Recap, dinner

Ok, here's the scoop: you should definitely whisk together crème fraîche and Dijon mustard, slather it over well-salted, best-quality chicken breasts, toss a couple lardons on top and oven roast until done. I mean, really, that was awesome. Divine! Memorable! www.em-i-lis.com

In the meantime, I heated my Lodge, fried some thick-cut bacon and then seared quickly blanched and then halved Brussels sprouts in the drippings and with the bacon chunks. Also, I haphazardly stretched some thawed puff pastry into a rimmed baking sheet, oiled and truffle-salted it, tossed slivered dried Mission figs/slivered shallots/crumbled blue cheese over that and baked until done. These were great sides. And with the Pinot I'd grabbed when I found my cellar was without white? Well, that was the creme.

www.em-i-lis.com

People, why is Michele Bachmann still talking? Planned Parenthood is the "LensCrafters of Big Abortion"? Really? There are just no comments that can either explain or dignify that ludicrousness.

Nasty night leads to better things

Y'all, last night was the absolute worst. A pox on that flu shot! I woke up at 2:00 am on the precipice of full-scale puke, feverishly chilly, shaking and sweating concurrently. For nearly two hours, I just huddled under my comforter, shivering and increasingly wet and trying not to bother T. I think my chills woke him up though because he offered to get Advil, and I said "yes, please." It helped some, and I got back to sleep for a couple hours. When I awoke, I felt as if I were on another planet, and good god almighty, you should have seen my hair. I looked like a wilting Medusa. Ugly! www.em-i-lis.com

A few hours later, a good pal came over so I could teach her how to make Nanny's cranberry sauce. It was so nice to spend time together in such a way, not least because we talked without being interrupted the whole time. After she left, I made my own batch and then boogied to school to help sketch the background set for the second grade play. My adobe buildings were better than my forest. Fortunately, my friend, C, was there too, and her pines were totally redemptive. At one point I looked at us, spread out on huge, bright blue, taped-together paper, and thought bemusedly, "we are two very well-educated women, and here we are on a floor, sketching a Native American backdrop at 2pm on a Thursday and kinda stressing about proportion and scale." You just never know where life will take you. It was fun frankly.

www.em-i-lis.com

Back home, and Ol and I made vanilla fig scones for a breakfast I'm hosting tomorrow. I need to get on the cherry-spelt scone bandwagon too, but first there is the pasta (made the dough an hour ago) I need to roll out and the underlying nausea (still!) with which I must deal.

Who joins me in a shout-out to the Senate for passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act today?? Finally, it is illegal to discriminate when hiring on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. And we've got marriage equality in IL! Yee-haw!

**PS- now taking orders for holiday-time Cranberry Sauce!

Not a cookie girl, but....

I am OFF MY HEAD about this shortbread recipe (courtesy of Ming Tsai) and have eaten more cookies (see Halloween cookies in previous post) in the past 18 hours than in probably the past 9 months combined. No, I'm not pregnant; the 9 months was just my best guess regarding time span in which a similar number of cookies may have been ingested. Seriously, people, this stuff is the bomb. Do you remember those red, round aluminum Danish Cookies tins in which stood columns of variously shaped butter cookies? The Royal Dansk collection or something of that ilk? My favorites were the rings with scalloped edges. Wait, were the tins blue?

Ming's recipe is that childhood memory upgraded and matured! Is it the addition of multiple egg yolks? The vanilla extract and paste (I subbed paste for the scraped bean)? The fairly ballsy amount of salt? I think all! Whatever it is, it's magic. The kids and their pals devoured huge quantities today -thankfully!- but I am happy that a decent store remains.

People, I believe I have also come across the babysitter equivalent of just how great these cookies are. We met her yesterday. She is a theater major and thinks the children's on-speed-like energy is delightful and just what she enjoys. Oh, mon dieu, can it be true? She could do every Harry Potter character's voice accurately; Jack was literally ensorcelled by this talent. Oliver found it intensely awesome that she encouraged him to jump repeatedly, sing, dance and fake-die. It's not too good to be true, is it? Send vibes that she's real and not some figment of my tired/husband's-been-out-of-town brain!

People, WTF with the Healthcare.gov site! Pitiful!!! Must be fixed 4 months ago!