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I don’t know if you’ve noticed (and thank you for not mentioning it) but I’ve lost my funny.
I’m not sure where it went, but I suspect it’s somewhere in the guts of the chicken coop. Or maybe it spilt out of me when I sliced my hand open last week, building the chicken coop. It’s entirely possible I lost it in the massive piles of chicken poop piling up in my backyard. Or it could be in the last place I’d think to look, in the Jesus shaped phlegm from my cold that’s splattered … you guessed it … all over the side of the chicken coop.
Needless to say, all signs lead to the chicken coop stealing my funny. That chicken coop’s an asshead.
I’m only guessing here but I’d say the chicken coop should be done in a week. I said that exact same phrase a month and a half ago when I started the chicken coop. Weird.
I suspect once the coop is done my funny will return. I’m hoping my patience, my appetite, and that 14k gold necklace I lost in the early 80′s will return at the same time. It was almost just like the one Dana Plato wore on Different Strokes.
Stupid chickens having the nerve to steal my funny. I thought it was raccoons who stole delightful, sparkly things.
Speaking of Chicken & Goat cheese Salad with Roasted Red Peppers, it’s my absolute favourite light dinner meal. It’s the kind of thing you eat when you know you have a gallon of ice cream you want to leave room for. Or a carrot cake. Or the entire top display case of a bakery if you’re having a particularly bad day. Say, for example, if you’re building a chicken coop.
Chicken & Goat Cheese Salad with Roasted Red Peppers
with a Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Lettuce of your choice (I use a combination of red leaf lettuce and other mixed greens)
I harvested this particular lettuce from my garden. I’ve planted lettuce in a big round planter where it doubles as an ornamental plant on an outdoor coffee table.
I know what you’re thinking. You thinking Sigh …. I wish I had her life. Out picking lettuce from her pretty bowl … so nice … Well, before you go wishing you had my life, remember the chicken coop, the sliced hand and the phlegm.
Grilled Chicken (1 boneless, skinless breast per person)
Goat Cheese
Roasted Red Peppers (1/2 – 1 per person)
Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette
(1 part Balsamic Vinegar, 3 parts Olive Oil, 1 tsp. Dijon Mustard, salt & pepper)
Once you’ve made your balsamic dressing, squeeze or pour some into a bowl and add about a teaspoon of honey. Give it a taste. If you’d like it a little sweeter, add some more. You want to be able to taste the honey because you won’t believe how good it tastes with the chicken, roasted red peppers and especially the goat cheese.
If you want to make this dressing all at once, adding the honey to the main balsamic dressing, that’s fine. I just do it separately because I don’t like the sweeter dressing on my regular weekday salad. Adding the honey afterwards to a separate bowl ensures I have leftover, regular balsamic dressing for the week’s regular salads.
Now all you have to do is assemble your salad. Greens, red peppers, chicken, goat cheese, dressing.
And then you eat it.
Countdown to funny – 7 days (fingers crossed)
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Julie
Ahhh….you haven’t lost your funny….you sure made me smile. Good luck with that coop.
Micol
Dear karen,
You Are always fun.
Now, please hire someone to help you, or just stop yelling at that handsmone bf and let him help you. Oh, please, I don’t want to be’ misunderstood. You are still in charge and lead all the process. Just let someone else do the heavy duties
Chicks coop will end sono and you will remember it’s construction with a smile.
Big hugs girl, we (me and your public) love you!
Micol
Karen
Micol – No. LOL. It’s almost done. I’m in the home stretch now so all should be good soon! Thank you though! ~ karen.
Deb
You could never loose your funny!!! That’s the main reason I like to land here!!! You make me smile!!
Meg
Oh my god, I just drooled on my desk– that looks delicious!
Also, no funny has been lost. You’re still way funnier than I am, though how funny I am remains to be seen. Popular opinion dictates at minimum amusing, so clearly you are funny
Susan Perry
Dear Karen,
Though you are truely the queen of DIY, and you surely CAN finish the coop, perhaps you should consider paying/bartering with someone else to finish the project. What price your funny,your mojo,your joie de vivre?? No money you say? What could you be doing to create $$ if you weren’t tied to the coop? Just sayin’, from experience.
Kim
Tired of building the chicken coop…tired of shoveling chicken poop…chicken salad recipe…coincidence?
Kate S.
Wanna know something funny? It says you have 6 comments but only shows me one… Oh wait thats not funny.
Whats funny is that everytime you show a chicken recipe I think “Its so weird she doesnt like whole chicken breasts”. But I imagine you are ok with that, being a self proclaimed weirdo and all.
Have a nice Tuesday!
~Kate
amyfaith
Speaking as a person with very specific ideas and preferences for oh so many things (some might even say OCD-ish), I’m going to share with you the sanity restoring mantra that I repeat to myself daily:
Perfection is the enemy of Good.
These are words to live by, my dear.
And don’t fret: your funny will come back in full force. This is only a brief hiatus as your funny gathers lots of good new material!
Holly
1. You have not lost your funny! I laugh at your blog, well, WITH your blog, every day!
2. This meal is one of my all time favorites. I’ll have to try your balsalmic vin. recipe- looks like a keeper!
Jeanne
I think the “chicken” receipe is a deep seated retribution from the horrors of the chicken coop, garage demolition and chicken poop everywhere. Have you had any nightmares lately? Like getting smothered in chicken feathers while trying to paint the coop and getting railed out of town by TV critics? Don’t give up or you will be feeling guilty
to the end of days! We love you; good job, LOL
Marti
So I’m looking at this recipe and all I can think is “Marti! YOU FOOL! Race back to Costco, hoping against hope that they still have that stove top grill pan. RUN!!”
Yeah, it looks that good. That simple. And considering how tired I am of chicken… wow. But I am starting a low-carb, so maybe it’s time.
Is that live camera still running on the previous posts?
Karen
Marti – Thanks! And no … the live camera was only running during the waking hours of those days while I was building the coop. I want the finished product of the coop to be a secret until I post pictures so no more coop cam.
~ karen!
Talia
You did NOT lose your funny. I promise this post has just as many chuckles in it as all your others!AND a recipe to boot! Can’t wait to try it.
PS: Sorry that dang coop is such a nuisance. Grrrr…..
Karen
Grrrr … It’s actually getting to the point where I can see the end so it’s fun again. Plus it’s all the “finishing” stuff so it’s actually starting to look like how I pictured it as opposed to a big series of plywood boxes! ~ karen
Valerie
I think you are funnier and more amusing since the chicken coop extravaganza began. But you will really lose any vestiges of humour if you put any UNdiluted chicken manure on your lettuce or flower beds. It is fantastic fertilizer but don’t use too much and dilute it down with water significantly. Have you considered selling the chicken manure? Gardening fanatics who reside in cities would love to acquire some….this type of fertilizer is not available at garden centres….you can usually only find “steer” manure which contains weed and dandelion seeds…which is why chicken manure is preferable.
bluephatmom
You might FEEL like you’re not funny, but you ARE funny.
Mr. Pickles
Funny is like a cowlick in your hair; it’s ALWAY there, just sometimes it’s tamped down a bit. Don’t worry, your funny always comes through – just like parted bangs from the cowlick in school pictures, YOU CAN’T HIDE IT!
Karen
Excellent advice Mr. Pickles. I won’t worry anymore. ~ karen
mary
Thanks for saying Happy Birthday to Greg… I smiled when I saw that… gearing up for a laugh next week! (Known Greg for so long I know his nickname: Chef Boy-R-Greg)!
Holly
How can you possibly say that you have lost your funny when you can bust out the Dana Plato reference? Maybe if your necklace returns you will also find some jelly shoes, stretch pants, or a friendship bracelet.
Kim
When I first started reading, I thought you said “fanny”…and was thinking that was a weird, but funny thing to say. But with the live video, maybe it had turned into an issue. I hadn’t paid attention to your fanny size but maybe you or others had. Then I realized you said FUNNY. Ha, that’s funny. You haven’t lost a thing there. Were you trying to be funny?
Culinary School: Three Semesters of Life, Learning, and Loss of Blood
Ah that looks perfect this time of year – nice and refreshing.
And don’t worry about the funny – it comes and goes (dare I say, it’s funny like that?).
Pam'a
I’m so glad you’re “smelling the barn” [an allusion to why horses run faster when they're on the way home from a ride] with the chicken coop adventure. Because although you hide it well, I’ve sensed you were really struggling and have been feeling bad for you. You take on a lot. And the coop was an AWFUL lot. And still, somehow you manage to share all the best stuff with all of us at the same time, no matter what.
So bully for you, girl.
Karen
Thanks Pam’a. Yup. Smellin’ the barn. I actually love building the chicken coop. It’s exactly the sort of thing I love to do even though technically I have no idea how to build a chicken coop. It’s just difficult to build a coop and run a website at the same time. And maintain good hygiene. Once the coop is built I plan on taking a much needed 1 week vacation from the coop, the blog, cleaning the house and all other things that can’t be done while reading a book and eating potato chips. ~ karen
Hollie @ I'm Busy Procrastinating
Anyone who calls a chicken coop an asshead hasn’t lost her funny. Oh, Karen, I love your ever-fluent wisecracks. You are my sarcasm sensei.
Cassie Moore
Karen, Thanks to pinterest, I’ve been reading your blog for a couple weeks now. I’ve also made glowing orbs (7 of them)and I think I screwed it up by using leftover LED lights because the kinda sparkle rather than glow. Still awesome though.
One last thing, in case you weren’t jesting, you have not lost your funny. I read many of your posts all in one day and most of them I still want to read outloud to my hubby – who laughs. Proof.
Karen
Heh. Thanks Cassie. I think I’ve lost my funny more in my head than on paper (or computer). I’m just done with the coop. It’s a full time job, as is writing this blog so I’m ready for the chickens to move and so I can relax a bit and move down to working a reasonable 12 hours a day again.
~ karen
Jennifer
So I made your salad tonight (with a slight variation on the goat cheese). It was a HUGE hit — thank you!
Have a question on the dressing quantities — it looks like you have almost a cup of dressing in that container, so say 1/4 c. vinegar to 3/4 c. oil — and still just a teaspoon of dijon? I ended up using more like a tablespoon of dijon and it could probably have used a bit more. You’re right about the honey — it’s amazing with that flavor combo.
Karen
Jennifer – Glad you liked it! You’re right. Now that I think about it, I use a heaping teaspoon for that amount of dressing.
~ karen
concrete floors
it looks delicious .. yummmy !!
Karen
It’s 1:26 a.m.? Where are ya, Billy? ~ karen
Marti
Geez, I have all this stuff and can make it tomorrow… before I blow out the rest of the leftover chicken into chicken and white bean chili.
Have a great weekend Karen!
Karen
You too! ~ K!
Elle
Just made it tonight for myself after the kids have gone to bed – this is soooo good! I also added some mushrooms that I sauteed lightly with some soy sauce and a pinch of brown sugar.
Karen
Elle – Excellent! Glad you liked it. It’s one of my favourite light dinners. Where are you that it’s night right now? ~ karen
Elle
On the shores of the Meditteranean sea
Sherry
K this looks great and I would love to do it – I need a salad – bought the lettuce and have a chicken breast… I know I should know – but based on the last recipe I cooked from your blog (with ginger) I was hoping for the detailed description of how to roast peppers – sorry… I’m trying…
Karen
Sherry – You can either roast peppers on the BBQ, or on the gas flames of a gas stove. You just cut the tops off of the peppers, cut them in half, clean them out … and then put them on the BBQ on medium high, until the pepper is cooked and the skin is blackened a bit. If you go a little further and blacken the skin completely, just rub the skin off with a paper towel. It leaves a nice BBQ/burnt flavour on the pepper. For this recipe the peppers should be cooked through, but not complete mush. ~ karen!
Sherry
Okay – I’ll try it… thanks
sherry