Roasted Chicken & Bulgar Salad

I got a recipe from Kelly, who got a recipe from Cooking Light magazine and we’ve been cooking this recipe for dinners and lunches ever since. I’ve made adjustments to this recipe to get it to our liking. We took this to game night last Friday with friends and I was asked to share. The recipe makes a huge batch, be sure to half the recipe unless you are feeding eight or more people.

41/2 c. water
3 c. uncooked medium bulgur
3/4 c. fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons) divided
2 tsp. kosher salt, divided
4 grilled, boneless / skinless chicken breasts
2 c. halved grape tomatoes or roasted tomatoes or sun-dried tomatoes or mixture
1 cucumber seeded and diced
1 bell pepper, red preferably, seeded and diced
1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley
1/2 c. thinly sliced fresh basil
1 small finely chopped red onion
1 to 1+1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese
1/4 c. best quality extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Combine water, bulgur, 1/2 cup juice, and 1 tsp. salt in a large saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; let stand 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Uncover and cool to room temperature.

Combine remaining 1/4 c. juice, remaining 1 tsp. salt and remaining ingredients in a large bowl; toss to combine. Add cooled bulgur mixture; toss well to combine. Cover and chill.

Since You Asked

Many of you have inquired about how to make the embroidered flowers I posted about a few months ago. I finally remembered to scan the instructions, so here they are.



You should be able to click on this image and it will enlarge for you to print out.




The only thing I did different was making about 10 french knots in the center first instead of the small loop they do, then did the loops around it. After split stitching the stem, I also added 3 french knots at the end for the leaves instead of a small loop. However, I've done them both ways and either option with knots or loops looks great.

Have fun!

A Twist On Traditional BBQ

I always enjoy good BBQ. I was in the mood to make pulled pork this past weekend, with my homemade sugar free, and corn syrup free BBQ sauce. I purchased a 2.5# pork shoulder and smothered it in sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and my own fennel and orange rind salt rub. I worked this in, and let it sit for a while. Then slow cooked it all day with some Worcestershire basting sauce.


I also pulled the sourdough starter out of the fridge and made a yummy batch of homemade sourdough buns to eat the BBQ on. As my starter gets older, the tang of the flavor gets better with time. From my perspective, nothing beats homemade rolls, no matter what kind they are.


My BBQ sauce recipe has all sorts of things in it from Dijon mustard, to tomato paste, cinder vinegar, lots of onions and garlic, and cayenne pepper. I sweeten it up with a combination of honey and molasses. This way I'm keeping the unnecessary refined sugar and syrups out of my system. Holly and I also like our BBQ with good sharp cheddar cheese on it. We like the Kerrygold Dubliner Irish cheese best. It is sharp cheddar with a light sweetening of honey.


We rounded off the meal with a big tossed green salad. I also marinated some heirloom tomatoes and made a potato salad. Instead of a traditional mayonnaise based salad, I like to roast a whole head of garlic. I then squeeze out the caramelized bulbs and whisk that up with best quality olive oil, some good white wine, and lots of fresh herbs. Yesterday I decided to use fresh parsley, dill and basil. Lots of sea salt as well. We had an amazing meal, and were able to enjoy the company of good friends as well while we ate. I hope Patrick was able to get his fill of "yummy pig" yesterday.

Life Perspective

Do you ever have those moments in your life, moments that define you, and moments that really make you appreciate how well your life is going, and how easy you have it, and how blessed you are? I had a really interesting experience yesterday at work. As a professional marketer my job is to schmooze the world, sponsor everything for the right price, and promote the sale of products morning, noon and night. A bunch of folks from my office attended the 100th birthday celebration of Childhaven as we sponsored a table for them.

Childhaven is a resource in the Seattle city area for mothers who are victims of domestic abuse, and children who are victims of neglect and massive abuse in the home. One of the key note speakers was a very courageous young woman who at 19 has beaten the odds for falling into the same trap as prior generations in her family. This young woman was verbally, physically and sexually abused by her mothers numerous boyfriends starting at age three. Three! And her mother would often leave them for weeks on end to fend for themselves in deplorable living conditions while she was out selling and soliciting drugs. This girl had to take care of her younger brother and sister and often times resorted to shoplifting food just to survive. The girl and the family were on a fast track to total and complete life destruction. A few years ago the sister of one of the mothers current boyfriends, decided to be the first adult role model in these kids lives and help them get back on track. This young woman stated that this role model was the first adult who respected her as a young adult, also respected her boundaries and encouraged her to accomplish anything in her life and gave her the nurturing that she needed and the validation to keep going. This volunteer eventually took them under her wings and is nurturing them with her husband as parents. These children have not seen their biological mother for over three years and she was recently found dead from a drug overdose in the region. This young woman was able to cope with her life by volunteers giving of their time at community centers. She learned how to paint and draw from a volunteer in the community, and this was her escape over the past few years. This courageous young woman is now 19, and with the help of her sponsor has obtained a GED in an evening program, has already completed her two year associates degree from Edmonds community college, and is moving on to more schooling this fall to become a sociologist and social worker to help kids get out of the environment that she grew up in.

Listening to her and her story, I had tears streaming down my face. All my colleagues and I had tears, as did most of the 1200+ attendees. I can’t relate at all to what it’s like to be in a home where boundaries are not set, where abuse is allowed to occur, and your mother does nothing about it. I had an amazing childhood and home life and realize that for a lot, that is a rarity. Statistics now show that more than ever, a home needs to be a place of refuge from the world that is turning more and more chaotic as the weeks and years go by.

I have so many things to be thankful for, and I have time in what appears to be a busy schedule, to give to the community and not just my church community. I felt completely energized to quit being so self absorbed and start trying to give more of my time in the community. It doesn’t have to be this non-profit agency, or just my ward. There are many agencies in our communities doing amazing things and they need volunteers as much as they need fiscal resources. Hence my comments on Facebook earlier this week; are we all really doing the world well, by spending so much time online, or by watching TV? Or are we letting volunteer and life lesson teaching opportunities pass us by, because we are too “busy” to even notice that lots of people around us are struggling and need a listening ear, or some sound advice, or to just vent. It’s time to seriously change my priorities.

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day I thought I would share a few fun twists on your average drinking vessel. While plastic can be convenient we all know it isn't great for mother nature, but if you like the look of your plastic bottle or cup and think it would be fun to freak out your family and friends check out these fun glass bottles and ceramic cup. I think they are genius.

These glass bottles can be found at Crate & Barrel for 7.95-15.95



And this cool cup is 39.00 at generate.



Speaking of Earth Day, my office has been raising money to give a water well kit to a Malawi Village through this great website our office designed called ripple effect. This afternoon we are having a catered organic lunch where we'll be able to see how much money we've raised. Often times my office has activities or venues that I don't really get involved in because the are usually focused around copious amounts of alcohol, so I really love it when my office does something worth while that I can get behind.

99 Feelings

We all have them, some good some bad, but did you realize that there are 99 feelings any one person can have? I didn't until I ran across this very cool art project where a woman sculpted in ceramic each and every one of those 99 feelings. I think they are great! To see them all click here. But for a quick peak, here are some of my favorites.

Torn



Crushed



Cold



Sad



Irritated



And my absolute favorite. Stressed.

Spring Cleaning

We've been getting the front courtyard ready for summer entertaining. We finally decided to upgrade some of our planters. We got rid of some cobalt planters we have had for years. Our color scheme is shaping more into yellows and greens for the outside. This new mustard planter holds our transplanted Rosemary bush. We're in process of re-potting all the herbs I use when I cook.


I love our aqua planters with snake grass. These are now maturing and starting to fill out. We planted these a good five years ago and they have looked a tad scraggily, but are filling in nicely. We also moved around some of the squared off metal planters that have evergreens in them. Some candle stakes have also been added into the planters.


It's just about time to start opening the umbrella, power wash the table and chairs, and get all the green and aqua umbrella candle lanterns dusted and cleaned up. Anyone up for a BBQ? Or making S'mores around the fire pit?

More Meatballs Please

Whenever company or family comes into town, I love to plan a good home cooked meal or two. Yesterday, I shoveled out food assignments to Rebecca and Holly, and we had an excellent meal that we shared with the missionaries currently assigned to our ward. When we got back from the Tulip Festival on Saturday, I made sirloin and pork meat balls. I caramelized some sweet onion, garlic and carrot and mixed that into the meat, along with other spices and seasonings, brown eggs and bread crumbs. I used my fennel salt again that I made a few weeks back. After the meat balls cooked off, I made a big batch of marinara from scratch. All organic vegetables and stock, heirloom tomatoes and herbs reduced with some white wine. On Sunday, all I needed to do was cook off the pasta and bring the marinara and meatballs to temperature. Holly made some amazing dense chocolate brownies that we served with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Rebecca made our family recipe that we have for bread sticks. Every sibling in my family makes this recipe we got from Mom decades ago. We also made a big tossed salad. All and all, it was an amazing Sunday diner! Simple in nature, but best quality organic ingredients totally took it to the next level.

Lovin' the Tulips

We had a great time this weekend with Dan's sister Rebecca. The one thing she wanted to do was see the tulips, so we all piled in the car with our snacks and drinks (popcorn and vitamin water) and headed off to La Conner.



I'm always skeptical that this will be a good time but no matter how many times I go I'm always surprised by the magnitude and beauty of the flowers. The first batch we saw were daffodils. I love the yellow blanket the make.




We saw a few fields of bloomed tulips, but could never find a place to park and didn't want to follow the example of EVERYONE else who broke the law in no parking zones. But we did find the great farm that displays all the different varieties of bulbs which I love. We've been to this place before, but never really know how we get there. Pretty much we kept our eyes peeled for the windmill.




We picked up a catalog and marked the ones we liked best as we roamed around.





These are my favorites.






As you can tell I like the pointy ones and the feathery ones. I also like them when they are closed. I love the different colors you see in the stems.





I got yelled at taking that last picuture by some lady that thought I was being pushy. I wasn't. She was taking up too much space. That aside, it was a beautiful day.







And to top it off, they had a little store there with excellent fudge! We got chocolate orange, chocolate peanut butter and chocolate caramel. Yum-o!

Yay For Rebecca!

I'm looking forward to having my sister fly up this weekend from Utah. We plan to spend time at the annual Tulip Festival up in Skagit County, as well get some shopping in. It's going to be fun. I hope all the sarcastic commentary between the two of us, doesn't push Holly over the edge. Rebecca and I, sort of have a reputation for being "pills!"

Easter Good Eats!

We had an amazing Easter meal. Steve and Kelly blessed Miles on Sunday in their ward, so we went over to their sacrament meeting then had Easter dinner at their place with many family members. Steve made pork tenderloin with apricot glaze and steamed asparagus with hollandaise sauce. I brought over some scalloped potatoes and zucchini for another side. Chocolate cake and ice cream rounded out the Easter luncheon.

Holly and I left and came home and took a nap for a few hours. I then got up and decided to make dinner. I made organic roasted chicken with herbs, lemon and onion. When I assembled the organic scalloped potatoes on Saturday for Miles’s blessing, I also made a pan of organic funeral potatoes. I’ve also been brewing my own “hooch” to have sourdough breads and rolls anytime we want. I put my fermented yeast mixture out on Saturday to come to room temperate and bubble and burble a tad more. I made a batch of rolls to go with the potatoes, chicken and roasted carrots.

Holly and I hid Easter baskets for each other and enjoyed the day, relaxing, sleeping and getting ready for the hectic work week ahead of us both.

Silk Eggs

We usually dye Easter eggs every year, and every year I practically gag at the smell. All that vinegar really gets to me. I also get frustrated with my egg design, I always thing using the wax crayon will yield beautiful eggs and it never does. Anyway, this year I saw on Martha Stewart (yes, I watched it when I was home sick) that she dyed Easter eggs by wrapping them in old silk scarves and boiling them in water with just a little vinegar. I was intrigued!
So, on Saturday Dan and I tried it. We went to our local Deseret Industries and bought some old silk skirts for bargin prices. (Martha Stewart used her old Hermés scarves, yeah, like I have any of those hanging around)



Then you cut them into squares.



Wrap the silk around the egg and secure with a twist tie. You also need muslin to wrap around the eggs to keep the fabrics from bleeding into each other. We bought old pillow cases in stead, they worked just fine. Secure muslin with another twist tie.




Put them in cold water with 3 TBS vinegar and bring to a boil for 20 minutes.




Pull out of the water and let cool until easy to handle. Then unwrap!





I think they would have turned out more vibrant if we'd boiled them longer, but then you wouldn't be able to eat the eggs inside. They would also probably work better with silk that had less white in it and more saturated colors. But, we were pleased with our first attempt and will definitely try this again next year.

No Line On The Horizon

There are few bands that I completely love every CD that they put out. I could probably count on one hand the bands where we have every CD. Tori Amos, Cranberries to name a few. U2 is also one of them. Their latest album is classic U2! I love this and have been playing it very loudly in the car and at work in my office. CD's as of late typically only have a few songs that are good. I like every single song on this entire disc. I'm inspired to want to spend some cash on tickets when they have their next concert in Seattle. The last U2 concert I went to was the Lemon Tour at least 10-12 years ago up at the University of Utah before I moved to Seattle. Where does the time go.

Yummy Baked Beans

Of course, after a trip to Bean-Town, I need to post my family recipe for Baked Beans. This is a staple in almost any Craven kitchen. I make these all the time, particularly for barbecues during the summer.

Craven Family Baked Beans

2 Sweet Onions, rough diced
2 Granny Smith Apples, rough diced
1 Pound Ground Sausage
½ Pound Bacon, diced
½ C Brown Sugar, packed
¾ C Ketchup
¼ C Dijon Mustard
3-4 Cans Baked Beans [I always use B&M Brand, 14-16 ounce cans]
Fresh Ground Pepper

In a large sauté pan or indoor Dutch oven sauté bacon and sausage until fat is rendered. Drain fat, reserving a few tablespoons to. Add apples and onions to cooked meat and cook until limp. Add Sugar, Ketchup, Mustard and Baked Beans. Add pepper. Bake on a low oven 275-300 degrees, for 1.5-2 hours. Stirring every 30 minutes. Check beans at 1.5 hours to insure they do not over cook.

Recipe Notes:

I always use B&M beans; they yield the least runny product compared to other brands of baked beans.

I’ve made this with sliced cooked chorizo or kielbasa sausage. You can put any type of cooked mean in this. I’ve also added cayenne and adobo sauce before to make it more of a Latin inspired dish with a can of black beans substituted for one of the cans of the B&M beans.

Boston's Old North Church

The tour inside Boston's historic Old North Church was fun. I liked the Puritan Pew Boxes. Hundreds of years ago, you purchased a box and it was reserved for your family when you came to worship. Back then it was problematic to keep large buildings warmed adequately. So in bitter New England winters, you put heated rocks or bricks in your pew to keep warm. Look at how cute Holly is in her Religious Ice Cube Tray...!