Carrie Havranek

Jessica, Laini, Kate: thanks for asking for this recipe. I haven’t blogged savory stuff in a while and I’m way overdue. Anyone who encourages me to share is a-ok in my book. And welcome to anyone else who stumbles upon this corner of the world.

First, a word about the inspiration. I adapted this recipe from Food and Wine for chicken and bulgur salad with avocado. This is an older recipe that was published in a short collection of super fast recipes, under 30 minutes, that I got because I recently subscribed to the magazine and bought one of its cookbooks. I liked this because a. there was a lovely photo and b. it includes things I typically have in my kitchen or usually buy, so it came together pretty effortlessly. I also figured the bright citrus dressing would feel right for spring, appeal to the boys, and get me in the mood for a summer of farmers’ market recipe testing. And it did.

If you want to use bulgur, see the recipe as it was initially written. I used wheatberries because I had about 2 cups of them in my freezer that I defrosted. (They had long been waiting for their assigned duty: I’d been making a dish with broccoli and wheatberries pretty regularly and needed a break). You can also easily veganize this recipe by using either white beans or chickpeas instead of bulgur and/or if you wanted a legume instead of a grain. Food and Wine calls for two 6-ounce chicken breasts with skin on; I don’t often find chicken for under a pound at Wegmans when I am buying the organic, skinless and boneless variety, so I used that and changed the amounts accordingly. If it’s too much chicken for your liking, cut one of them in half after it cools and set it aside for another use.  I reduced the temperature from the recipe’s instructions because I used skinless chicken. Additionally, my husband doesn’t like fennel (shame!), not even sliced thinly and tossed in a salad like this, so I don’t often buy it or cook with it. Instead, I added cucumber because I had it (an anomaly for my April-May kitchen) and thought the cool-crisp-crunch would suffice. You can certainly omit those ingredients and do it the way it was written; my version can probably benefit from some editing, just like writing.

I just realized this would also be delicious with shrimp. See, I need to stop!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of boneless chicken breasts (skinless or not), rinsed and patted dry
• 1/4 cup plus 1 T grapeseed oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup shredded basil
• 5 T fresh lemon juice (about juice of one lemon)
• 2-3 large scallions, thinly sliced
• 1-2 avocados, cut into cubes (I used one)
• 1 tomato, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup cucumber, sliced and quartered

Instructions

1. Prepare your grain of choice by following the directions on the package.
2. Preheat the oven to 450. Coat the chicken with 1 T of grapeseed oil and salt and pepper it generously. Place them on a rimmed baking sheet in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, checking about halfway through and flipping them halfway through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Slice thinly on a diagonal, about 1/4 inch thick; because I was feeding children (when am I not?!), I cut the slices into smaller chunks so no one needed a knife.
3. While the chicken does its thing, prep the veggies and other ingredients.
4. Whisk together the orange juice, scallions, lemon and basil with the 1/4 cup of grapeseed oil. (Note: you want something neutral here. Please don’t use EVOO because its fruitiness will compete with the citrus). Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.
5. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, avocado, wheatberries, tomatoes, and cukes with the vinaigrette. Season again with salt and pepper, and pile onto plates.

Serves 4-6, depending on appetite. In my house, it was shared by me, John, my dad, and the boys, with about 1-2 cups of it left over for lunch. We ate it with homemade multigrain sourdough bread.

If you make this, I’d love to hear how you adapted it, if at all.

Dear Internet,

I’m having a great day, and I wanted to put this out there, and keep it in a place where I can refer back to it when days get rough. So I’m writing a love letter to almost everyone and everything I can think of…….

I am not unique in this world to say I love my family. I love my husband more than words can express; we go way back and understand each other better than anyone else. I am grateful that my children are happy and healthy and in a place where they receive excellent care and education. To that end, I love Michaelene Parks, their teacher, and Third Street Alliance. I can’t say I always love the challenges my children present sometimes, but I am grateful for what they have taught me about myself thus far, and themselves. And I love my parents: they are the first experience we have with love, and damn, they gave me and my sister and good one. My mother had the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met.

I love all the people who are, as I like to say, “on my team:” those dear souls whose experiences right now are all dovetailing into one big spiritual soup of change. I think of my sister, whose own path so closely aligns with my own–we are truly each other’s biggest cheerleaders right now, I think. I’m grateful she has found an awesome job where her big boss applesauce buys the staffers a Vitamix and tells everyone to not eat lunch at their desk. (Go HuffPost!) I’m endlessly grateful toward my friend Jessica, who is a shining beacon of light and love. Thanks for clearing the pathways and for sharing your gifts with all of us. (Please buy one of her awesome vibration-raising t-shirts.)  I have gratitude toward every single yoga teacher I’ve ever taken a class with, past and present; you’ve all informed me, shaped me, helped me, challenged me, encouraged me, laughed with me. We are on this path together, people.

I love my work, even as the definition of “work” is shifting. It all involves food and writing and travel in some regard. I love the time I have spent as a travel writer with Frommers. I suspect it’s not totally over yet, but it’s shifting for now. I love the people. I am so grateful for those opportunities. I learned today that someone in my new “work” (Beth) knows someone from my old “work” (Stephen). Love those synchronicities! I cherish the encounters, the people I continue to meet as a result of following food love. To that end, I love all of the hilarious people at the Cosmic Cup for the community building that place creates, and the opportunities it provides. I love Warm Sugar and Artisan’s Kitchen Project–a new place that’s selling my baked goods. I love the food writers I’ve met in the past year, too. I can’t believe the generosity of spirit of those who have offered their advice and insights and help. It seems that the culinary community really understands karma. Or maybe because there is just so much love when it comes to good food, that the professional world of food is necessarily, happily, not like most other working communities. Whatever the case is, I’ll take it.

I am grateful and dearly love all of my creative friends who inspire me and challenge me and collaborate with me and provide opportunities for me to stretch my writing and cooking muscles–and photo taking muscles, too. (It’s a process.)

I love my doctors and healers and all those who look after my health and that of so many others. I love my holistic, crazy-smart, nutritionally-savvy chiropractor and his entire staff (yay Dr. Smith); I love my primary doc and my ob-gyn for being so proactive and full of common sense. I love my pediatrician because he helped center me when I first met him and was crying in his office, while pregnant, just weeks after my mother passed away. The compassion he exhibited was more than I expected and just what was needed. We looked no further. I love the fact that his office calls our house the morning after one of our kids is there for a visit, to check up on how Miles or Desmond is feeling.

I am grateful toward my friends, and yes, even grateful for Facebook, because it gives me such small glimpses into the very busy and interesting lives of very old friends from high school (even when it means there’s a Facebook fast!), whether that’s someone’s art work, someone’s dinner, something funny someone’s child said, or just a random observation or memory. I am grateful that it shows me how similar we all are, at the end of the day, despite whatever has come between us–time, space, memories, silly disputes, or what have you. I am grateful for the serendipity it has permitted in terms of our ability to connect with people we don’t quite know well. I am grateful for what social media has brought me in terms of work, community building opportunities, and the ability to share things that I love, and talk about them. What’s the point of it all if you can’t share?

Speaking of social media, it’s enabling me to hear about the progress of pregnancies right now, of friends who are near and far. I’m so grateful. Jim and Lisa, you will be awesome parents. There is going to be a ton of laughter in your new place in Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown/literary New York State scary-ville. I can’t wait to visit you with cupcakes and cookies and our boys and see how your little girl is experiencing the world. I love that John and I will be able to share our experiences with twin parenting with such dear friends, Jim and Kate, who are facing the arrival of twins in a couple of months. It’s a huge gift, sharing the ups and downs of twin pregnancies and twin raising. We don’t go through tough times for nothing. If we can’t help each other, lean on each other, laugh about stuff and cry about stuff, then what’s the point?

Finally, I love Easton. I love the people. I love the architecture. I am evangelical about the Farmers’ Market. But if you know me, you know this already, and it’s well-expressed elsewhere.

I know there is much more I am missing, forgetting. But  you know I love you, so it’s all good, right?

PS: Did you get my Simpsons reference in the headline?