Now would I lie to you? *batting my eyelashes at you*

There are so many fun blogger awards out there that I totally get a kick out of being nominated for some by my friends. Thank you to my friend Healthy Loser Gal for nominating me for the Creative Writer BloggerAward (aka Lesa's Bald Faced Liar). She also nominated me for another award that I have to finish. It should be called the "get off my butt and finish" award...

The rules of the "Creative Writer" Blogger Award are:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

It was a little hard to get started but here they are. And keep in mind - you have to write at least one truth, that doesn't mean that's all I wrote!

1. When visiting Russia in the 80’s, my friends and I got detained by police for sneaking a Russian student in a tourist hotel to hang out with us.

2. I crewed on a boat that won a sailing race in the Long Island Sound.

3. I followed the Grateful Dead one summer with a friend I’ve known since 6th grade.

4. I can speak three languages.

5. I can’t ride a bike.

6. I’ve backpacked on the Appalachian Trail.

7. I have eaten at a restaurant where the bill for three of us came to over $700 dollars, excluding wine.

The seven bloggers that I nominate for this prestigious award are:

1. Monique at FootDr69's blog http://footdr69.wordpress.com/
2. Jen at Jen In Real Life http://www.jeninreallife.com/
3. Ryan at No More Bacon ('cause I'd love to see what he writes!) http://www.nomorebacon.com
4. Jack at JackSh*t (ditto for what he'd write!) http://jackfit.blogspot.com/
5. Jen at Prior Fat Girl http://www.priorfatgirl.com
6. Mandy at Fitter Happier http://fitter-happier-mandy.blogspot.com/
7. Eddie at Being Da Man Ain't Easy http://damanlovett.wordpress.com/

I am really looking forward to what they come up with for their lies and truths!

One Wish To Change The World

I think Jamie Oliver is brilliant and his speech at TED2010 is so inspiring. It's a sobering thought that so much of our problems stem from lack of knowledge about food. Take a few minutes to watch. Please.

Schlemmertopf

I have finally purchased a Schlemmertofp. They're rare as hen's teeth these days, and unless you order it online, just about the only place to get one is at Sur La Table. And yes, friends, that means I have finally gone to a Sur La Table store! What a neat place. I'd like to purchase one of everything, please.

Now that I have my clay roaster, I can make a couple of the recipes from 365 Ways To Cook Chicken that call for a clay roaster. I decided on the basic Clay Pot Roast Chicken to start, with my own addition of white and sweet potatoes.

Clay Pot Roast Chicken

1 whole chicken, about 3 pounds
1 onion, cut into large chunks
2 carrots, cut into large pieces
1 white potato, cut into large pieces
1 sweet potato, cut into large pieces
2 T butter or margarine, melted
1 T garlic paste
½ t freshly ground black pepper
1 t rosemary, crumbled
½ t thyme

1. Soak clay roaster according to manufacturer’s directions

2. Rinse and dry chicken. Place inside roaster with vegetables around the chicken.

3. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, garlic, pepper, rosemary and thyme. Drizzle over chicken and veggies. Cover chicken.

4. Place roaster in the middle of a cold oven. Turn temperature to 450 and back for 1 hour. Remove lid and roast uncovered for about 10 minutes to brown the skin lightly.

Yeah. You can see how well I did with the "lightly brown" part. Oops.

The juices were so rich. This is basically chicken stock in the bottom of the roaster.

Overall, the chicken was good, and it was moist. I was not expecting so much juice to come from the chicken. It didn't let the chicken or the potatoes get crispy. Maybe if I didn't put in the veggies or potatoes the chicken would get crisp. Or maybe not. We'll see. And I read that you can bake bread in these things too...

Wordless (arugula) Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Another post brought to you by The Great Chicken Project

My great chicken project posts have been few and far between lately. I've pretty much eliminated dairy from my diet for the time being, and way too many of the recipes in that book call for cream, sour cream, milk...or they just don't sound that appealing to make. This one did, though.

We seldom eat boneless, skinless chicken breasts, so I don't usually have them in the freezer. I picked up a pack that was on sale and put this together. This recipe is adapted from the Sesame Noodles recipe in 365 Ways To Cook Chicken. The book calls for this to be a cold recipe, but I heated the chicken back up and it was really good warm too.

Sesame Noodles With Chicken And Broccoli (serves 4)

1 bunch of broccoli, cut into florets

1/2 c peanut butter

1/2 c hot water

1/4 c soy sauce

2 T red wine vinegar

2 T rice wine vinegar

2 T sesame oil

1 T chili oil

1 T garlic paste

1/4 T Shichimi Togarashi red pepper mix

2 COOKED skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 "bundle" of soba noodles

1. Cook your chicken breasts. Poaching is recommended.

2. Combine peanut butter and water and stir until it's a smooth-ish paste. Add in the soy sauce, vinegars, sesame oil, chili oil, garlic paste and red pepper. Add in the chicken pieces, mixing well to coat the chicken. Refrigerate for 2 hours if you can.

3. Steam your broccoli. I use the steamer bags that you can get at the grocery store. You can use them multiple times - I think they're neat-o.

4. In a pot of boiling water, cook your soba noodles for 5 minutes or until done to your taste. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain well.

5. Place a serving sized amount of soba in a dish. Top with several pieces of broccoli and a large spoonful of the chicken. Drizzle some of the sauce from the chicken on top and serve.

Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans Challenge

So. In a moment of insanity I decided to sign up for the latest Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans challenge (cue ominous music): The 30 Day Shred challenge. I got the DVD last year and actually managed to do the workout twice before giving up in a quivering and whining mass of aching muscles. And that was just level 1. But I figured it's time to give it another go, and my friend Trish (@IamSucceeding) is also doing the challenge, so I have someone to whine with.

Day 1, I knew I'd be sore afterwards. Day 2, I was sore, and sneezing hurt my abs. (How do they expect you to be able to do pushups when your shoulders are that sore?!?) That brings us to Day 3. Because I wanted to sleep in an extra hour this morning (I didn't want to wake up the cutie dog curled up against me, did I??) , I will be doing The Shred after work. Let's all keep our fingers crossed I can make it through the whole 30 days! I'll let you know my physical progress at the end.

P.S. If an intense 20 minute workout with Jillian kicks my butt this badly, I really feel for the people on TBL. At least she isn't screaming at me or trying to get me to share my issues on national television.

Wordless Wednesday (oww...)