Ticky Visits The Hawthornes.

I'm so 'cited! Ticky of Reinventing a Boomer blogdom came to visit. And she was on a mission. She'd told me she wanted my help on certain things she wanted to make. I'm game for anything, so I told Ticky to "COME ON DOWN." And she did. And what fun we had.

When she called me Friday afternoon to let me know she was on her way, I asked her what did I need for din-din. "Nothing!," she said, "I have everything." Then she mentioned she was stopping at a local supermarket "to pick up a ROTISSERIE CHICKEN." I don't think so Sistahchick. I told her I'd take one of my old hens out of the freezer and cook it. No questions asked. I can be quite forceful at times. Ticky obliged.

But first, my hen, appparently cryogenically packaged, gave birth.

First, I covered my chick in sesame oil.

Salted and peppered and soy sauced it.

A little soy sauce in the cavity.

I sprinkled ground ginger over the whole chicken.

And rubbed it all in.

I deposited a whole garlic in the cavity. Just because I flove baked garlic. Baking the garlic gives it a wonderful tavor and flaste. You just pick up the cloves and squeeze the transformed and transported garlic into your mouth and it delivers a wonderful puree-like spurt. Sweet and subtle.

I had some of my veal stock in the fridge so I added a gelatinous mass of that for my cooking liquid.

And I poured in an equal amount of water to dilute a bit.

Oh, but this chicken was good. Crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. And with that, my work was done. Ticky did the rest of the dinner and all I did was watch and shoot pictures. Ticky was using Ina's Crunchy Noodle Salad as a guideline for this meal.

Here are the ingredients for the dressing: Teriyaki Sauce Peanut oil Peanut butter Sesame oil Rice vinegar

Honey Ginger Garlic Sesame seeds

Ticky added 1/2 cup peanut butter to 1 cup peanut oil and whisked it until smooth.

She substituted 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce for the soy since that's what she had.

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar went in.

3 tablespoons sesame oil went in.

1 tablespoon honey

Ticky toasted 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds.

2 tablespoons garlic

3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds.

We did a taste test and decided it needed the soy sauce so Ticky added in the Tamari.

Ticky strayed a bit from Ina's recipe by putting in a welcomed addition of cilantro. Here, she coyly holds a cilantro bouquet.

Ticky chopped her little heart out: cilantro green onions carrots mushrooms and cucumber

Whole wheat pasta - since Ticky is reinventing not only herself but her food as well.

Um, Ticky? Are you expecting an army for dinner. That's a bowl of chicken on the cutting board which was another welcome addition to this salad. We do like our protein.

Action shot of Ticky tossing the salad.

Ooops. She almost forgot the sugar snap peas.

And here's our Crunchy Noodle Salad which was enjoyed immensely by all, including 2 of the Hawthornelets who happened to drop in for the weekend. This was really good when it was served hot Friday night and it was good when I had it for lunch a few minutes ago. Thank you, Ticky. Ina's name for this dish, Crunchy Noodle Salad, is a bit of a misnomer. I thought the noodles were going to be crunchy, like toasted Ramen noodles. But the main crunch came from the snap peas, and that was more of a snap than a crunch, but it was very good and a recipe you can vary according to what vegetables you want to add. You know, Ticky, peanuts would have been good in this too.

Here's Dixie tolerating Giada.

Dixie's upset because Giada just touched her tail.

Sunset Friday night. Pretty colors.