The ER Life

Breathe in. Breathe out.

May 03, 2025

Welp. Ernie’s been in the emergency room since about 6:30 this morning (it’s after 2 pm now). Complications from yesterday’s stent surgery. I hate not being there but even when he feels good we’re sometimes like the blind leading the blind and there was just no way I could do it without slowing him way down. Normally Leo would have gone with him but is off to pick up Tal at O’Hare (TAL!!! ❤️).

I’m not sure what’s happening at this point. I need to focus on letting the knots in my stomach relax. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Oh, and then the cats caught a mouse and proceeded to play with it in this very small room where I am sitting. Then the mouse disappeared. That did not help. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Oh, man, bless our neighbor Bob, he’s out there cutting our grass. Breathe in. Breathe out.

I’m supposed to be working on my hill of work but it’s hard to focus. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Ok, new topic. I had been planning to write a cheery post starting with a recipe.

This is a Spring-ier recipe than it sounds, mostly because of the copious amounts of lemon in it. We made this a week or so ago on a cool, rainy day. It’s a knockoff of a recipe by Nigella and various others that all over the internet. Here is our version.

ERNIE’S CHICKEN, LEMON AND ORZO IN A POT

one whole chicken
two lemons
two bags mixed frozen vegetables (obviously first choice would be fresh, but when you’re tired and/or hurting, frozen is just fine. I’m trying to remind myself of this. We had a bag of mixed stir fry vegetables and another one that had zucchini, potato and something else)
1 1/2 to 2 cartons chicken broth (yes, there was a time it would have been homemade)
1 cup of orzo

Heat a bit of olive oil in a large pot. Pat the chicken dry and put a bit of salt and pepper on it. Place it breast side down in the pot and let it go until breast is lightly browned. Turn the chicken over and let the bottom brown a bit in the pan.

Add vegetables around the chicken (of course onion and garlic would be lovely too). Grate the zest of two lemons over the vegetables and chicken. Sprinkle a teaspoon or so of dried oregano (or whatever you have, fresh or dried) over it all. Pour chicken broth and the juice of both lemons over the vegetables (you don’t want to wash the salt and pepper off the chicken) up until the level of the breast. Cover and bake at 350 for about an hour. Add the orzo and mix with vegetables somewhat. Add more liquid if needed (unlikely). Cook 10-15 minutes until orzo is done.

This really was delightful because of all the lemon. You could move toward more Greek flavors with some feta and spinach added, but it really was the homiest, most comforting bit of lemony Spring in a bowl you could imagine. The chicken just falls apart, you can attempt to cut it up or just pull the bones/cartilage out. As always, leftovers are even better but you. might need to top it off with a bit more lemon. Fresh herbs on top would have made it prettier, but eh…it tasted incredible.