Alder Wood Smoke

It has been a bizarrely frantic week. I mentioned to a friend that Mercury must be in some kind of momentous retrograde, and she said, indeed it is and it will be worse this weekend.Well, I got the jump on disaster and Steve and I grilled chicken under a beautiful late afternoon sky. I had to be strict with the amount of alder infused smoke I would allow. My husband loves the smoke... We compromised our way into perfectly grilled and fragrantly smoked chicken. The skin had the perfect crunch and the flesh was moist and savory with alder smoke. The red cabbage that had languished in the fridge for almost a week was still crisp and sweet after I removed the outer leaves. It was hand chopped and grated carrots joined it in a dressing of mayo, apple cider vinegar, a pinch of organic sugar and one finely minced Thai chili-cole slaw with a bite.Tomorrow, I will make the Mexican chicken salad with the gigantic organic chicken breasts that we cooked tonight. Life is sweet under a Mercury in retrograde.