Good Bye February...Hello March

Good Bye February.....Hello March.... hey everybody..February is almost gone...and you know what that means.....SPRING ! I have a little daffodil update for you today. Remember those daffodils I got the other day..well, look what greeted me this morning as I walked downstairs to make tea. THESE beauties. They opened overnight in my kitchen window. While we were all asleep under a full moon...the daffodils opened.The white ones are from my garden. We had a pretty good thunderstorm yesterday morning and it knocked the life out of these outside, so I clipped them and brought them in to add to my daffodils. The little cardboard easter chickie is old, i have a collection of them across my piano, but i put this one up in the window...she just looks so Springy... the little spun wool rabbit is old too..i also collect those.Can you see the row of clay pots through the screen? I just hung that windowsill container on the fence the other day. It is very shady there but I am going to plant some impatiens in the pots. I saw some in the Burpee catalog called Candy Box. I have ordered them before and the colors really do like they are out of a candy box.The vine is a morning glory..I can't wait till is starts to bloom.... how many days till Spring?

Daffodils and Lemon Chicken

My mom used to make a turkey breast from julia that she roasted under a piece of parchment paper. And it was good. So I have taken this idea and re-arranged it. I love the lemon chicken out of my Rao's cookbook, but he uses pieces of chicken. I like roasting a chicken that has had the backbone removed and has been flattened out. And right here is where i wonder if i should take a pass on getting the backyard brown hens this spring and naming them. do you know where i am going on this? i think you do. anyway, i went and got a good kosher chicken this morning and while i was at the market i scored and got some Meyer lemons. i have a ton of italian flat leaf parsely coming up all over my garden from where it reseeded itself from last summer.so i thought about getting the chicken and doing the rao's marinade, flattening it like i like, and roasting it on the parchment paper. The marinade is simple. just the Meyer lemon juice, the good olive oil from my friends ellis and susie bassetti, it is from their olive trees up in paso robles, the variety of olive is called "taggiasca". it was a gift from them at christmas and it truely is pedestal worthy. along with the lemon juice and olive oil i just add some chopped italian parsley and some pink sea salt. i am hooked on this sea salt. you can get it at trader jo's. my real favorite salt is the flaked one from wiliams-sonoma called Maldons..but at 16 bucks for a tiny box...well,that stuff is reserved for special occassions.so i came home and worked over that chicken and have it marinating right now. at supper i will turn the oven on to a pretty high heat..400 degrees i think and let it roast till it's brown and done..about 45 to 50 minutes. bbqing it would be even better...but we are waiting for rain...so no bbq . not tonight anyway.... and the daffodils are in my kitchen window...still in the bud. the little cream bottle says 'morning,noon and night'...how much do you love that?