I spent Saturday on a real tear. First was Grace's soccer game. Our first loss. No real surprise there - bound to lose one after all. But I was annoyed that the other team set out their stall so much to win at all costs. There was a lot of dirty play - fortunately NOT by my girls. But the real difference was that for us it was the early morning of the living dead. One of the delights of this set of girls has been that no matter what, some of them are always in the game urging the others on. Not this Saturday. Instead they all dragged around. Oh well.

Anyway, then I came home and checked in on the fence construction crew that Jan had gotten going (and fed coffee and water to) and went off to get more lumber - much more lumber. We are ending up refencing the three longest sides of our property. Then I got the crew lunch. And finally I got in on the act and stained lots and lots and lots of six foot boards and vast quantities of grapestake. But 200 or so grapestakes isn't enough - we have 1000! I also stained myself, my clothes and parts of the driveway.

Mixed up, Shook up Chicken

But then it was time to knock off. So I cut up and skinned a chicken (nice size organic fryer - about three and a half pounds). Then I mixed up about two tablespoons coarse sea salt, a teaspoon of black pepper, two teaspoons of sumac and a tablespoon of dried oregano. I drizzled a little olive oil on the chicken and then rubbed the spice mixture thoroughly into the chicken all over. I let it sit in the fridge for an hour. Then I turned the broiler on high and grilled it for about 25 minutes total turning it halfway through. Two minutes before the end I squeezed all the juice of a lemon evenly over all the pieces. It was fantastic and you'd never have guessed the spices.

Sweet Potato Fries

We had the chicken with sweet potato fries I made from two large beautiful sweet potatoes we got from Terra Firma Farms in our organic veggie box. I scrubbed them thoroughly, then cut them into wedges lengthways - about half an inch thick. I smeared a cookie sheet with olive oil, rubbed them thoroughly onto the sheet, coating both sides with oil. Then I put them in the same oven as the chicken (so the oven was on maximum temp) for the same length of time - 25 minutes total. I also turned them over once halfway through. Sprinkle with salt just before serving.

Ginger Turnips and greens

I also cooked turnips and their greens from the same box of vegetables. I sliced up the turnips and put them on to saute in a little canola oil. Then I chopped up the greens. I put two diced cloves of garlic and about a teaspoon of chopped parsley in with the turnips. As soon as the turnips started to turn brown I tossed in the greens and cooked it all until the greens started to wilt. Then I added a teaspoon of candied ginger puree (from Trader Joe's) and stirred it in and turned off the heat. Then I added a small squeeze of lemon juice. Also a big hit.