Nest Excavation, Saturday morning, September 7, 2013

This is a 5-star recipe for a reason. It is easy and delicious.

Chicken Parmesean

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted
1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves
2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
Pinch sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 11/2 pounds)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water
1 cup dried bread crumbs
1 (8-ounce) ball fresh buffalo mozzarella, water drained
Freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Coat a saute pan with olive oil and place over medium heat. When the oil gets hazy, add the onions, garlic, and bay leaves; cook and stir for 5 minutes until fragrant and soft. Add the olives and some hand-torn basil. Carefully add the tomatoes (nothing splashes like tomatoes), cook and stir until the liquid is cooked down and the sauce is thick, about 15 minutes; season with sugar, salt and pepper. Lower the heat, cover, and keep warm.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Get the ingredients together for the chicken so you have a little assembly line. Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them. Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/2-inch thick. Put the flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, combine the eggs and water, beat until frothy. Put the bread crumbs on a plate, season with salt and pepper.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high flame in a large oven-proof skillet. Lightly dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off, then dredge in the bread crumbs. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 4 minutes on each side until golden and crusty, turning once.

Ladle the tomato-olive sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella, Parmesan, and basil. Bake the Chicken Parmesan for 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.

Snook Season opened September 1.

RAR using live bait, Beach Casting, Jupiter, FL –September 2, 2013 – Not a Keeper.

Sea turtle nesting runs annually from March through September. Every morning dedicated volunteers and trained biologists, from the Marine Life Center in Juno, survey the beach to track and record leatherback, green and loggerhead turtles that come ashore.

They also incorporate a nest excavation program. Following Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s strict regulations and protocols on egg excavation, the biologists hand dig into nest until they reach “the clutch”. Each clutch contains anywhere from 80-150 eggs.

Once reached, the biologists sort eggs to determine nest productivity and hatchling success. Hatchlings found are brought back to the Center for a few days before released.

If you are looking to calm your mind, feel present and enjoy the glorious peace of morning, rise early and witness a sunrise. The benefits are immeasurable.

RAR and DS painting, Self Portrait with Bonito, 1941

Frida Kahlo was an artist that never sold a printing in her lifetime. She had a volatile marriage with the famous painter, Diego Rivera. Kahlo also suffered lifelong health problems. She contracted polio at six years of age 6. It is also believed she had spina bifida, a congenital condition that affected her leg and spinal development.

At 18 years of age, Kahlo was involved in a bus accident that broke her spine, ribs, pelvis and fractured her right leg and crushed her foot. She was immobile for three months and started painting. She had to undergo 35 surgeries.

Kahlo is known for saying "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best".

Of her 143 portraits, 53 are self portraits.

May 2013

The beaches from Juno to Jupiter provide critical nesting, foraging and developmental habitat for threatened and endangered sea turtles and the numbers prove it. From May to August, these massive reptiles have been active along the coastline.

August 2013

August 11 and 12, 2013 afternoon–RAR and DS painting Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh.

Van Gogh believed that in order to be a great painter you had to first master drawing and then you work with color. Over the years, Van Gogh clearly mastered drawing and added more color. In time, one of the most recognizable aspects of a Van Gogh painting was the bold use of color.

Van Gogh made seven paintings of sunflowers in a vase and three of single sunflowers. They are fun and humbling to paint.

Like to a lonely dragon, that his fenne. Shakespeare

Coriolanus, Carlin Park Amphitheater, Saturday, July 20, 2013

Under a rose-colored sky, Coriolanus, a tragedy by William Shakespeare written between 1605 and 1608 was performed in Carlin Park. The play is based on the life of the Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Coriolanus is a feared Roman General and at odds with Rome and its citizens and pushed by his controlling mother to seek leadership.

When the public does not support him, Coriolanus’s anger prompts a riot and he is expelled from Rome. Coriolanus allies himself with his sworn enemy Tullus to take revenge on the city.

It is a tragic tale of power, control and revenge–typically Shakespeare.