Centered

[anagramofbrat]

This week, thankfully is shaping up much better than last.

Monday morning I drove home from PA leaving just late enough so that traffic was smooth sailing all the way back to the office. Most would balk at the four and a half hour drive; I embraced and reveled in the journey. I need to make the trip out to PA again when the leaves start turning, I imagine the Delaware Water Gap and the hills around and underneath I-287 are gorgeous in the fall.

The Tappan Zee Bridge still terrifies me. Don't ask me why, it just does.

Four hours of driving did much to mellow me out after Sunday's bit of lecture and revelation - spent the drive musing over things in my head. Still not quite done processing it all, honestly, but it should make good background headnoise as I start getting fully in gear to move.

Monday evening cell23 and I finished up season 1 of Torchwood and then the rest of the evening was getting thoroughly petted and spoiled in unabashedly adult ways, which was lovely considering I hadn't seen him all weekend and all last week I was too much of a tweakmonkey to even have him around me, which says something. No matter, lost time was duly made up for, and Tuesday night was the first night in a while I slept like a log with no dreams as commented upon to amusing effect in head58's LJ yesterday. Apparently Batman is guarding my dreams or something.

Yesterday was taking care of some grown up business in the morning followed by work, and today I think will be much the same, as I do have some AAAAGH RESPONSIBLE ADULT errands to run this morning, though I'm taking a break from the commute today, seeing as all the driving did come with the cost of seriously ouchtastic shin splints. But I had a decent workday, if a late one. Followed it up by what I realized was my last personal grocery run before the move, after which I came home and defied the hot humid evening by firing up the oven and cooking orange juice chicken and rice. The nice thing about never quite learning how not to cook for 4+ people is that I have tons of leftovers for the week even after feeding both myself and the Manbeast. Also since I got flour there was bread too. Mmmm bread.

Started up Series 3 of Doctor Who. Other than a few moments at the beginning of the first episode where I winced in sympathetic recognition over Martha Jones' squabbly and clearly very West Indian family (seriously, just change the accents around), I've rather liked the season so far. Plus seeing Leonora Crichlow from Being Human pop up in "Gridlock" was a treat.

Today, like I said, is going to be Responsible Adult type errands, plus one treat, seeing as on the list is to stop by Cinemark and pick up tickets to Scott Pilgrim vs the World this Thursday night. Seriously you guys, I haven't been this excited about a movie in forever - in fact I can't actually remember when the last time I went to a midnight premiere was. Plus I get to go with cell23, which is a rare treat seeing as it takes a lot to get him to go to a movie, let alone be actually excited about one. It better not horribly disappoint us, though all reports so far say it won't. Also the soundtrack so far is perfect; it's streaming here if anyone wants a listen. (Anyone else going, out of curiosity?) But after all that's done, home, work, cleaning and packing and cheerfully succumbing to the call of the deadly to-do list after two refreshing days of avoiding it.

Comments

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Do you have a recipe for this orange juice chicken and rice? My husband-- mister "ew I don't like meat"-- is going out of town in a few weeks and I'm half tempted to make something he won't eat.

[anagramofbrat.livejournal.com]

The recipe started from something I found in the joy of cooking years ago - it has sinced evolved into my own imprecise monster and I admit I change something every time I do it. But here's more or less what I did last night:

you need:

3-7 chicken breasts (works equally well with boneless/skinless or bone-in)
Garlic (1 clove, minced fine, or powdered to taste)
Onion (about 1/2 cup, chopped fine, or powdered to taste)
Orange juice (get about a quart for this; if you have some left over drink it)
Black pepper, oregano
3/4 cup Mustard (any combination of dijon, honey dijon and/or horseradish, just not the yellow shit); add more if chicken needs more coverage
A tablespoon or two of either butter or olive oil

in a large bowl, mix mustard in with garlic, onion, black pepper, and oregano. Add 3-7 chicken breasts to bowl, and make sure mustard/spice mix thoroughly covers all the surfaces of the chicken (RUB IT IN THERE UNTIL IT CRIES UNCLE). Let sit in bowl for 20 or so minutes.

Set oven to 425. Grease a casserole pan large enough to lay all of the chicken breasts inside with wiggle room with olive oil or butter. Lay the chicken inside "breast up" (this is less important with boneless skinless breasts). Pour or spoon any additional mustard from the bowl over the chicken, then drizzle the tops liberally with olive oil or melted butter. Pour orange juice into the pan until the breasts are 1/2 - 2/3rd submerged, and pop into the oven.

Bake 20 minutes, then flip the breasts over. Bake 20 more min and remove from oven. Transfer chicken to a plate, and all of the liquid in the pan to a small saucepan. Boil this on high (be careful not to let it boil over) for rougtly 15-20 minutes; the idea is to get it to thicken up into gravyish consistency, but by the time I hit this step I'm usually starving and just want to eat, so 20 minutes is usually enough.

Serve with rice or couscous. Use the sauce over the chicken and rice. Nom.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

Around 23 years ago, I think, I was driving over the TappanZee during a storm and the Hudson was so high that waves were crashing onto the cars on the bridge.

[anagramofbrat.livejournal.com]

...eeek.