A DINNER STORY.

If you know me at all, you must know that I love to cook.  Yes, I love food...and I am always hungry...but there's just something so personal, and mostly gratifying, I guess, found in the process of transforming pure, raw ingredients into a wholesome, palatable meal. And perhaps it relates to what I love most about design, in that I find so much creative satisfaction in combining relatively simple things, but in new, intriguing ways...ending with a result that's distinguished, and perhaps never-before-thought-of.

Anyway, we have these friends. They are married. And awesome. And I love them...for a million and one reasons...but partly (like, a huge part) because we share the same passion for food. And the simple art of cooking: the desire to prepare your food so that you enhance its best offerings versus disguising them with too many flavors. Anyway, they tell me what to cook...a lot...and I do it. Because it's always the most delicious thing I've ever put in my mouth. Like, what I made last night:

Browned chicken thighs (my fav cut), brushed with *really good* honey, covered with an inquisitive blend of cinnamon, cumin, coriander, black pepper, and cardamom, and roasted atop parboiled sweet potato slices. 


Simple. Perfect. And well-accompanied by roasted brussel sprouts with bartlett pair slices, shallot wedges, thyme, and a drizzle of fresh lemon juice:

I love this part. 

Bitter brussels and sweet pears. Brilliant.

Easy-peasy pretty chicken.

Scraps are pretty, I think.

Happiness on a plate.

Enjoyed, of course, with a crisp Sierra Nevada IPA, Maxine Nightingale's pandora station...and candles. There's always candles.

Now, off to eat those leftovers...
HAPPY THURS.