Jammy Chicken

Wreath Flowers, Western Australia.

Wreath flowers are a rare and beautiful Western Australia wildflower. They grow in expanding circles, and the outermost edges of the succulent plant bloom a vivid deep pink and white, forming a perfect living wreath. Flower fanatics come from all over Australia, and all over the world, to catch a glimpse of these beauties. The plants fluorish on disturbed ground, making recently graded roadsides a prime location to spot them. It's pretty difficult to see a small, ground-hugging flower while zipping by at 60 miles an hour, but given the complete lack of traffic on the highway we certainly noticed the 5 cars parked up ahead (that was more cars than we'd seen all day). Being gawkers, and nosy, we pulled off to see what all the fuss was about, and found a forest of wreath flowers on the ground. It looked like a flock of springtime nymphs had scattered their head wear across the dusty red soil. Difficult to grow from seed or transplant, the only way you are going to see these delicate flower circles is if you too stumble onto them in the Australian outback.

Day after a hurricane lunch.

I had been planning on visiting my parents in NJ this week ever since the end of the summer, and as it turned out Sandy decided to arrive in town on the same day as my flight. American Airlines willingly - eagerly - assisted me in changing my flight plans, and I decided to leave early Sunday to beat the storm to the east coast. I snuck in to Philadelphia just as the rain started to fall that evening, passing scores of glum, sober travellers piled into airport gate sitting areas watching their flights out disappear. We were in the path, a direct hit, here in south central New Jersey, but 53.3 miles from the coast and every single foot counted. Backyard trees, 40-footers, were blowing around like an over-caffeinated cheerleader's pom-poms. I thought for sure we'd have some trees ripped out of the ground, if not splinter into toothpicks first, especially after the inches of rain dumped ahead of the wind front. 

Last night, we feared the worst and were filling pitchers with water for coming days, cooking large batches of chicken so we could still eat if - when - the power went out, expecting the food in the fridge to spoil and wondering exactly how many days we could last on cans of soup. 

Amazingly, luckily and totally unexpectedly, we have nothing more than a serious pile of wet fall leaves covering everything. We were without a doubt some of the luckiest ones affected by this natural disaster. The power is still on. The cable TV cooking shows I usually watch with my mom (talkin' about you, Ina) seem like even more of a luxury now, knowing how many millions of people were hit hard, flooded out, snowed in, without electricity, without homes.

Our grasp on the magnitude of this event is still unfolding, Sandy continues to impact the country and is likely to do so for another day or more. We think about the 10's of millions of people who are struggling through this, and send well-wishes to them all.

For lunch today, that hurricane-prep chicken, anticipated to be eaten in candlelight, and not the romantic kind, with no heat and no modern conveniences. We are indeed lucky.

Lucky Chicken Quinoa Veggie Salad for Sandy.

1 chicken breast, cooked
1 small zucchini, raw
1 carrot, raw
3-4 roasted artichokes, from a jar and packed in oil
1-2 cups cooked quinoa

Chop the chicken into small cubes or shred into pieces.

Cut the zucchini in half the long way and slice into thin half-moons. Cut the carrot the same way.

Chop the artichoke into small pieces.

Mix together in a large bowl, with generous salt and pepper and a drizzle of whatever chicken pan juice and artichoke oil you have around. 

Serves 4, and best served room temperature.

Totally gratuitous super-cute pet hedgehog picture.

Not mine.

Still super-cute, though.

Geology in the Whtisundays, Australia.

So, by now you must be wondering what I was actually doing in the Whitsunday Islands, on a boat for 5 days, yes?

I was looking at rocks.

Rocks.

Really.

Up there? Just past that beautiful white sand beach?

Those are some of the rocks we were looking at.

It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it...

They're quite spectacular as far as rocks go.

I could bore you to tears with photos of rocks, you know.

Instead, I'll show you these.

We've had the beaches, we've had the whales, and this wraps up the Whitsundays.

Next up is WA - Western Australia.

Land of red dust and endless vistas. 

On the to-do list for ... October.

I subscribe to about a hundred blog feeds in Google reader, and I don't know about you, but stuff rolls by so fast I can hardly keep track of where it's from or where it goes. Trying to go back and find something that looked interesting is near impossible.

Since I like lists so much, I thought I'd attempt to organize by rolling all the posts that spark my interest into one compilation here on Jammy Chicken. That way, I can find it, and easily get back to it later if I have a brain fart.

Which is highly probable.

So, October's plans include the following:

Sprouted Kitchen's chcoclate date truffles with almond butter - vegan, gluten-free and paleo.

Getting my hands on the Blue Bottle Coffee book. Coffee porn at its zenith.

I already have my hands on Diana Henry's newest cookbook, Salt Sugar Smoke (US version here), and I just need a long afternoon to immerse myself in it. She's my latest food girl crush, and I want some quality time alone, just the two of us.

I like the thought of making kombucha. Maybe because it seems like a biology experiment.

I have some aubergines (eggplant to us Americans) to roast for baba ganoush and want to use homemade tahini, of which there are many versions to try.

Must must must acquire several of these for the easiest way to sauerkraut. No more bags. Dude.

Date cream. The slathering opportunities are endless.

Double chocolate courgette muffins. Gluten free. Did I mention the double chocolate?