The other day I mentioned to a friend that I was going to make roasted chicken and carrots for dinner. She was confused about the roasted carrots. Confused, as in, roasted carrots how? And, roasted carrots why? Ladies and gentlemen, if you aren’t roasting your meals at least once a week, you’re spending way too much time and effort on dinner.
I have three best friends: Kara, Tiffany, and Helena. Late Monday night, Helena’s mother passed away. I found out yesterday afternoon that her father requested I write the memorial and obituary. I already had a headache (that’s my response to extreme stress) but that just pushed me over the edge into migraine. Of course I’m going to do it; it’s an honor. But it needs to be perfect. Perfect-perfect. I can’t screw this up, in other words, and a part of me is nervous I will do just that.
So I freaked out, developed a migraine, and realized by 3:00pm I would need to take some medicine and lay down if I didn’t want it to get much worse. Those of you who get bad headaches and migraines are with me on this.
And that’s what I did. I popped an over-the-counter analgesic, and went to bed. Before that, though, I tossed a chicken and some vegetables in a pan and drizzled all of it with olive oil, salt, pepper. I set the oven at a low temperature (375�) to avoid burning everything in the event I fell asleep (I did). Less than an hour later, I woke up to the smell of dinner finishing up in the oven. I was so tired, I didn’t even fix a salad. We served ourselves from the roasting pan and called it a meal. It took five minutes to clean up the pan and we were done for the night.
I’m pretty sure everything is better roasted. Maybe not ice cream, but definitely stressful, sad, headachy days.
Hey I’m so sorry to hear about Helena’s mom. As much as my mom makes me want to stick ice picks in my eyes sometimes I can’t imagine life without her. Whatever you write will be amazing and heartfelt so relax and just let the words flow.
I’m sorry about your friend’s mother. :o( I have no doubt that the words you write will be nothing but beautiful.
Ditto to everything that Tiffany said (including the mama comment, oy vey).
We are all lucky and blessed to have your friendship. You are a friend that is happy to be there during the joyous times and yet you give to us, without hesitation, your endless support and loyalty during the difficult times. Not many folks can do that, you are a rare gem. As far as the writing goes, your eloquence will shine brightly…It always does :-)
I will be thinking of Helena and her family, hoping they find peace and comfort during this time.
Love – K
So sorry to hear about your friend’s loss. I am sure whatever you write will be beautiful.
Thank you for sharing such a simple recipe! I am a fan of using the crock pot or slow roasting. Being pregnant chasing an almost 2 year old around does not leave me with much time or energy to cook some days!
Hi there! I am so sorry to hear about your friend’s mother. I will be thinking of her.
I hope your headache is gone!
I also love roasting chicken and carrots! Roasted carrots are my favorite, not only are they easy to do, but they come out delicious!!
Take care!!
Kim
Sorry to hear about your Friends loss. Am positive that the memorial and obituary will be poignant. You have a way to capture words.
It seems everyone, above, has said it all. I’m not even sure why I’m commenting, except maybe so Helena knows there are people she’s never even met, sending up a prayer …
Your writing is incredible; it is hard to imagine your work being less than perfection.
We had roasted chicken last night. And it is not roasted but fried ice cream is pretty good!
Sorry about your friend’s mom. Those are very stressful times indeed.
I’m a big fan of roasting. It’s a life-saver. When I was college, I gained quite a bit of notoriety for feeding roasted chicken (with roasted carrots, roasted potatoes, and roasted onions) to hoards of hungry fellow undergrads.So easy and so economical. Good on you.
I am sorry about Tiffany + your migraine, happy about your easy dinner tips and need I remind you that you have one cyber bestie/stalker?
xx,
Miss B.
Prayers to you and to your friend’s family.
Good luck on writing something you feel satisfied with. We all believe it will be beautiful, wonderful, and sincere. You can do it!
(Ugh- I used to have killer headaches and had to sleep them off. Not fun!)
What a rough day-I’m sorry to hear about your friends Mom. I hope you find the words your looking for when writing the memorial. Knowing you it’ll be nothing short of beautiful.
I’m on the same page as you as far as roasting dinner goes. We wouldn’t eat otherwise. My current favorite combo is to roast chicken (usually enough for 3 or 4 meals worth) and then roast a big batch of mixed veggies; squash, zucchini, onion, broccoli and red potato. I sprinkle it with salt, pepper, cumin and corriander then use it during the week to either stuff into burritos or quesidillas (I’ll add black beans and corn to the mixture for those). Other times, I take half the mixture and make a veggie soup with it. Oh, and I love to heat up the left over veggie mix and top it on a fresh green salad-I love the mix of hot and cold foods.