Roast Chicken with Radishes

Crudité with green goddess dip from the dinner I served the night before. I repurposed the red pepper by trimming the bottom so it would sit flatter and giving it a fresh cut on the top.
I also served warm olives with orange peel and thyme. About a decade ago, my sister gave me the linen cocktail napkins.
Peanut in Paris in front of her former place of employment, Pierre Frey. She’s now in graduate school at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. She traveled to Paris with her sister Elizabeth via Amsterdam on a gallery scouting week-long tour.

A week ago, I taught my youngest daughter how to roast a chicken while she was driving through the French countryside to a chateau. Yes, doesn’t that sound so romantic?

Here is Peanut’s first Roast Chicken!

She’s a good cook and can navigate a kitchen flawlessly. She needed a little confidence boost, and I was happy to deliver. We traded shopping lists and directions via text message (she was a passenger, she wasn’t driving). She was a little concerned about navigating between Celsius and Fahrenheit, so I told her to wiggle the leg of the bird and to use her sense of sight, smell, and touch to see if it was cooked through.

Roast Chicken is a go-to dinner; now, she has this in her repertoire. She used onions and carrots, while I used radishes, carrots, and shallots, as that is all I had on hand and I did not want to go out to market. Both birds were a success.

My Roast Chicken with Radishes, Carrots, and Shallots.
The table is set for four. I bought the blue linen napkins while in Barcelona, Spain, when my oldest daughter Caroline was studying abroad. We used them for our Thanksgiving Dinner there. They always bring back good memories.
A spring table with candles lit. Peanut brought with her from Pierre Frey a piece of linen used as a tablecloth.
Buttered egg noodles and sauteed broccolini rounded out the meal.
While I spend most days in denim and a tee, one of my favorite party tricks is to run upstairs right before we sit down and put on ‘dinner clothes’.

I like roasting a chicken without consulting a book or recipe; I’ve done it often enough, and muscle memory is good. Of course, you want to make sure it is cooked through. I usually use a Thermometer to do this. If a thermometer isn’t available, you can make a tiny cut into the thickest part of the bird and look for clear juices, not red or pink.

Peanut, here are the tips in post form for future reference:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the neck, liver, and giblets, set them aside, rinse the bird with cool water, and pat it dry inside and out with paper towels. (I freeze the liver to make pate at a later date.) Season liberally with salt and pepper. Stuff the bird’s cavity with a lemon cut in half (give it a little squeeze), a head of garlic cut in half, and a small handful of fresh thyme. Tie the legs with kitchen twine and tuck the wings out and back behind the bird. Place the bird in a roasting pan or baking dish. Slice some onions and carrots and surround the bird with the vegetables, or use what you have on hand, like radishes, carrots, and shallots. Be sure not to crowd the pan as you want roasted vegetables, not steamed. Baste the bird and the veg with melted butter, season again with salt and pepper. Pop into the oven. Periodically stir the veg and baste the bird with the butter and juices. Roast for about an hour and begin to check for doneness. After removing from the oven, let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving. Enjoy!

Two of us had fresh strawberries for dessert; the others had olive oil cake with strawberries and ice cream!

On the Road

the gondola on the way down

Here it is the half-way point of the year and I’m not quite sure how we got here so fast. We’ve been on the road.

the athletes before team open water swim practice
the bike stage
the early morning sky from our bedroom deck

Sixteen of us gathered in Mont Tremblant to cheer on second son Maxwell while he competed in the 70.3 Ironman. It was an achievement on so many levels: he doing the triple athletic crown, us doing the summit get together.

the arrival of London girl and Boston girl. They met up at the Montreal airport. There were so many moving pieces to get us all in one place.
tank tops and denim were on full rotation
cross-body bags too for walking all over
Rory and BaPa in matching fits; unplanned
Gang’s all here
race day cheer squad

There were times husband and I couldn’t string together a full sentence or think a clear thought, we were organizing and hosting all of it. Every moment as they say priceless.

precious and handsome
all in for Peyton
we all love pasta 🙂
we all love beer too
Ethan grilling for the crew
Apricot and plumb
oysters are always a good idea
beautiful and handsome
denim rules
every day is a new day

Anyway, back in the USA now and trying to prep the country house for 4th of July activities. Went to two nurseries and almost all plant materials are gone, picked up what I could and decided I was just going to go for it. We have the full property to get ready for guests by the coming weekend, it’s full tilt go time. I know I do most of it for my own satisfaction, I also know that when family and friends arrive they expect the full experience, again, my total doing.

Back in the USA and came home to this fine display
yay hydrangeas, husband and I planted these seven seasons ago
gathered these annuals to fill our pots, it feels late in the season yet doing it anyway
the potting area
Flat lay of the neutral wardrobe with a very good book, thank you Diana 🙂


Here’s my thought: go with your gut and gather supplies in a color palette you know and love. When time is of the essence it’s hard to try new things. I chose red, blue, yellow, and chartreuse, all colors I wear on my body when not wearing neutrals. I chose the best plants they had on hand and leaned into making good things happen when I was deep down feeling anxious and stressed.

Anxiety and stress won’t get those plants in their pots. Head down, and dug in.

Home or away, it seems we’re always on the road.

root bound, but it’s okay. I teased them about before planting
while boating, she decided she was done so she simply got her binkey and put herself horizontal on the floor, love that

day 8, or is it 9

Instagram Stories at work today, Per Se by Carlisle sweater, Joe’s Jeans leather cropped boot, Golden Goose sneakers

Started the day in the pool at 5:30 am for lap swim, something I’m uncomfortable with yet I know is good for me and feels incredibly good when done. Followed that wet half mile with an hour of spin (including very hard push-ups) and try to get that double session in once a week. Other days its Tracy Anderson or maybe walking lunges and sit-ups or maybe even just walking. It’s a good day when that MyMotiv ring circles in at 16,000+.

Went for the annual physical and passed, with pretty good marks. Had some problems with the close-up eye screen hahaha and the nurse practitioner told me I could use my readers and then we were just fine. I honestly think that good health is closely related with making your bed, wearing good clothes, and eating good food.

Tomorrow I’m meeting again with Williams Media for another go-round of blog overhaul and marketing talk. They too are making me uncomfortable, yet like those laps in the pool it’s a very good thing. Have I used the word ‘good’ too many times? Posting to Instagram Stories twice a day is where I’m not passing. 🙂

Anyways, today I was all about black leather jeans with a little kick at the hem, a striped cashmere ‘jumper’ like by blog crush Alyson Walsh of That’s Not My Age would call my sweater, and a good pair of sneakers. If you don’t know of her jump on over to her here by clicking on this link: That’s Not My Age. Her post today about what to keep and what to chuck so timely with the city house cleaning overhaul going on. She also wrote a few books, her most recent ‘Know Your Style‘.

jeans and knits and sneakers forever

In these photos here I most definitely know my style: jeans and knits and sneakers forever, whatever the textile may be. We should all get and be and feel comfortable with what we wear.

Every day dress, clothes: leather and cashmere, food: leftovers, ha!. 🙂

Day 8, or is it 9? check. xoxo