Salad Days

Two discoveries:

1. Fresh, local, prewashed greens (because when it comes to salad I am lazy) from some farm in the Dalles.  $5 at New Seasons for a big old bag that lasts me all week. Summer is the only time I like salad so I'm eating it every day. "Salad" in this case equals greens, a few baby carrots and blue cheese dressing.

2. Paintbrush, a free Mac application that simulates my favorite ever program, Mac Paint, or rather, the Text Edit equivalent of Mac Paint. When I used to make zines in high school pretty much all of the illustrations that weren't done in ballpoint pen were done in Mac Paint on my family's Mac Plus. Creative Suite has always been kinda confusing for me to figure out, so this is right about my speed. Fun times!

Greens w/ baby carrots

Chicken Stew!

Betty Crocker, patron saint of crockpots

I cooked something tonight I've always wanted to, and it was awesome! I made creamy chicken stew from this Betty Crocker recipe. It turned out exactly how I wanted it to. Saucy and herby with hella tender chicken and creamy Yukon gold potato chunks. I used fresh rosemary from some random neighbor (if it's growing over the sidewalk it's public domain, right?), which convinced me to start using fresh herbs for everything I can, even though it is inconvenient and expensive, because it is SO worth it. Such fantastic flavor.

I'm always intimidated by anything that involves thickening sauce, but it was surprisingly easy. For this recipe you make a paste with flour and cream, then mix it with the liquid from the stew, and it cooks and thickens up and then you pour it oozingly all over the meat and veggies. I can't wait to take this to work with me tomorrow for lunch! Wooo!

Root

Root is an artisanal root beer flavored spirit. It is American. It has good ingredients. It's not too sweet; boys and girls like it. It has an interesting backstory involving an eccentric ad man and Amish heritage, but even without that, it makes people want to talk. So it's good to serve after dinner. I like it on its own and will probably put it in toddies when the weather turns cool.