Showing posts with label green chair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green chair. Show all posts

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Lazy Sunday

Hectic work week + rainy weather = much needed low key weekend.

Jason and I have spent the last couple of days taking it easy and it has been really nice. I think we made it out of the apartment for all of an hour yesterday. We did a little better today—managing to squeeze in brunch with some friends and a trip to the grocery store (which was surprisingly empty for a Sunday—thank you Daylight Savings!) before coming home and relaxing. I capped the day with a Lost marathon while Jason spent some quality time in his green chair with a book.

I decided to go with the lazy Sunday flow and ease back into the kitchen with a fairly simple dinner—goat cheese chicken and cauliflower puree.  Goat cheese chicken was one of the first things I ever made for Jason when we were dating and it remains a household favorite. It couldn’t be easier—slip a little goat cheese and basil underneath the skin of some chicken and roast until done. The hardest part is actually finding skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts! Since I didn’t feel like going to multiple stores today to try and find them, we ended up with chicken thighs instead and they worked just fine.  It paired really well with the cauliflower puree—a light yet satisfying meal to close out the weekend.
Getting ready to go into the oven
 
 Cauliflower, onion and garlic
 
Mixture pre-boil

Goat Cheese Chicken
Just barely adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients:
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts or thighs
1 4oz cylinder package of goat cheese, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
Fresh basil leaves
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

1.Preheat the oven to 375. Place chicken pieces on a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper (for easy clean up). Loosen the skin from the meat with your fingers.
2.Place 1 or 2 slices of goat cheese along with a large basil leaf (or two depending on the size) underneath the skin of each chicken breast/thigh.
3.Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4.Bake chicken for 35-40 minutes (maybe less depending on size of chicken pieces you are working with) until the skin is slightly browned and chicken is cooked through.

Cauliflower Puree
Again, just barely adapted from The Kitchn

Ingredients:
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 TBL olive oil
½ of medium cauliflower, cut into pieces
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
3 cups of milk
2 TBL butter
Salt and pepper to taste

1.Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until soft, 2-3 minutes. Add cauliflower, garlic and milk. Season with salt and pepper
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer (covered) until the cauliflower is tender (about 12-15 minutes). Be careful to reduce the heat to low otherwise the mixture might boil over!
3.Drain, reserving the liquid.
4.In a food processor or blender puree the cauliflower mixture with butter and about ¼ cup of the cooking liquid (you can use more or less depending on how thick you want the puree to be). Adjust seasoning before serving. (Note: I would not recommend using an immersion blender for this. I tried it, thinking it would be easier than digging out the food processor but given the small amount of liquid it was difficult to get completely smooth. Next time I’ll definitely take the extra time and use one of the other options I suggested.)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Being Settled/Weeknight Routines

One of things I have enjoyed most about being a newlywed is that general feeling of calm and contentment that comes from being settled. To me this is most evident in our weeknights. Jason and I did not live together until we got married and our pre-wedding weeknights were full of uncertainty—who’s apartment we were going to hang out at, whether we were going to eat dinner together or meet up afterwards (and if we were going to eat dinner—what/where?), etc.  Even when we planned these things out ahead of time, things never felt truly comfortable (or dare I say…settled). It got old.

Once we got married we quickly settled into a weeknight routine, and the effortlessness of it all was one of the first things I think we both equally appreciated about being married. So what does our routine look like? Since I work from home and have no commute, I generally try to have dinner on the table when Jason gets home from work around 6:30-7 (and by that time we are both pretty much starving anyway).  Jason usually does the dishes (much to my relief since cleaning is one of the things I hate most in the world) and we settle in to watch the news (if it is still on) or (my personal favorite) Jeopardy. 

I LOVE Jeopardy. I pretty much kick its butt most nights too. I recently took the online test but I think I got too nervous (it was my first time) and choked. I am hoping one day I can go on and win us some money.
 
That, however, is where our common routine usually ends. We definitely have different “styles” when it comes to weeknights, and that has taken some getting used to.  Because I work from home and don’t interact with actual people on a regular basis (my interactions are limited to phone and email most of the time), I am usually really excited to have someone home to talk to or even just to physically be around. Jason, on the other hand, is usually ready for some “alone time” and wants to do his own thing. At first I took this personally, but now don’t really mind it (most of the time).

Unless there is something on the TV that we are both interested in (e.g., How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, or 30 Rock), Jason usually heads to either 1) our bedroom (where his desk is also located) or 2) his green chair.  Jason did not bring much in the way of furniture to our relationship (thankfully—I already had plenty given that I’d lived alone for 4.5 years before we got married) but he did have a green chair and ottoman that we put into a corner of the living room that we turned into a reading nook.


Our reading nook and Jason's green chair

So while Jason is either reading or messing around on one of his computers, I usually spend the evening watching TV.  It’s bad I know, but I like to relax during the week and relaxing for me is doing something that doesn’t really require much in the way of brain power (Jeopardy aside). I like to read but that is something I usually do in the 30-40 minutes before I go to bed or on the weekend. 

Having a routine has its downfall though—it is easy to get in a rut. Things like Book Club help. As does making plans to meet up with friends for the occasional happy hour or dinner during the week. But more often than not, when Jason and I feel like our weeknights are hitting a rut we spice it up with….a game of Scrabble. That’s right, Scrabble. We are officially old, married, and boring. But at least we are settled!