Cubs, brown butter chicken & rice, Junior Botanist follow-up

Y'all, WHO watched Game Six of the World Series last night? It was so fantastic! I mean, how often do you witness a grand slam? We got the boys out of bed to watch the replays and plan to let them stay up for part of tonight's final match. Go CUBS!!!!!!!!!!

I was chilly all day yesterday and wanted a hearty dinner that would warm and comfort me. I also wanted it to be quick. My Brown Butter Chicken and Rice fit the bill to a tee. And, it's a one-pot dish. All the better!

I adore the interplay of the brown butter and lemon, the tender chicken that results from basically being poached in the oven, and the creamy flavorful rice that serves as the foundation here. I made a kale salad as our side, and we devoured everything. You should make both of these things soon!

Doesn't that look divine?

Do y'all remember the U.S. Botanic Garden field trip I took the boys on in late August? A couple weeks afterwards, Jack finished up the last of his Junior Botanist program pack, and we mailed everything in. 

Yesterday, he was thrilled to receive a huge bubble envelope from, you guessed it, the Botanic Society. In it was his official Junior Botanist certificate, an invitation to visit the Society's growing facilities, a clipboard, journal, and cool hand lens. I'm telling y'all, that is one cool DC opportunity for kids!

Getting out the vote

My time in Philly has been fulfilling in a number of ways: politically, as an adult, as a co-citizen, and as an eater.

2 tired 2 write, but... 

1. Canvassing- lots of walking and knocking (7+ miles, nearly 200 doors), lots of boffing our lines but still earnestly getting out there to encourage voting. Cool! 

Al Franken came to the south Philly staging location today. Awesome! 

2. Philly food does.not.disappoint. Tonight? Dinner at Southwark on 4th and Bainbridge. Marvelous! 

3. I have met some wonderful people and been lucky to have some really memorable conversations. More on that later, but for now, bed! 

Apple pie, and away I go

The boys had just a half-day of school today, and after I picked them up and we lazed a bit during a rain shower, we went to the nearest early voting site to cast my ballot. I was pleasantly shocked by the number of people in line- democracy in action, peeps! I love it!

The lead up to leaving home is always so odd. I'm leaving? Going somewhere without my boys and T? 

And yet, it's exciting. I'll sleep well, in a whole bed to myself, with no cat mews or boyish knocks or husbandly snores to interrupt my slumber. I won't need to prepare meals or negotiate sibling squabbles, won't need to make sure the teeth were brushed well enough or the fish fed. I won't have to toggle back and forth, in what are sometimes 30-second increments, between conversations, to dos, phone calls, and all the rest.

I've got a 2:00 train to Philadelphia tomorrow, and I am excited. I'll see friends, canvass across South Philly, and simply adult for 48 hours. Gosh, this sounds lovely. Lucky it's me going!

In the meantime, I have some good (and pretty) food to share with you.

For the past two weeks, I have had the most intense yen for an apple pie. A towering one in my fluted pie plate. Yesterday, it happened.

While I love my apple pie recipe, I came across this one for apple almond pie on Food52 recently. I could eat almond paste on dirt, happened to have an unopened tube of it in my pantry, and so took the lead. I followed the recipe exactly except that I used my pie crust rather than the butter one suggested. 

Hot damn am I glad I did so. Observe.

And here is what's left just 24 hours later.

Oh dear. But what fun! Jack had a full third! I'm gonna have the rest for breakfast tomorrow.