like a t-shirt, I now have to make a t-shirt a day until we hire someone to run the project for which we bought the printer.  I have Men’s Large V-necks, if you’re interested.

i am alive.

i just had one of the best mornings that i’ve had maybe ever.  after my first work week (i loved it…feel a little like a fish out of water…but i think it’s going to be good), i got up this morning (since when did 7:00 am become “sleeping in”?  oh yeah.  this week.) and drove out to Johnson’s Backyard Garden, a local 120-member CSA, where i was going to do a work-share, which means i work and they share. 

produce, that is.  lots of veggies para mi.

 

as i picked little, stickery cucumbers off their vines, smelling the cantaloupes on the next row, i wondered, how have i lived without doing this? 

i love the dirt.

 

then i got to pick squash and zucchini.  (i want to open a restaurant called zucchini’s.  what do you think?)  then eggplant…  so beautiful.  like glossy purple jewels hanging thick on green and mauve plants.

 

then i rode a tractor!  will and jeff, two interns who work 6 am to 4 pm on the farm Monday-Saturday, recruited me to help them plant some little eggplant plants fresh out of the greenhouse.  i got to ride on the sweeeeeeeeeeeeetest tractor, called a transplanter, and drop little plants into the holes that the tractor poked into plastic and then filled with water.  it looked like this:

only i was where the guy in the picture is and jeff was where the girl is.  but it was so fun.  and i got to pick jeff’s brain about horticulture, agriculture, and austin culture.  good times.

 

then i got some amazing veggies i’m going to live on all week…squash, onions, cherub tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers…

 

and THEN i went to mandola’s with aunt chris and camille!  aunt chris treated me, even though i was dirty from working, and we ate eggplant-zucchini-goat cheese pizza and talked for two hours.  aaah.  thank you, Jesus.  for everything.