Legend in my Spare Time...

Now one would not typically use the words 'magnificent' and 'Monday' together, in the same sentence, and to do so is an anomaly of gigantic proportions...Huge, one might say...However...I can, with a clean conscience, use both words at the same time...and they have even been given permission to sit right next to one another in the same sentence.. Although, they're not allowed to hold hands...Or meet one another behind the gym after geometry...or to share a piece of grape Bubblicious.  I absolutely forbid such a thing!  Not on my watch.  What would the neighbors think....

"Awww, Mama....relax....they're innocent young words...they mean no harm...Lighten up!"

The pick-me-up today was entirely the fault of a particular chainsaw juggler...hmmmmm, who knew..  It was rather welcoming, considering my morning began with a frightening incident which took place at 'The Wall.'  I will briefly mention an occurrence, of sorts, and bury the memory of said occurrence out in the back-yard next to my pet mice Stuart Little and Linus Pauling...it was THAT awkward....But, I was given the green-light by those involved to discuss said clash on the world wide web...I always ask first...liability reasons, of course.. tisk-tisk..  There was a slight, well, full-blown actually, falling out amongst two of the regulars.  There..I said it out loud and I feel better getting it off my chest.  It was not the way one would chose to start of their day...bearing in mind..I was sitting directly in the middle of this confrontation.  Man...and as this chaos was going on..all I could think about was the fact I had left my brand new magic pen in my apartment...If I had remembered my pen...things would have been much better..  Quinn could have broken the ice, or changed the subject, or glowed, or done someone's taxes...anything to eradicate this situation..Everyone survived...in case you were a curious kinda person.  Now allow us to move on...there was dinner..which was light and lavish...(I swear I will not use this opportunity to personally compare myself to the meal...it is about as old as my thyme joke...and a few others...I guess I need some new material...) teehee...

"Ummm..yep...Mama..You TOTALLY need some new material...

But, ya know....Your jokes aren't half  bad...they're ALL bad...tisk-tisk"  No bones for you...my sweet pea...who gets the last tisk-tisk in these here parts, huh????

We had...chicken!!!  One can never tire of chicken...well unless your chicken tastes like a tire..(that was new....hmmmmm, see...)  My chicken tasted nothing like a tire, and I love chicken.  We had some, of the free-range variety.  It was spicy and sticky.  It sat atop a rosemary, white bean puree and right next to parsnip and carrot 'fries.'  I told you it was light and lavish...I never lie about these sorts of things...it's not in my best interest to do so.

Allow me to reveal the components necessary to create white bean puree...no regrets, my friends...none!

It is all about keeping things simple..it is best...white beans rinsed, of course, chicken stock, rosemary, garlic, onion and carrot...Allow these to simmer atop your stove...

If you are super-duper lucky like me...you'll have a super-duper new cool magical pen to assist in the cooking of your beans.  That is critical...go buy a pen...again, no regrets....You will have regrets if you do not listen to King for a Day and dance around your apartment with your new super-cool new pen while the beans cook....Why not do so???  What else ya gonna do????

 Besides....the things Billie Joe does..hmmmm

Once your beans have completed their cooking process...and you've listened to King for a Day ten times....throw everything in your blender...with caution, mind you...HOT liquids can be something with which one can have difficulty...

Hot stuff in a blender...Being a blender is a hard job...Shall you care to relive my coulis incident of 2010, which I briefly mentioned..yep...be careful...otherwise, if you have forgotten... I can provide a plethora of examples in the regret department in regards to hideous blender decisions...I speak from experience..

After you have gone through the process...the result is a yummy puree...Can I get another Amen???  Maybe at least one????  It doesn't hurt...I promise!

As Billie Joe says...always look on the bright side of life...Yay for white bean puree!!

My new favorite vegetable...this week anyway, would be parsnips!  I just had to have some parsnips for dinner tonight...We argued at the Fred Meyer..but I lost, for obvious reasons...

Mmmm..I should take this opportunity to go deeper into the relationship between parsnips and carrots....Why, you may ask??  Because it feels right...However...I'll stop now..They are related...in case you were wondering...and both root vegetables..

 Perhaps this could be my PSA...the importance of going deeper into things...because it feels right..... ;-)

Here are the finished carrots and parsnips...roasted at 425 for approximately 20 minutes...

We were mindful of our booty shaking while these baked...We didn't want to get too wrapped up with our super-cool new pen friend...and if we blew it...no parsnips...so we focused on the vegetables instead of booty shaking...boo and hiss...oh, well...next time..

 The You Tube will be around forever..

E.V. was having a blast this evening...the weather had lightened and she was able to chew up my recycling..

"Mama...I love cartons...they're the bee's knees....kinda, maybe, sorta like chainsaw jugglers...merely an observation..."

I also made some sassy, spicy, sticky chicken...and for that I have zero regrets...So easy and tasty....

You begin with chicken...and a magical pen, with a magical tip...  Magical pen not pictured...she was in my hand....being a pen, and magical, and possessing a tip, and such...

The chicken was broiled until crispy...it was previously shaken with a mixture of cayenne, garlic, paprika and onion...then topped with a mixture of honey and sherry....and a little rosemary..

Again, I did struggle with this photo of the final chicken...Reading that manual to the camera is on my list...and I promise I will....right after I read that Tolstoy novel...or Madame Bovary..so, in essence...I will not be reading any of those anytime soon...Madame Bovary was the second worst book I've tried reading....sorry...and it's supposed to be a masterpiece...that boggles my tiny brain..zzzz and yawn...terrible book...please, refrain from calling the Library of Congress or something to report me for saying disparaging things regarding literary masterpieces.....I did put forth an effort..just so you know..

Bad....no...terrible books aside...the culmination of our evening, and I would say that chainsaw juggler conversations would rank right up in the top, however, my blog IS about food...and cooking..and I did cook...so the true culmination is the final meal...but merely for blog purposes...otherwise CSJ wins...hands down..

The Meal!  Little Finger Clap???  Savor the Flavor!

I learned a new trick this evening...A food trick, for inquiring minds.. Once I run out of daylight and can no longer straddle my coffee table to take photos of pictures in natural light...my veranda works wonders...well, it's technically a balcony..however veranda sounds a whole lot better...Again, embellishment, exaggeration and smoke and mirrors...  They make the world go 'round, no??  And the pink cape never hurts....not too much..

"C'mon, Mama...I'm tired....and you have exhausted your word limit for today...I can't take anymore...unless you wanna talk about chainsaw jugglers...I like those...winkety-wink..."

Aside from the traumatic, albeit , semi-sorta-kinda-minor incident at 'The Wall,' things on the west side were pretty darn great...food included...oh that, and magical pens and chainsaw jugglers...just sayin', in case you were wonderin' about such things....we'll be here tomorrow...Brace yourselves...