Tomorrow ends my stint in jury duty. It was a short week but strangely enough we members of the jury have bonded in our time together, despite the fact that nobody seems to know anybody else's name. The best way I can describe it is to say that its like an extended field trip in high school.

This was a play off a dinner we made a few months ago with red curry and pork chops. For that meal we used an Archer Farms meal in a box kit that didn't have near enough rice. For this one we just stuck to the basics:

First off, a quick note: I have jury duty this week, which despite what you might hear from other people, is fascinating stuff. So thats 5-8 hours every day, plus I need to at least tread water at my regular job, which doesn't leave me a whole lot of time to cook or write about cooking. So there is a pretty good chance I'll be making pasta and sandwich staples that you can find on this blog throughout the rest of the week and weekend. Thats too bad.

Later today, Lauren is going to be participating in an informal potato salad throwdown as part of a potluck lunch at work. The gauntlet was thrown Monday afternoon. I have no idea how, I just got an email saying 

Yesterday I made muffins for Tuesday morning breakfast and a Monday night snack. I used the sour cream muffin recipe, added a tablespoon of lemon juice and a small package of blueberries.

Last night Lauren decided she wanted to try something completely different. I can't really explain why because I don't know. She bought some tempeh over the weekend as had convinced herself it was going to taste really good. Lately she has been giving me a hard time about how our meals are always based around meat. Again, why? I don't know. I happen to be good at cooking and eating meat.

Last night we decided to take something old and make it new. I like to use Mondays and Tuesdays to survey the available refrigerator space and grocery situation and then make a meal plan so that I can have dinner + leftovers for lunch throughout the week, and I like to do it so that I'm not racing to eat the same thing twice a day before it spoils. 

• 4 cups diced cooked chicken
  
• 1 rib minced celery
  
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
  
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
  
• 1/2 cup sour cream
  
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine chicken, celery, basil and almonds. In a small bowl, combine sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Add to chicken mixture, tossing gently to coat. Cover and chill.

We used dried basil rather than fresh. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup and the fresh basil packages at the grocery store were $2 each and didn't seem like they'd produce that much. So rather than spend $6 on fresh basil I just took the dried basil I already had and used about 2-3 tbsp. Other than that I stuck to the recipe. 

We grilled and diced 2 lbs of chicken breast to get our 4 cups, and as a result the chicken salad was a bit warm when we ate it last night. I'll be curious to see if the overnight refrigeration married the flavors a little more and alters the taste.  This recipe will probably stick around as our change of pace chicken salad recipe.

Along with our chicken salad we also tried out a new recipe for corn. When summer rolls around the only vegetables I have interest in are the ones that get cheaper and veggies I can roast. So at least twice a week we end up eating sweet corn or asparagus. Last night was a corn night:

Roasted Corn w/ Cilantro-Lime Butter

• 6 ears corn, shucked
  
• Cilantro Lime Butter, recipe follows
  

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat each ear of corn in 2 tablespoons of the cilantro lime butter and wrap individually in foil. Roast until hot and steaming, about 25 minutes. Serve with extra butter on the side.

Cilantro Lime Butter:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
  
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
  
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
  
• 2 teaspoons salt
  
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Put the butter in a mixing bowl and, using a rubber spatula, mix in the cilantro, lime zest, lime juice, salt and cayenne. Use immediately or refrigerate.

Once again Food Network went a little overboard with their condiments. Two sticks of butter is ridiculous. Thats like 1/3 stick per ear of corn. I don't know if you've ever tried to put 1/3 of stick of butter on one ear of corn, but it just isn't possible. Not even by accident.

To make just two ears of corn last night, I used about 3 tbsp of butter total. I divided everything else by 3 and mixed it together. Rather than roast the corn for 25 minutes I first boiled the corn for 3-4 minutes, then slathered it with the cilantro lime butter, wrapped it in foil and finished it on the grill next to my chicken for another 5-10 minutes.

It was very good. I realize there are only so many ways to prepare corn and this isn't all that exotic, but it was appreciated nonetheless.

Neither of these pictures are mine. They are both from Food Network. I didn't have my camera out last night. My chicken salad didn't look quite so stupid. The corn is a pretty accurate representation though.

Hooray, time for another "what am I looking at? I guess I'll have to take his word for it" casserole pictures. 

This weekend, Lauren and I spent some time constructing our greatest cake yet. The inspiration was Sofia's 4th birthday and her love of Dr. Seuss. Sofia is the daughter of our friends Peter and Rachel. About a year ago Lauren and I made a two-tiered fondant covered birthday cake for Lauren's friend Julie. In the 12 months since that cake we've been seeing all sorts of competive cake building competitions on Food Network Challenge. So back in March I emailed Rachel about doing a Dr. Seuss cake for Sofia's birthday. This weekend Lauren and I created and delivered it.

Now before I go any further I want to explain how our cake building partnership works. Lauren is undoubtedly the designer/architect and builder. At any point in this entry if you see the word "I" or "we", it almost definitely means "she". My role in this is basically engineer/bus boy. Like an engineer I occassionally provide some good advice on the cost, feasability and materials for the project and in exchange for that I don't always correct people when they assume the project was a 50/50 effort between myself and the designer/builder. 

Also, I wash dishes and mixing pieces/bowls, clear space on the counter and in the refrigerator and perform accessory preparation (i.e. knead fondant, mixing more icing, etc.) as needed so that we're never forced to bring the project to a screeching halt. 

After making the fondant and Rice Krispy treats Friday night, Lauren began the baking on Saturday. She first made a three-tiered funfetti cake using 9-inch round cake pans. Normally the directions would tell you that one box makes two 9-inch cakes, but knowing that she'd be cutting off the dome of the cake to make it flat and stackable, Lauren used one whole box per pan.

She then laid icing between each layer and stacked them up. Once that was stacked, we covered that in icing and covered the icing with yellow fondant.

In order to make the hat, we made 4 separate pieces of Rice Krisy treat, iced them, wrapped them in red and white fondant and then restacked them.

I wanted to knock out this entry real quick before I get to the main event, so that I can discuss these components more in depth as recipes and leave the cake thread to discussion of the construction.