I was honored to be one of the recipients of a 2021 Chatham Arts Council JumpstART grant for my literary project, which donated copies of Peggy Noodle, Hula Hoop Queen to four elementary schools and three libraries, and copies of Mine By Design to three libraries in the county. Now, the county is celebrating the recipient artists at the Chatham Experience on November 7, 2021.
I’ll be doing a reading from Peggy Noodle, and signing copies of this fun, pocket-size book. I may even have some hula hoops for sale. If you’re a supporter of the arts, I’m especially thankful for your efforts to continue making the world a more artful place during the pandemic.
Me and Rah-Rah had an exciting day in Durham today, spending some time at Leighroy’s station, having a tour (wahoo!), and delivering a bunch of cookies! Rosemary shortbread, along with M&M, treasure chest, oatmeal raisin, and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. Check out how capable our girl looks — and actually is. What a day! We even had time for lunch at Guglhupf on the way home. I mean …
This week we did something fun and different with our friends and family … I hosted an online cook along! It was so fun, even with our small group. We were small but mighty! On the menu was an old family favorite (mango chutney), with an amended protein (jerk chicken instead of roasted shrimp). Everything together was divine.
Chicken – 2 chicken breasts or 4-6 boneless thighs – 1/2 tsp cinnamon – 1/2 tsp salt – 1/2 tsp pepper – 1/2 tsp allspice – 1 tsp thyme – 1 Tbsp brown sugar – 1 large garlic clove, minced – 1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced – Juice of 1 lime
Marinate chicken in a bag (do this step in the morning), if they’re larger pieces, pound them a bit so they’ll cook more evenly. We cooked them together on the stovetop. I used an old iron skillet we refer to as “the utensil.” This is always tasty when grilled.
– Chutney – 1 champagne mango, diced small – 1 cucumber, seeded and diced small – 1 red pepper, seeded and diced small – 1/4 yellow onion, minced – 1 garlic clove, minced – 2 Tbsp olive oil – 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar – 1/4 tsp salt – 1/4 tsp pepper – 1/4 tsp curry – 1/2 tsp cilantro
Add all ingredients in a small bowl, stir and set aside as you begin cooking.
Cous cous – 1 c Cous cous – 1-1/4 c chicken stock – 2 Tbsp olive oil – Pinch of salt and pepper
Check out my rooster, Willie Nelson. He’s a seven-week barred rock rooster from down the way. He’s a big baby, hides behind my legs when our Rhode Island Red hens pick on him, lets us pick him up and love on him, and chirps like Beaker from The Muppets. He’s BFF’s with Lady Gaga. In conclusion: he’s dreamy.
Me and Rah-Rah made a quick stop for lunch at our old trusty Belted Goat today. It’s the perfect spot between home and the Big City, particularly when we’re running errands. Once lunch was done, we re-donned our masks and got in some steps through Fearrington. It was hot, but refreshing.
We’ve never found the task of making our own adventures daunting, so when Mr. Sickles got us a MasterCard cooking experience with Marcus Samuelsson, we were excited. On the one hand, we’re big cooks at my house. On the other, we’re southerners who’ve probably eaten our weight ten-times over in shrimp & grits. But this time it was different, the recipe was new and the ingredients unexpected. The whole shebang was fun, my mini me came over to participate, and we all enjoyed the evening.
We used the recipe to have everything mise en place, and then realized Samuelsson was riffing on his own recipe so we went with the flow. Delish.
That’s 3x3x3. Three-cubed. The Trinity of Trinities. We are the atomic number of cobalt. 27% of the universe is dark matter. The width of a tennis court is 27 feet wide. There are 27 cubes in a Rubik’s cube. Uranus has 27 moons. The Twenty-Seven club includes some of the greatest musicians, including Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. Eddie Izzard ran 27 marathons in 27 days. Mozart was born on January 27 and produced 27 piano concertos and 27 concert arias. 27 is the only positive integer that’s three times the sum of its digits … like my family. We are the sum of our members, and we Sickles Three are mighty thankful for our health, happiness, and optimism.
I drove my cousin crazy a couple weeks ago when I posted a photo of a SPAM and egg biscuit. So when he and his family were relocating cross-country for the Coast Guard, they spent a couple of days with us in the meadow. Chief among his requests was a SPAM day. And thus was born our First Annual Family SPAM Day Extravaganza. We started out simple this year: SPAM and egg biscuits, with eggs from our girls. Next year we’re going to try fancy SPAM recipes, and to see if we can add more cousins and friends to the day. There’s a real SPAM day, but I think our extravaganza is going to be better because it’s us. Just saying.
Last year, on top of stockpiling more beans than our digestive systems could handle, we stockpiled peanut butter. Because even at 23, our son has a PBJ every night before bed. For the last four years or so, his PB of choice was Peter Pan Simply Ground Honey Peanut Butter. It was anathema to me, a lifelong Crunchy Jif girl. And he was a lifelong Crunchy Jif boy until that Simply Ground crack hit his system. Since peanut butter is an affordable protein with a great shelf-life, it was an important staple in the diets of many people across the world. Hey, it was either that or Spam. But by the summer we were having trouble finding the good stuff, and did a little research. Turns out Peter Pan phased out Simply Ground, so I had everybody I knew on the lookout, whenever they braved a trip to the grocery store or Walmart. We bought our last three jars of Simply Ground in September, and spread it as thinly as possible to still consider it a PBJ. We got down to the last quarter of the last jar on planet Earth around December 5, and our son closed it up tight and stuffed it in the back corner of the pantry to, I don’t know, dip a spoon in there every couple of days to make it last. The shelf life on the jar was December 20, 2020 … well, folks, last night I pulled it out thinking we’d each have one last bite for our good fortune.
Gag. Believe the ‘use by’ dates on products in your pantry, people. Force yourself to finish your very favorite thing in the whole world, even if it’s the last one (I’m looking at you, Ho-Ho’s), because it’s even more of a punch to the teeth when you can’t eat the last bite because it’s bad. The Crunchy Jif lover in me rejoices to our return to the OG, but the Simply Ground boy in my son mourns Peter Pan’s decision to stop its production. I shake my fist at you, Peter Pan!
The Doctor is IN 