The Excitement Gods Can Feel Free to Leave Us Alone

Had a lovely weekend visit from Auntie B from San Francisco. She just returned from a fabulous honeymoon in Argentina. Her request of things to do while in Texas with us? Roast a chicken. I never felt so able to accommodate in my life. You see, B's husband supposedly got overloaded on chicken as a child, so he refuses to eat it as an adult. B is a big roasted chicken fan, but doesn't want to sit down to a 5lb bird all by herself. We made her dreams come true on Friday night with a side dish of lemon thyme orzo and some broccoli. Deliciousness.

Perfect Roast Chicken (Marcella Hazan)
1 chicken of any size
1-2 lemons, small
salt
pepper

Salt and pepper chicken inside. Roll lemons around on counter to massage them. Pierce each with toothpick many times. Put 1-2 inside chicken. Truss chicken very tightly at both neck and abdomen. Salt and pepper outside. Cook at 375° until done (160 in breast).

If you leave the oven closed and put the thermometer in the right place, it is impossible not to have a juicy, perfectly cooked chicken.

Lemon-Thyme Orzo (or Rice)
Orzo, 1 C
Chicken stock, 1/2 C
Lemon zest, 1.5 t
Thyme, 1 t
Salt and pepper
Butter, 1 T
Parmesan, 1/3 C

Cook orzo in water until done. Drain. Return to saucepan. Add stock, zest, thyme, 1/2 t salt and pepper. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until most of liquid absorbed. Stir in butter and Parmesan just before serving.

I always add less parmesan and more lemon to this. Double the recipe because you won't have leftovers unless you do.

We had a relaxing weekend that included a trip to the farmer's market, some outlet shopping, New York Times reading, and Sweet Tart Hearts munching (it's that time again). J's newest fun phase is telling people, "Don't say that! Don't do that!" It's really annoying. I haven't decided if it's best to ignore him altogether since he's looking for a reaction, or to reprimand him for not being nice. The latter gives him a reaction and he already knows he's not being nice. It's one of the ways almost three year olds test limits and set boundaries. Better than terrible twos? I'll let you know. But B should feel better knowing that once she left, he did the same thing us.

Yesterday had some unplanned and unwelcomed excitement. I had an early dentist appointment and B had his right after mine. He brought J with him, I took J to school, and then headed down to my friend K's house to babysit while she had an ultrasound. I was running on time. Until I got rear ended at a red light by a truck. Everything is fine, but because I am pregnant I wasn't just willing to share insurance info and be on my way, so I called 911. Well, apparently when you do that, the entire world comes to your rescue-- police, ambulance, and a rescue fire truck. I felt pretty stupid, but I had to do it since I wanted to make sure everything was okay and I experienced quite a jolt since the truck was double the size of my car. My doctor directed me to go to the ER because she wasn't in the office yet and they hooked me up to a fetal monitor for awhile. The heartbeat was strong and steady, but they had a heck of a time finding it. Apparently she is lodged near my hip bone. She was kicking plenty yesterday afternoon, but I was still pretty achy.

This morning I woke up feeling a little nauseous and was nervous that something was wrong, but that also could have been because J decided he wanted to sleep with me at 4:30 and I was too cold and tired to say no. He didn't go back to sleep right away and I was up for probably about 2 hours before getting another hour of sleep. I felt some kicks later this afternoon after forcing myself to eat some mint chocolate chip ice cream to help the process along.

Upon further inspection of my car when we got home we saw that there were actually more than scratches on it and an estimate at a dealer nearby put the damage at $1800, which I know is way too high, but still. The other driver was driving a company vehicle, so I hope we don't have any trouble collecting on a claim against them. I wouldn't care about the car since you really can't see anything, but I do care about the fact that I had to pay for a hospital visit and we aren't lucky to have a $25 copay or anything like that.

The most important thing is that everything is fine. I was really glad J wasn't in the car, but he probably would have loved all of the action with the fire trucks.