Spontaneous visits with friends, dinner

You know when you meet someone and you nearly immediately think, "what a cool/fun/spunky/interesting/neat person! Boy would it be fun to know him/her better!"? Such is the case of friends of friends who I met through a fairly spontaneous girls' dinner and have stayed in touch with since, not least because she and her husband run a happy-cow farm as their second job (I loove the roasts I get from them!). Long story short, they swung by this evening to deliver two sirloin tip roasts, and we had such a fun, lovely visit despite the fact that they -on their way to a holiday party- looked smashing, and T and I -definitely staying in- are basically in our PJs. I love spontaneous visits with great people, and tonight was just that. After they left, T and I finished up dinner which was quite tasty. Perfectly browned chicken and this extremely pretty and festive rice. 

As I'm obsessively reading Gone Girl right now, I must bid you adieu until tomorrow.

Kudos/nodos, delish dinner on horizon

I would like to give an enormous shout-out to my husband because he saw one of my bras in the laundry basket and actually put it in the bra-washer to launder it. Say what? Amazing. Will wonders never cease?! I would like to call out, with utter disdain, the dudes I have seen lately blowing their noses out through the air. Do you know what I mean? No tissue, not even a sleeve (wretch; as if that's much better but it is more responsible or respectful to passersby). Unless you are in mile 25 of a marathon, you do NOT need to blow your nose crap out into the ether around you. Revolting. Go find a kleenex, hanky, leaf for god's sakes.

I made so many cookies today that my back aches now. Am I getting old? Whatever, a delicious dinner is on the horizon. A caramelized onion and rice dish studded with apricots, sour cherries, pistachios and pom seeds alongside some seared happy chicken. It smells so good, and at T minus four minutes, I am darn excited!

Cookies- batch 1

This dough is the best kind: infinitely pliable yet sturdy; you can roll it out a million times; it's pretty when cooked and yields a great flake; and it smells good in the process. Word of warning, though- if you try to roll it out when it's still too cold, you could, if pregnant, go into labor; if you're not, you will get a great workout in your triceps and shoulders. If you're a Food52 obsessee, you've probably seen this recipe on the main page recently. It's Amanda Hesser's mom's recipe and is quite similar to the butter cookies my mother-in-law makes (that recipe is under Desserts).

Having happily spent an hour or so on these, I am somewhat intimidated by the amount of dough that remains in my fridge. It will freeze well, so at least a quarter will head in that direction I believe. At least until my enormous box of decorative sugars and pearls arrives. I'm a terrible decorator somewhat lacking in the patience required to improve so who knows what sort of holiday-nesting sensation came over me the other day. Ah well, gifts!