Memorial Day Dinner: Lemon~Herb Chicken Piccata

I found a chicken piccata recipe calling for chicken, lemon, butter, and CAPERS.  Not having any capers on hand, I substituted with fresh thyme, sage, and oregano, which I DID have on hand.  I know, who has all that fresh stuff handy over a simple jar of grocery-market capers.  The sister-in-law's garden is apparently drowning in this stuff.  yay!!!  Here is my all my hard prep-work below, which resulted in a great photo-op:

Little A picked these buttercups for me from the yard.  It's so fun to see them hanging around while I cook.  :-)

I was de-stringing the celery for my little Monkey when I decided I HAD to have a picture of these awesome celery-ribbons.  Crazy?  Me? No!(?)

OKAY ~ back for the actual dinner...Look at all that fresh thyme!!  This stuff is so dainty looking, I wish I could wear it in my hair!  HA

I seasoned the chicken with some good old Salt & Pepper (BOTH freshly cracked), floured, and pan-fried it.  After carefully removing it from the pan (non-stick) I deglazed with white wine, lemon juice, and chicken broth (the herbs were also added at this point).  The chicken was dumped back in for a minute, removed *yet again*, then the lemons were cooked in the sauce.  

I poured the sauce over the chicken, garnished with more thyme sprigs.  This stuff was SOOOO good I forgot to take a picture until AFTER we were finished eating.  So all you see is leftovers for tomorrow.  sorry!  But hey, you have to admit the leftovers look pretty mouth-watering.  Especially in the pop-you-in-face yellow Dansk Paella Pan.  By the way, I love presents in the form of vintage + Dansk.  That's how to get on my good side.  That and food.

WELL, I hope this was as mouth-watering post for you as it was for me.

YUM.

YUMMITY*YUM*YUM.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Memorial Day: @ Owens Beach

We visited Owens Beach park for the first time on Saturday before Memorial Day and enjoyed it so much (after getting over my initial fears of climbing up the hill into the woods) that we went back on Sunday, which was Memorial Day.  Here are some pictures of Little A picking flowers....

Somebody was really excited that he found this dubious-looking rope.  I couldn't really stop them...

She survived the swing, see?  Here we are, safely seated on the forest floor, after the above ridiculous tree-swinging episode.

Afterwards, a woman saw Little A bouncing in Chadbourne's arms as he ran down a steep hill at mach speed.  She looked at me and said "that is a crazy man".  She did not realize I was with them.  lol

Succulents for the Kitchen!!

I picked up some succulents from Home Depot on Saturday.  They fit PERFECTLY into the vintage restaurant coffee mugs I had been eying at the local antique store for MONTHS.  I finally broke down and bought all 8!  Four for my succulents, the other four for me.  (Kitty already somehow managed to relocate one of the plants to the floor without budging the coffee mug...so now there is double-sided tape on the window sill for the time being).  

I'm not much of a plant person (only because I don't have practice, but I can really appreciate a good looking plant).  However, I figured with Little A running around, it would be a good idea to have some healthy green around the house.  How sad it would be to grow up in a home without plants, right?!


I also grabbed a fifth plant (last minute) because it reminded SO much of the pencil cactus I have always wanted.  I stuck it in yet another vintage pot - this one I got from Seattle Antiques along with my kick-ASS Norwegian chair for my last anniversary.  I will do a post for the chair sometime...when I finish the living room...


*no plant is complete without a wee little deer companion* 

Here's my little doll, with her little doll, Monkey (sometimes goes by the name Monk-O...still not sure if the little dude is a dude or dude-ette.  I think it depends on little A's mood).  She is really excited about the plants.  And her ruby red slippers.

OH SHOOT.  It looks like this pic has a pen mark from the paint program.  Oh well.

Friday Night Dinner: Chow Mein

Chow Mein for dinner on Friday night.  With half a cabbage and some bok choy from Hong Kong Supermarket.  Next time, I'll add green onions, and upgrade to a whole head of cabbage.  :-)  Little A loved it, and she even loved it as leftovers a couple days later.

Little A, manually twirling the noodles around her fork.