When Autumn Leaves Start to Fall

Ranch Pesto Chicken & Vegetables

Chicken breasts and vegetables pervishly manhandled with bountiful amounts of Pesto, red pepper flakes and, here's the weird part, a half a package of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix.  Drizzle generously with olive oil and marinate for at least 20 minutes but longer if you can.  Eventually slide it all on a sheet pan and roast for about 25 minutes at 400.  The Ranch packet is a shortcut to soaking in buttermilk and has all the right seasonings, including a tad of MSG, that in larger doses gives me major migraines but in this amount seems to be just fine.  Another winning Sheet Pan classic.  I roasted another side pan of assorted peppers and zucchini then added black olives.  A colorful plate.

The leaves are changing and soon I'll hear old winter's song.  Its hard not to get sentimental and emotional during the seasonal change.   I just left my dear sister from a visit in Colorado and now I'm missing her and friends and all the fun times that don't seem to happen. Fall is romantic and somewhat dark, knowing that the colorful foliage is one last encore before the deep dark freeze.  I love all the seasons and find joy in all of them but if I'm not careful, Fall and Winter can leave me feeling lugubrious, allowing too many painful thoughts to pour in.  And yes, I did just learn a new word that I felt was custom made from my sad ass.  But this year I will celebrate instead because I've wasted too many years listening to those sad songs.   

At least one little tree is getting into the spirit