Armchair Hound

RantWoman is celebrating. RantWoman's apartment is ALMOST to a state where she can entertain without, say, making Martha Stewart squirm in her parole office. RantWoman has cleared off a table and put on an actual tablecloth, and then another clean one when that one gets dirty. RantWoman even got up some Christmas lights and other tokens of festivity. By festivity, we mean ornaments dangling from the shelves, wall hangings, and a flat Christmas tree made by hanging ornaments in a strategic pattern on the wall with masking tape. RantWoman quite likes this and does not mind not being able to see the masking tape.

RantWoman is not sure she has remembered to cover all the underwear in the laundry. This is only a problem because RantWoman's guest list includes people who can actually see the underwear but may have been too nonplussed to say anything. Urk!. RantWoman is also pretty sure she forgot to tell some recent guests that the bathroom door slides closed. We will see if the guests come back when invited.

This week's guests though are unflappable, the Weed Whackin Wenches . RantWoman cannot see the underwear at their house. RantWoman expects if anyone notices underwear at RantWoman's house, someone will say so. The Wenches also brought Diva Dog!

The menu:



Pomegranate for hors d'oeurve



Roast chicken: Remove the skin. Put the whole chicken in a roasting pan. Boil the giblets etc in a separate pot. Stuff the body cavities with celery tops, chunks of onion, garlic cloves, a chunk or two of lemon. Toss some rosemary in the bottom of the pan. Add water depending on how much pan stock you want. Bake at 350 about 20 minutes per pound covered until the last 15 minutes of cooking.



Potato spinach bake: Potatoes sliced about 1/4" thick, onion, green pepper, garlic, chicken broth, corn starch, black pepper, paprika, salt if desired, crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, spinach washed and with stems removed. RantWoman had about half a bunch of spinach.

Saute a small onion, a green pepper, a clove or two of garlic. Make a sauce with the chicken broth and cornstarch in the pan with the vegetables. Add the spices and any additional herbs. Grease a fairly deep casserole dish with olive oil. Layer in the casserole dish potatoes, spinach, Gorgonzola cheese, sauce. RantWoman used a dish that held two layers of each. Bake in oven alongside roasting chicken until the potatoes are tender and the sauce is bubbly.

When told of this menu, the Wenches supplied, in addition to a decadent chocolate treat SALAD with some kind of greens and a grain called faro. RantWoman thinks it was perfect! The next item on the agenda: Pet entertainment!

RantWoman's domicile is also the dominion of The Queen of Spades. Ms. Queen of Spades is gracious to varying degrees to human visitors but is not gracious at all to dogs. Both of the Wenches earned finger licks, high praise. Diva Dog got a big puff of tail and a kitty who disappeared under the bedspread.

In the absence of the Queen of Spades' entertainment contributions, Diva Dog decided to try for the pet cuteness component. Diva Dog sleeps on the futon at her house. There is no futon available for sleeping on at RantWoman's. Diva Dog has also reached an age where she is allowed to look piteously at humans suggesting she curl up on a cold concrete floor with "oh, please" written all over her eyes. Instead Diva Dog tried the armchair. Then she tried again a couple more times. Then she succeeded. She barely fit but boy did she look cute.

RantWoman is also glad to note that the Queen of Spades was perfectly willing to continue her practice of sleeping in and on the armchair after Diva Dog left. RantWoman THINKS this is good, though a black cat on a dark maroon armchair pretty frequently winds up being "the armchair that meows."