Smoky Chicken + Roasted Chickpeas

Another massive success from Bon Appetit. Make enough for leftovers - otherwise you'll be sorry when it's all gone.

 Photo by Lisa Hubbard (not me!)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika*
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt or Greek yogurt
• 4 chicken breast halves with bones
• 1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
• 1 12-ounce container cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided

Prep:

Preheat oven to 450°. Mix first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Pour 1 teaspoon spiced oil mixture into small bowl; whisk in yogurt and set aside for sauce. Place chicken on large rimmed baking sheet. Rub 2 tablespoons spiced oil mixture over chicken. Add beans, tomatoes, and 1/2 cup cilantro to remaining spiced oil mixture; toss to coat. Pour bean mixture around chicken. Sprinkle everything generously with salt and pepper.

Roast until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cilantro. Transfer chicken to plates. Spoon bean mixture over. Serve with yogurt sauce.

Die of deliciousness.....

Save that Date!

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? We've been busy, had the fam in town and headed down to North Carolina to visit Ms. Moo for another extraordinary Elon performance.

I'm hard at work on all things wedding - but thought I'd drop by and post the final Save the Dates as most all of them have been dropped in the mail.

In other, much scarier news, the wedding is less than four months away.

Scream... I did.

Spring Fettuccine

Had the best dinner tonight - I could eat it again tomorrow. Delicious and easy.

Spring Fettuccine - From Bon Appetit Magazine

Ingredients

• 8 ounces thin asparagus, trimmed, cut into 1/2-inch lengths
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into 1/4-inch strips
• 8 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup frozen petite peas, thawed
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 16 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 pound fettuccine
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Preparation

• Cook asparagus in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to bowl; set aside. Reserve water in pot.
• Melt butter in large skillet over medium-low heat. Add prosciutto and stir 1 minute. Add mushrooms and sauté until golden, about 3 minutes. Add asparagus, peas, and cream and simmer until cream is reduced by 1/3, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat. Mix in cherry tomatoes.
• Bring reserved water in pot to boil. Add pasta and cook until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain. Add pasta to skillet with sauce and toss to coat over low heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Stir in cheese. Transfer to large bowl; sprinkle with chives and serve.

We didn't bother with the chives (although I'm sure they're good!) and we used baby bella mushrooms instead of crimini. It was seriously delicious and will definitely be on our next dinner party menu. In other news, our Save the Dates went out! I know, I know it only took several months of staring at it on my to do list, but after the aforementioned stamp snafu and some mailing label issues, they have officially left the building. We also took several rounds of engagement pictures throughout DC, embracing our inner tourists and love for a remote shutter release.
 

That and our love for jumping. 

We also may have launched our wedding web site - but it's in a pretty skeletal state, so I am going to wait before sharing the link here in the hopes that I can amp up our content. Although the URL is a pretty simple guess and involves both of our names.

More to come, but first enjoy that pasta.

Embracing the Polar Bear

Well here I sit, as do the Save the Dates. I know, you've been checking your mailbox daily, hourly, but alas. I indicated our non-starter status in my last blog, we've made some progress since then, but have hit a few roadblocks as well.

Roadblock number one? Postage. As we discovered in prior research, the only 28 cent stamp currently available is this lovely polar bear:

And he is lovely, right? The first thing I think of when I think of weddings and summer is polar bears. Of course we could spring the extra almost 20 cents and have a wide variety of postal designs to choose from, but that would defeat the budget-friendly postcard. 

Our stroke of brilliance came in the form of more stamps and less postage per stamp. A not entirely original idea of using three of these far more design-friendly 10 cent stamps.

Great plan, stamps were ordered prior to the arrival of the Save the Dates last week. Save the Dates arrived and as previously noted, were smaller than expected. Combination of three 10 cent stamps and an address label result in tragic overcrowding. 

So cue the polar bear.  It doesn't really matter, right? It's just postage, who cares? Who looks at stamps anyways besides crazy brides and bespectacled stamp collecting kids from the movies who also happen to be heavy breathers. (Do they exist in real life? Any philatelists reading this blog?)

Wha whaa whaaa - so resigned to the polar bear are we. D. brought in our reams of clock stamps to exchange this week, but lo and behold, the post office accepts no exchanges. Make your stamp decisions wisely chickens, otherwise you'll be stuck with the suggestion our postal worker provided D.: "Stick 'em all on a big package." 

We may or may not take his advice. Maybe they'll show up on larger envelopes later, but for now, it will be the polar bear who serves as our ambassador, carrying our message of "Save the Date" to your doorstep. Welcome him warmly.

Out of Order

Save the dates arrived today and they look good. Maybe a little smaller than I expected, but good. We are still non-starters, however, because in order to send out the STD's we need addresses, and to get addresses we need a guest list and well, non-starter.  Also the STD's are emblazoned with a wedding web site that we've yet to design and require mailing labels that we've yet to design so more non-starting.

To sum it up, we've started not starting. In the mean time - here's some of the inspiration we pulled for our Save the Dates. I can't share the real thing with you until we've sent them out. Otherwise it would be ruining the surprise and joy I'm certain you'll experience when looking at our carefully selected fonts for the first time. Right.

Melting (down?)

Probably a little over-dramatic for this blog title. The melting is in reference to the post-snowpocalypse glaciers that are slowly diminishing. The down is in reference to a wedding now less than six months away.

First the snowpocolypse - marvel in its snowy snowiness. We worked at home all week, played in the snow, scavenged the city for bread and thanked the gods every night that our neighbor has a hot tub.

 

  Note below the sledding in front of our Nation's Capitol Building.

 

People love a good snowpocalypse.

As for the wedding, yes progress is being made. We held a massive "State of the Union" (literally) to determine all that's yet to be done and by done I mean purchased. The list was daunting, but onwards and upwards, right? To return to an earlier list (as in December earlier) for every item we have crossed off we have added at least two.

1. Save the Dates - Have finally been ordered, now onto address harvesting and the eventual assembling.
2. Photographer - Done! Check him out at Poser Photography
3. Officiant - Also done - thanks to the Right Reverend Andrew John Clemison Moschetti
4. Caterer-Done, just tweaking menus etc...
5. Band - Not even started.

In addition to that list, we've moved on to tuxedos, invitations web sites, flowers and hotel rooms. We will save the discussion on those for another night.

In other news, we have lived in the District for over a year! We made the trek out from Denver last February 6th and my blog started shortly thereafter. I could say it was the one year anniversary of this blog but that would be a lot like claiming you had been with your boyfriend for x many years even though you broke up for a couple of years in the middle. In honor of the partial anniversary, you can read my original blog here complete with metro mishaps and about a dozen trips to Good Stuff eatery.

I promise to share the final STD's with you later this week along with bridesmaids dresses and a few other projects I've been working on. For now I'm absorbed in the closing ceremonies, have soak up this last little bit of Olympic fanfare before figuring out what I'm going to do with all the time I've been dedicating to curling and ice dancing.

The Domino Effect

This is where it started - an Ikea trip - a Christmas gift, and now the whole house is in jeopardy. This Karlstad "swivel chair" has thrown off the balance in the house demanding we up the ante in the furniture department as a whole.

Next to the svelte Swedish lounger, our red chair looks squatty, fat and pathetic. Even furniture as far away as the bedroom is peeking down the hallway with envy. See, this is what happens when you buy new things. No longer are we satisfied with our college mish-mash, we want grown-up furniture, and as soon as you get one piece, it's all downhill. Now I know this is heaping a lot of weight onto something from Ikea, but the dominoes had to start somewhere.

As for the next domino - here are a few options I'm considering. Luckily for me and my bank account, these dominoes are slow-falling.

These are all from Macy's - But there are of course other, less probable (and by probable I mean affordable) options to consider.

Jonathan Adler and Anthropologie respectively.

This really isn't a blog about chairs - so I'll try to get back to wedding planning tomorrow.

We've Been a Little LOST

Oh little blog, how neglected you've been. Just like the dishes in the sink, the laundry piling up and the deterioration of any semblance of productivity in my non-working hours. My affliction is an addiction to the all too well-known television program, LOST. D. and I picked up seasons one and two after Christmas, ran through the DVD's at light speed and have since moved on to a streaming Netflix subscription so we can get a steady supply at all hours of the day. With the sixth and final season premiering only weeks away, we're rushing to catch up and watch the conclusion unfold in real time with the rest of the world. The only way to make our self-imposed premiere deadline is to watch LOST at all hours of the day not already allotted for sleeping, working or showering. From the moment we get home to the moment we can no longer stay awake, it's all we do. I'm convinced that the cold I came down with this week was an evil plot on behalf of Season four, to ensure I wouldn't stray from the couch. What began as a suspenseful viewing experience, where I couldn't wait to see the next episode has become a heavy responsibility, taking all of our time but delivering no answers. Oh LOST, why must you torture us so? I'm looking forward to the day when our weekends can return to normal, when we might see our friends or go out for the evening instead of intently focusing all efforts on the pursuit of this series. The side effects of so much LOST are obvious: the nightmares, distraction, listlessness and of course when not viewing, withdrawal - all resulting in total weekend incapacitation.

I guess that's the long and short of it. I'd write more, but I guess you understand that I'm a little busy watching LOST.

Guest Blogging

Today I'm blogging in a new locale as a guest at Burrelles Luce's Fresh Ideas blog. Burrelle's Luce is a mega-media-monitoring company with a PR-focused blog. I won registration to a conference sponsored by Burrelles Luce over Twitter last fall and was asked to write a guest blog post for them. Well, the day has come, the blog is live and you can go visit it here.

If you don't feel like clicking over, I'm posting it here as well. It's about Opes, enjoy!


Life After Oprah 
January 14th, 2010
by Industry Insider Guest Blogger 

Abbey Franke is an Account Executive at Scott Circle Communications. She focuses on new media strategies and online communications and comes to public relations with a background in live television production. You can follow her on Twitter: @scottcircle LinkedIn: abbeyfranke or Facebook: Scott Circle.

Image: AdWeek

As Oprah tearfully announced that her upcoming 25^th season would be her last, a flurry of tweets began flying before the credits even started rolling. The question on everyone’s lips (or tweets): “Who would be next?” Oprah, a towering icon of television talk, leaves behind a unique brand and some sizeable shoes to fill. As the voice that launched a thousand small businesses, authors, celebrities and lately, politicians, she has harnessed the power of her daytime audience in a way that no competitor has. Where other shows are more specialized, the Big “O” packs a punch in terms of variety, serving up everything from celebrity interviews to self-help, confessionals to contests, all with a side of fashion and fanfare. This broad base has made Oprah into a holy grail of public relations, the golden ring for communications professionals and clients to strive for.

So, who is next? Where will we turn when we have a new book to promote? An expert on multiple personality disorders to pitch? Or a golf pro ensnared in a PR-tsunami with a big apology to make? Already names are being tossed around.

Funny girl, Ellen DeGeneres seems to be the natural heir to Oprah’s talk queen crown. Her appeal is broad, although she only commands less than half of Oprah’s estimated seven million viewers. This fall has seen the two together on the cover of O, The Oprah Magazine and appearing on each other’s shows, leading many to believe that Ellen’s succession could be a natural one. Still, it’s hard to imagine her hi-jinks and dancing paired with a tell-all from Whitney Houston, much less Sarah Palin, both of whom appeared on Oprah this fall.

Rumors also suggest a Katie Couric daytime program following the end of Couric’s contract with CBS in 2011, but Couric’s image, as a sophisticated girlfriend, does not have quite the same warm, likeability of Oprah’s mentoring presence. Other names like Tyra Banks, Whoopi Goldberg, Paula Abdul and even Sarah Palin are floating around as potential daytime divas. Morning shows like Good Morning America and the Today Show offer a similar variety to Oprah’s programming, but still cannot match her numbers. And then, of course, there are the prime time and late night outlets. Leno, Letterman, and Conan remain strongholds for celebrities while Colbert and Stewart offer politicos, authors, economists and other thought leaders.

Perhaps Oprah leaves behind her a void that no one show can fill. Fans of her self-help segments may gravitate towards spin-offs Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz. Viewers interested in celebrity will stick with Ellen or Tyra. Lifestyle audiences could turn to Martha Stewart, the Oprah-launched, Rachel Ray or a rumored new program for Oprah regular, home improvement/design guru Nate Berkus.

So where does this leave PR professionals? The end of Oprah could be just another step towards the increasing hyper-fragmentation of the media as niche outlets multiply on and offline. The result: continued need for greater targeting efforts, heightened listening, and connecting with audiences where they are by PR. Does this require more work than one big push for the golden Oprah standard? Probably, but the outlets for exposure expand drastically as do the opportunities for meaningful interaction. Building buzz from the bottom up is daunting and without the ultimate “stamp of approval,” individual influencers need to be discovered at every level of communications. They might look a little different than Oprah and come in the form of mommy-bloggers or local anchors, but perhaps their reach will be even more personal and their audience even more engaged.

Between now and the end of Oprah’s reign supreme, there will be undoubtedly hundreds of potential candidates to take her place. Of course, there’s still one candidate that might be the best replacement for Oprah, and that’s Oprah herself. Although the full details of her next venture have yet to be released, or even developed, what’s brewing is a network that uses Oprah’s successful show as a jumping off point, promising dozens of new programs to pitch. So, as we enter into the end of an era, how will you be tailoring your PR efforts? Who will be your big get?

I'm with Coco

          People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.
Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.
But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.
Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.
So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.
There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.
Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.
Yours,
Conan

We love you Conan and your old time baseball, floppy hair and above average height. We will still watch you wherever you go - unless you just go home, because that would be stalkerish.