Cranberry Beans, Millet, Roasted Broccolini, Fried Egg

This is the sort of meal that comes from having a bunch of good ingredients on hand but no clear plan of what to do with them. I soaked some millet and beans overnight, and then went to the store the next day to see what looked good, opting for more of this beautiful broccolini from Borba Farm that I've been eating a lot of lately. I had some diced red onion (from my knife skills class), so I caramelized that and added it to the beans once they were cooked. I cooked the millet and tossed it with just a little ghee to add some richness (I swear, soft-cooked millet with ghee and sea salt is as good as, if not better than, mashed potatoes any day), roasted the broccolini with garlic, and put it all together with an egg on top. Delicious, if a little scattered...

Fried Chicken

On Mother's Day our plans to go to The Beast and the Hare for fried chicken were foiled. In a pinch, I offered to pick up a chicken and fry it up at my parents' house instead, and it ended up being a wonderful brunch. Having just taken a class at 4505 Meats last week, I am now an expert on breaking down poultry, so I portioned out the chicken, seasoned it, and let it marinate in buttermilk for about a half hour. While that was going on, I threw together some biscuit dough, using this recipe but substituting buttermilk for creme fraiche and omitting the sugar. After I'd cut the biscuits and put them in the freezer to chill, I started dredging the chicken in a mixture of flour, rosemary, cayenne, salt and pepper, and frying it in batches in a cast iron skillet. This always takes longer than I remember, since each piece needs about 10 minutes on each side, and in this case one small chicken required 3 batches of cooking totalling about an hour. Just before the last batch was ready, I stuck the biscuits in the oven and served them hot with butter. Hooray for spontaneous fried chicken!

Scrambled Eggs with Arugula, Green Garlic, Herbs and Chevre

made with beautiful eggs from my fried piper's chickens!

Roasted Baby Broccoli, Chickpeas with Harissa, Yogurt