Happy Labor Day! Flew by, of course, as all holiday weekends do, but this one was particularly fun because my brother David was here. That meant extra hang time with Stacey and Cooper too, and as a group we had a grand old time. We pretty much just chatted, cooked, ate, and hung by the pool. Yeah, that pretty much covers it.

The foodie highlights:

• I made a tomato-goat cheese tart for a late din Friday night. Nothing more than a short-pastry crust, smeared with minced garlic, filled with tomato slices, a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, and dabs of soft goat cheese. I baked until golden brown and soft, served alongside a salad, in the dark on the deck, with a glass of crisp white, and it was nice.
• Scrambling for a brunch idea Saturday morning, I innovated crepes filled with softly scrambled eggs and a "sauce" of cherry tomatoes sauteed with onions and fresh herbs. With a few slices of Nueske's Canadian bacon on the side, we were well-fortified for a day of...lying around in the sun, listening to music, reading books, and chatting. Hey, what can I say?
• Saturday night we dined deliciously at 20.21. As usual, the star was the lobster risotto with crispy spinach, I'd say one of Minneapolis' top five restaurant dishes. It hits all the notes, baby - creamy, spicy, sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy. And it's gorgeous. And delicious. Oh yeah, I already said that.
• Last night I made not just shrimp saltimbocca, but scallops saltimbocca as well, due to a bit of a screw up in purchasing frozen shrimp at Whole Foods. A tasty mistake, turns out, since Stacey, David, and I all love scallops (while John and the kids opted for shrimp). With grilled bread, topped with ricotta cheese and grilled tomatoes, we had ourselves a summer feast.
• And the wrap up today, more tomato goodness, this time in the form of post-exercise BLTs at Stacey's. Garden-ripe tomatoes and Nueske's bacon. 'Nough said.

David (pictured at right with Etta, a couple of weeks ago in Wyoming) left around 5 pm this evening, unforch totally missing the chicken I roasted tonight, whole on the grill (with my Weber poultry roaster), this time with a Mexican spin - garlic, lime, and ancho chili powder. We ate the crispity slices in warm corn tortillas alongside potatoes roasted with jalapenos, onions, and green pepper.

The End to a lovely Labor Day weekend.

Moderate it: yeah, a pretty big food weekend. I biked in the wind, walked in the heat, and most surely didn't come close to working off that lobster risotto. Good thing the weekend is done and we're back to "normal" tomorrow. Uff.

Gosh, what a lovely weekend, huh? I can't remember a summer with nicer weather than we've had this year - warm, dry, I'm really trying to savor every minute of it. Man, when it so chooses, Minnesota quite RAWKS. Nice.

I opened the rawkness with an uncharacteristic bit of baking, motivated by my lovely CSA blueberries. Blueberry muffins, in fact, basically crazy-good. Yeah, warm muffins, plenty of French Roast (decaf, I'm a wuss), nice start to the day.

Post-muffin(s), it was high time for a lovely, sweaty walk, today 'round Lake of the Isles, through Lowry Hill, along Mount Curve, and through Kenwood Park. Just...gorgeous. (Mos def topped my buggy, humid walk through the usually lovely Clifton French Regional Park on Wednesday, OMG, I was flat-out attacked by gnats and biting flies, OUCH!)

My stinky self stopped off at Whole Foods on the way home and ran into Debbie and Stu The Wine Genius - they were picking up dinner ingredients after paddle-boarding on Lake Calhoun. (Dinner at their house next weekend, by the way, with Rudy & Ana, yays!)

But just a family dinner here at the hacienda tonight, so I picked up a roasting chicken, loads of naan (flat bread, the kids go crazy for it), and baba ganoush (the Whole Foods brand is particularly tasty). I roasted the chicken on the grill with my faboo Weber roaster, grilled the naan (spritzed with a bit of olive oil spray and sprinkled with a pinch of Kosher salt), grilled CSA veggie share zucchini (sliced thin, same treatment as the naan), and tossed together a quick salad of tomatoes (from my own pots! Finally!), cukes, onions, artichoke hearts, and roasted red pepper. In other words - a Mediterranean feast, more than I had even planned. I didn't quite know where to start when I faced my plate - so many favorites, so little time!

Heck, not even bat guano could distract me from digging in (we have a couple of bats who've taken up residence in our oft-closed shade umbrellas - seriously gross when you pop the umbrella and guano showers down on the table. Uh, yuck. But that's what shopvacs are for - that and disinfectant kitchen sprays, shiver).

Post-Whole Foods, pre-cooking dinner, I snuck in a little time at the pool with John and Nathan. Hot sun, cool water, a spooky book (Ghostwalk, by Rebecca Stott), all good. And what is it about a pre-dinner shower on a hot day? So decadent. Best if warm-not-hot, fragrant (Molton Brown Energising Seamoss, smells like the ocean), quick, no fuss. Followed by a sun dress, swipe of Chanel Glossimer, spritz of Annik Goutal Les Nuits d'Hadrien, ready to cook! Little al fresco dining, blogging, call it a day...

G'night!

Moderate it: I think olive oil spray is one of the greatest inventions ever. I used it to grease the muffin tins for this morning's blueberry muffins and to oil the naan, chicken, and sliced zucchini before salting and roasting them this evening. Low-calorie, tasty, effective - virtually indispensable.

If you were waiting for me to post recipes for gazpacho or shrimp saltimbocca, both recipes are up now. My apologies for the lame (let's face it, lazy) delay!

Last night I whipped out my new Weber Poultry Roaster again, man I love that thing. Absolutely no mess or fuss - I opened the grill to baste the bird (chicken) a few times, but that's about it - et voila, a browned, crunchy little lovely, with some nice drippings at the base to turn into a bit of sauce. With sauteed broccoli and sugar snap peas alongside (I've got a thing for snap peas this summer, briefly sauteed in a bit of olive oil or butter until just heated through, so sweet and crunchy), it made a tasty din for the Wild Wednesday crowd.

Tonight, as I mentioned, dinner at Morton's with Zim's and Mack's to celebrate Aaron's birthday. Happy Birthday Aaron! My plan is to bow out early and head over to catch the end of Nathan's baseball game - he's had a little post-season tourney pop up. See you there, I'll be the one in a dress gnawing a side of beef in the stands. Rarrr...

Moderate it: oh Lord, Morton's is the most immoderate place on the planet. I man, I eat meat, grunt. It's all delicious, but even the potatoes are gargantuan - where do they find those things? I don't know what I'm ordering, probably a fishy appetizer of sorts - I'm making beef tenderloin on the grill tomorrow night, so no steak, sniff. I do love their steamed veggies, with just a teeny bit of Bearnaise (The Kill). Hopefully right about when those naughty hash browned potatoes appear, I'll be driving to Nathan's game...

Ooh, I have a cool new grill tool to rave about - the Weber Poultry Roaster! A sort of Chicko for the grill, or as Weber bills it, "beer-can chicken without the beer can." It has a little depression to fill with liquid - I innovated and poured in a bit of white wine with several cloves of smashed garlic - and the same phallic shape as the Chicko for spearing the chicken upright, always fun. The results? Completely delicious - crisp skin (salty, well, cuz I oiled and salted it), tender meat, even some nice pan juices (skimmed of oil, probably only a couple of tablespoons afterward, but very concentrated and tasty). All in all a success, especially with potatoes grilled in foil (with dill and scallions), finished with a dab of creme fraiche (scraped them from the foil into a bowl, stirred in a dab of creme fraiche), and LaFinca peapods sauteed quickly in a bit of butter. Uber-Frenchy, uber-yum, especially on the deck with a little tune-age, yeah.

What else? A dee-licious and romantic din at Cafe Lurcat last night, just John et moi, in the pretty bar. We shared the mini-burgers (to die), shrimp fritters, roasted cauliflower, apple salad, and gazpacho with anchovy crouton (again, to die).

Today, I worked off the excess by hauling my bike into Erik's Bike Shop (on an upside-down bike rack, no less, how embarrassing). I ride my bike every week or so, every time miserably uncomfortable and pretty much hating it. I finally brought it in to address the fact that my hands are painfully numbish after just an hour ride, plus I always feel like I'm sliding off the front of my seat. Well, hallelujah Erik's, my seat was too low, my handle bars were WAY too low, my seat was too big and tilted too far forward, and my tires were seriously under-inflated. The guy wryly said, well, we are making this quite a tall bike, but then again, you are not a short woman. Ha! No one else in the fam will be able to ride the thing (at least not if they want to touch the ground) - it even looks tall to me - but I got on that bad boy afterward and biked for an hour and a half today, happy as a clam. Do not underestimate the importance of a properly fitted bike - sheesh, what a difference.

Moderate it: it's tough at a spot like Cafe Lurcat, with arguably the best frites in the city. In the end, John and I chose between the burger and frites, and were happy with our choice (we were needing some protein in our order). We fleshed out the rest of our meal with veggies - gazpacho, cauliflower, and salad. Does a Bloody Mary count as veg? Who cares...damn goooood.

Um, at least it's sunny? Yeah. That's about all I can say, on the coldest day of the year, which here in Minnesota is a very cold day indeed. I'm trying to keep my spirits up, plying all the old, cozy tricks, and they most certainly help. What's not to love about baking bread and taking baths? But I think it was the warm break on Monday that did me in a bit, I got a good, long taste of fresh air and it's been hard to go back to being so, so housebound. Oh, I'll hang in there, like we all will, dressing in layers and sipping hot tea. But the next day that tops 10 degrees, I'm so out there for a long walk. Woo hoo for above zero weather!

Despite my complaining, I had a lovely afternoon out and about yesterday, a birthday lunch with my stepmom Susanna at Luci Ancora in St. Paul. I totally indulged in comfort food (hey, it was for my birthday!) and it was pretty incredible. Homemade fettucine as pillowy as Angelina Jolie's lips, tossed with a shower of truffly cheese, a nice amount of butter, a few pretty peas, and freshly ground black pepper. Simply. Perfect. I could have stopped right there. But no, I also had a crispy romaine salad, and split a berry fruit tart with Sus, served alongside a pile of softly whipped cream, with clever little swirls of chocolate around the plate to smear each bite through. Uff. Fullness. I think I am, now, officially done celebrating my birthday? It's been a most enjoyable ride, all eight weeks of it. Nice!

Tonight (actually, this afternoon, since we have to eat so early on Wednesdays) I'm pulling out the Chicko and roasting me a chicken. (The Julia Child method is fabulous too.) More long-cooking, kitchen-warming comfort food, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, I'm doing the best that I can...

Dinner and a movie, pretty hard to beat. Even (or especially?) on a bitterly cold, slippery-snowy evening. John and I hit a late-afternoon showing of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the intense true story of French Elle publisher Jean-Dominic Beauby. Beauby, at the age of 42, suffered a sudden, massive "cerebral event" which left him with "locked-in syndrome" - a fully functional intellect trapped inside an immobile body. He could hear, and blink his left eye...but that's it. Dedicated therapists worked out an eye-blinking code so that he could communicate, and he eventually used it to dictate the memoir that the movie is based on. The story is far too grim and frightening to be uplifting, but it's powerful, and redemptive, and I walked out feeling a little dazed. (John loved it.)

As often happens to me, the setting of the film stirred cravings for the featured culture and food, in this case French. (Italian movie, Italian food. Asian movie, Asian food. Heck, a strain of a Mexican tune conjures a hankering for margaritas and guacamole. I'm hopeless.) So off we went to our favorite little bistro, Cave Vin, for Gallic treats. To start, half-price bottles of wine on Monday nights, a particularly sweet bonus given their lovely wine list. Smokin-hot frites with crushed garlic (but of course). Plump, tender mussels bathed in a perfect lemony-garlicky broth (insert copious amounts of crusty baguette, soak briefly, sigh deeply). A crispy-roasted chicken breast, with fresh herbs stuffed under the skin, served alongside simple sauteed vegetables. A few decadent bites of a warm chocolate pot-de-creme. And with sips of strong coffee to finish, and chats with the tables on either side of us (we happened to know both parties, random), we rolled on out into the snowy cold, (temporarily) blissfully unaware of its nasty bite given the protective presence of warm food and drink. Oooh, bon, bon, bon. Date Night!

And tonight, more French fabulousness, this time with Stu The Wine Genius and his lovely wife Debbie. Stu belongs to the Twin Cities' chapter of a Bordeaux wine-enthusiasts group (wine frat!) called the Commanderie de Bordeaux. Commanderie members host dinners and wine tastings, called parlements, and occasionally invite guests to attend. Tonight's parlement will feature the wines of Chateau Smith-Haut-Lafitte. Tonight's guest list will include - moi! John was invited too, but he wussed out because he gets too overwhelmed by multi-course, multi-taste dinners. I surprisingly (har) dig them wildly and can't wait. Yay! I'll check in with the details tomorrow.

Until then, stay warm, my friends!

Silver bells, silver lights, let it snow and snow and snow! Yes, it's cold and blustery, but oh my goodness it's beautiful out there, truly a winter wonderland. John and I and both kids celebrated the frosty fabulousness with dinner at Ciao Bella - pizza, risotto, lasagna, salad, calamari, tiramisu, salmon - basically, a tour through their entire menu, ha.

Afterward, full and bundled up (and thankful for all-wheel drive), Nathan and I set out for a tour of a different sort, a Christmas-light tour, first checking out displays we looked up in the newspaper, then ending with simple drives through some of our favorite neighborhoods. I'm such a sucker for the big light displays, and every neighborhood looks perfect and Christmas-y under a blanket of soft, fluffy snow, lit by a full moon no less, warmly cold, silver and gold. Having ourselves a Merry Little Christmas indeed.

Tomorrow, stay tuned for late-morning Christmas caviar on toast points for John and me (one of my presents, nice!), then roast chicken and vegetables with stuffing and pan juices, crab cakes, and chocolate mousse and lefse for Mom, Stacey, Cooper, and Bowen for Christmas Eve dinner.

Thank goodness we'll be opening some presents, I'll be needing the exercise, whew.

Again, I rave about Lucia's. I know, I know, but I can't help it, I love the place. Last night John and I ducked in for another perfect Date Night dinner - cozy, simple, relaxing, delicious. I had a roasted chicken breast, boned but with crispy skin, served alongside mushroom bread pudding in a pool of truffle demi-glace. Shut. Up. As you might already know, I am over-the-moon for savory stuffing/bread pudding/panzanella/panade-type dishes, and for truffle-anything, and I occasionally (!) like me a crispy roasted chicken as well, so I was all over this dish. I even smacked John's fork away with my own - clack! - when he went in for a bite of the bread pudding. He doesn't particularly enjoy stuffings or mushrooms, what the heck was he doing? After I chased such silliness away, I fell into a lovely, truffly trance, mmm... I'd say I ate every bite, but I couldn't pull it off. I gave half the chicken breast to John, and had to leave behind a few carrots and brussels (Lucia's always does the yummiest veggies), but I gave it a good go! And I was stuffed. But in that good way - warm and buzzy and sleepy. I slept like a rock. Man I love that place.

Good thing I got such good sleep - busy weekend! 'Tis the season! Tonight, Baseball Moms, tomorrow night, the neighborhood Frat Party, uh, I mean Afterglow Party, where all the grownups get dressed up and party down and have a grand old time. John would rather die than attend such a fete, so he'll be home with Nathan (boys' night!) while I happily head out on my own. Fa la la la la, la La La Lucia's!

So, to pick up on a couple of riffs from yesterday (and no, don't worry, I am NOT drinking beer today, ha)... First, dinner at Fogo de Chao was fantastic! What a blast! What a scene! That place is hoppin', people, and while many of the customers were Badger fans (how do I know? Because Badger fans wear their red Bucky clothes all the time, including out for dinner at Fogo de Chao...), I have a feeling that the place does just fine on other nights too. It's HUGE! And festive, with adorable Brazilian gaucho chefs wandering around with skewers of succulent fire-roasted meats - lamb and chicken and tri-tip beef, oh my! The entire staff is Brazilian, as far as I can tell, so Mary (my college Portuguese professor) chatted up a storm (in Portuguese, natch) while I offered the occasional "obrigada" (thank you) and then asked Mary, "Um, how do I say, 'My name is Stephanie?' in Portuguese?" Yeah, great memory. I can remember outfits I wore to class... I can remember which football players were in my class (as my stepmom Susanna recently reminded me, I did have quite a soft spot for the football players in my Portuguese class, rarrr)... I can remember all sorts of (high school) French... But actual Portuguese, I got nothin'. Obrigada, brain, obrigada.

Anyhow, my camera battery was dying (thus the horribly grainy pic), but I just had to try to capture this unlikely scene: my tiny, pretty mother, she who birthed two un-tiny daughters (me-5'11" and Stace-5'10"), with her tiny appetite, staring wide-eyed at these big ol' skewers of roasted meats, totally being a good sport while the gauchos offered slice after slice after slice... I have to admit, I couldn't eat much either, I was too full from all that damn Badger Blast beer. And the several bites of the Be-Wiched roast beef sandwich John brought home for me (be sure to check out Be-Wiched, it rawks). But it was great to see Mary Schil, and her friends Ron & Linda and their daughter Brooke. Especially when I offered them a ride back to their hotel, thankfully only a few blocks from Fogo de Chao - seeing a man as big as Ron (he's the one next to my mom, above), riding on all fours in the trunk of my not-large wagon (the only way he could fit)... I haven't laughed that hard in a very, very long time. Thank goodness he laughed right along with us. Damn, I'm wiping my eyes all over again. Ron = Good Sport, fo sho.

So, oh! The second riff is that I'm definitely going for the roasted Chicko chicken tonight... I'll post later on the specifics, but for now my plan is to keep the first attempt simple. Nothin' but salt and butter, baby. And did I mention that Nathan and John are, as I write, making a run to Maverick's for their killer roast beef and brisket sandwiches (John's clearly got a sandwich thing goin' this weekend)? Uuuurrrrgh... Moderation, Moderation, wherefore art thou, Moderation? Stay tuned...

Alright, I'm back with my roast chicken update! The Chicko is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. After a bit of a beginner's hiccup (I initially had the bird legs-down, kinda like a headless Buddha, then quickly realized it was going to cook more evenly legs up - I also realized that breast-down means more succulent white meat, always a good thing), I was good to go. No turning required (I did baste with melted butter a few times), just a beautifully crispy, juicy, browned chicken. So it's official - I'm a certified Chicko-phile! A Chicko-Chick! Leggo my Cheeky Chicko! Well, when I actually get one... Which will be soon, I just ordered one; with as many times as I roast chicken for dinner, I figure I might as well make it as good as possible, as soon as possible, non? Thanks to Kevin and Kristi for discovering and proselytizing this little beauty, and to their disciple Lindsay for loaning me her Chicko in the (successful!) effort to convert me. Amen.

Um, OK, sometimes I do like surprises - A LOT!!! Yes, my sweet husband looked past my unsentimental anniversary attitude (although I got him a killer gift too, which I haven't been able to give him yet, but I know he's gonna love it) and got me the most killerest, hardcore, rock-n-roll ankle boots EVAR. Oh yes, they are METAL. Suz not only said so (I wore them to Tuesday Morning Coffee with Suz & Kim - although Kim wasn't there today), she bowed down and gave them - not me, them - the metal sign. YESSS! How did he make such a genius, fashion-forward pick? He very, very wisely called my fabulously coolicious sister Stacey, who pointed him in the right direction - thank you, Stacey! Thank you, John! I'm oh, about 6'3" in these bad boys, so if you see me in them, get outta my way! Woo hoo for kickin' boots! Rarrr...

Ahem. Anyhow, now that I'm home, the boots are off and I'm folding laundry and thinking about roasting another chicken for dinner tonight. I'm just going to keep roasting 'em until I'm roasted out. And for now, I'm not even close. Buttery, crispy, roasted chicken, here we come!

All hail kale! OMG I hated the stuff when I was kid - or at least I thought that I did, I never actually tried it. My Grandma Meyer cooked it, long and slow, with some form of pork (I think), which sounds absolutely delicious to me now but egads it stunk up her house. I don't know when I turned the kale corner - probably about the time I turned the cheese-steak-salad-egg-nuts-tuna corner, around age 14 or so. And thank goodness! Kale is wonderfully nutritious, easy to cook, and when braised and then drizzled with best-quality (syrupy, rich) balsamic vinegar... The. Kill.

Check out this Star Tribune review of Gary Taubes' new book, Good Calories, Bad Calories. Taubes stirred the pot - BIG time - with his 2002 New York Times Magazine article, What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?, when he poked a big fat hole in dietary recommendations to avoid fats and eat grains. I'm no low-carb fanatic (moderation, natch), but I do steer away from most processed foods, refined grains, and sugar and try to fill my plate with veggies, add some protein, add a small amount of whole grains, and include some fat (olive oil, butter, avocado, and/or nuts). I get off track sometimes, of course, especially after trips or parties (woo hoo!). And then I feel like crap, retain water, and put on weight (not woo hoo!). Moderation, baby! Real food, prepared simply, in moderation. (Like kale!) Yeah.

Aannnd, speaking of food (awkward transition alert, sorry), Happy Birthday to my King Foodie father-in-law John!

Hey, me again, back to report that I roasted yet another buttery, crispy chicken, and oh my. So good. Here's the way to eat it - preferably alone, standing up, directly from the cutting board, dipping pieces right into the bowl of pan juices. Yeah, oh yeah. Now I'm properly fortified for our neighborhood women's association meeting - wine and chat, here I come!

Happy Almost 40th Birthday Kim!

Yes, even the darling Maven of Mischief has (almost) finally joined us old gals in the Over-40 Club. Yuck, not a club I aspired to join, but there it is, nothing to do but accept it. Still catches me a bit off guard - 40. Yeah. Forty, Kim! Forty and fabulous, you are, my dear! (Especially in her "I'm 40" ring, on her all-important finger, see above.)

We celebrated tonight with a dinner here at the hacienda, Kim, Suz, and me, which is just how Kim wanted it - waaay low key. No surprises, no crowds, no big parties. I set out some brie, pate, and radishes with Hope Creamery butter to nibble on while we had a champagne toast. To 40! To life! L'chaim!

So we sipped and noshed and giggled (and drove John into the other room, ha) while the chicken finished roasting - yes, yet another roasted chicken, I can't stop making the damn things. This time I prettily framed the bird with lots of carrots and potatoes, to soak up all the buttery pan juices and slowly brown and crisp alongside the peep. Worked nicely. To cut all the rich buttery-ness I made a green bean and last-tomatoes-of-the-season salad, seasoned with lots of last-tarragon-of-the-season dressing. Au revoir summer, kiss, kiss.

For dessert I made simple cream puffs and filled them with coffee whipped cream. Add wine, and hot coffee, cheesy 70s tunes on satellite radio (for junior-high slow-dancing, of course), and plenty of pathetic, shriek-worthy beefcake courtesy of God's Gift, and we called 'er a birthday dinner, yes indeed.

And now, g'night to the Birthday Girl! Sleep tight and well! You know, before the hot flashes of menopause set in! Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh...

My office is clean. I'm roasting a chicken (again). John and I had a gorgeous Date Day brunch at La La Lucia's. Life is goooood, my friends, at least right now, ha.

That brunch, that scrumptious brunchious (or something), just unbeatable. Today we sipped mimosas and nibbled on popovers, frittata (their version is more like crustless quiche than the traditional omelet and that's just fine, it's lovely), crispy oven roasted potatoes dipped in sour cream, and lots of coffee. I hardly knew what to bite or sip, all good, all good.

Same goes for last night, by the way, dinner with Andrew & Rishia Zimmern at Harry's Food & Cocktails, in the now-hoppin' riverfront 'hood in the shadow of the new Guthrie. No Chef Steven Brown in the house (darn, he's amazing) but plenty of tasties nonetheless. Rich, rich gastropub (AZ's term) fare, I kinda sorta rolled out of there. We shared a whole mess o'things... A lovely chicken liver amuse bouche. Then bites of salt-n-pepper shrimps, beef short ribs, crispy pork belly with lentils, mussels & frites, burger, walleye sandwich (with avocado & radishes, nice), green goddess salad, BLT, banana cream pie. Uh, yeah, no wonder I was stuffed, uff. Fun though! Some hits, some misses - I'd really like to go back when Steven Brown is in the kitchen. Skip the BLT, but try the plump mussels, fat burger, crispy walleye sandwich, or creamy pie.

And tonight, as I said, back to roasted chicken. It was just so damn good, we had to give it another go. In fact, I'm roasting two this go-round, since Nathan is here for din, and hopefully we'll have some leftovers for sandwich fixin's tomorrow. Nothing like a chicken sandwich washed down with a cold beer on a Sunday afternoon, huh? Sweet. Salty. Sweeet.

Back to school! And Tuesday Morning Coffee with Suz and Kim! As always, great to catch up with my minxes, sip some joe, and cackle and laugh my butt off. All good, baby, all good.

I got around to roasting our chicken rather on the late side last night - John and I didn't eat until almost 10 pm! Woops. Worth the wait however, for buttery, crispy chicken, with killer pan juices. The classic Julia Child recipe, can't be beat. (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

Tonight, one of Nathan's favorites, a back-to-school special pork tenderloin on the grill, with warm bread and olive tapenade spread. Definitely a Hellenic feel, although not nearly as fabulously as last week's Susie Birthday Dinner at It's Greek to Me. Just Suz, Kim, and me, on the patio, sharing spanikopita, eggplant spread, flaming kasseri cheese, gyro, Greek salad, and fries. A real, rockin' Greek birthday feast for my dearest Jewtheran friend. Opa, Suz! Woo hoo!