Fort Vancouver National Trust and THEATER??

This past year I've had the most interesting and fun partnership develop with the great folks over at the Fort Vancouver National Trust.  The Trust takes care of the Fort Vancouver Historical site - its buildings, parks, events, fund-raising, restoration, preservation and education programs. You can read about all the things these good folks are up to here:
http://www.fortvan.org/

As part of this - they hired a local playwright to write a dinner theater script based on events that may have happened historically at the Barracks building.  They needed a director, and a cast and the playwright (who I had happened to direct before) put the Trust in touch with me.  And a great working relationship has been the result!

The first dinner theater event was a HUGE success at an annual event last October along with shows open to the public.  We even did a second run of the show in June!  Then again this past month I got the chance to direct another great project about the life and legacy of Mother Joseph.

In each of these projects I have had the chance to work with casts that I love and admire, local playwrights and a fantastic bunch of people at the Fort.  Love, love, love this opportunity!  I am looking forward to many more projects!  Here are some picture highlights to enjoy!

Murder at the Barracks, October 2011:

Murder at the Barracks, June 2012:

Mother Jopseph - Life and Legacy, October, 2012:

Fall crockpot Medley

Pretty good title huh?  :)

This past Sunday Eric and I went to the Farmer's market.  Only a few weeks left and I wanted to get all those great fruits and veggies in season right now- YUM.

I didn't have a plan for what I had on hand today but I knew I wanted to do something in the crock-pot so this is what I came up with.  It sure smells great - hope it ends up tasting just as good!

The ingredients:

Chicken (kinda cut out of the picture here) 1 large sweet potato, two Yukon gold potatoes, two yellow squash (farmer's market), walla walla onion (local), brown mushrooms (local), garlic (farmer's market) and celery.

The Seasonings:

Fresh basil and rosemary (from my yard), fresh dill and cilantro (from the farmer's market), 1 lemon, sea salt, black pepper, Mrs Dash no salt seasoning.

First I cut up the sweet and gold potatoes and put them in my Crock.  I read somewhere that the potatoes should go in first but I can't remember for the life of me why that is.  I did it anyway :)

Then I placed three chicken breasts on top of those (I was gonna use 4 but they seemed big to me - do what you like) And then seasoned them with some Mrs D, salt and pepper and sqeezed the juice of half the lemon on top.

I chopped up my onion, celery, mushrooms, squash and tossed them on top.  Then I added 6 (yep!) cloves of garlic slightly smushed.   I added a bit more seasoning, salt and pepper.  - sorry forgot to take a picture of this step :D

I chopped up the rosemary leaves, tore up some basil and then rough chopped a bunch of dill and cilantro on top of that.  I added the juice from the second half of the lemon over the whole thing.

I put this on high for the first hour, and then I will cook it on low for the next 6hrs or so. 

If you try something like this I'd love to hear how it turned out for you!