A chicken and a dog walk into a bar to watch a movie.

I know, a dumb title, but there it is.

A couple of months ago I posted about roasting a chicken and how my standard method over these past thirty years has been to roast it in a relatively hot oven. But that method had disappointed me recently.  Last night I roasted my chicken in a slow oven for two hours and it was most excellent.  The skin was crisp, the meat was tender and juicy and almost falling off the bone. I basted it a couple of times and there was a lot of delicious juice produced which rarely happens when you use a hot oven. And it didn't smoke up the kitchen, which always happens in a hot oven. I roasted asparagus and carrots alongside the chicken and made a little salad of arugula and homemade croutons, put the chicken on the salad and drizzled it with the juices from the chicken and had a lovely glass of Zinfandel with it and licked my fingers when finished.  I was happy and the chicken was happy.  Win-win.  (Well, I cannot actually speak for the chicken's state of happiness, but it tasted happy.) 

With all the incredible blooming plants in my neighborhood right now, I think my little dog Cooper has developed allergies!  I have never seen so many things bursting out of their buds at one time: roses, lilies, tulips, rhododendrons, azaleas, flowering trees, wild and domestic grasses, gladiolus, and on and on.  When walking, Cooper likes to stick his nose in things and I think he has gotten his snout full of pollen. He is sneezing and sneezing. It isn't that there is anything caught in his nose, but there is something that is making him sneeze.  Benadryl helps a bit but it also makes him totally stoned and sleepy, which is sort of amusing in a mean dog-owner kind of way.  Not really mean, mind you, but he becomes a bit of an object to laugh at. In talking to other dog owners, it seems that several dogs are experiencing similar symptoms. There's just too much pollen in the air this year. 

Movie: Netflix has the movie "The Prestige" streaming for free.  I have wanted to see this movie for years and finally watched it last night. Directed and written by Christopher Nolan, it is very cerebral and tricky and completely non-linear timewise. It's about magic, one of my favorite subjects and it is very, very good.  Great cast: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson.  Magic, betrayal, rivalry, trickery, it's a movie that demands your attention. This is not a movie to watch casually while you make dinner. It's a movie to watch intently after dinner is finished.  Check it out.

A delicious chicken, a stoned dog and an engaging movie. A good combo for a nice Sunday evening. 

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