These days I am working out of of Chaos on K. Yes, there are new recipes everywhere recently... personally, professionally--everywhere but my kitchen.
I digress.
While creating just the right filing system in my new home office, I came across a journal which reads on the front:
"You must have chaos to give birth to a dancing star". In this said book purchased from a Carolee owned Encore, circa 1997, was a business plan and sketch logo for the original Chaos&Chicken. In this form, Chaos was a kitchen store with a cafe. A cafe that made amazing chicken salad. A kitchen store that had a mix of vintage and modern with a sprinkling of gifts and stationary in between. This concept was explored several times during my tenure as a small business owner. Once when we were considering an Encore renovation, once when I was contemplating purchasing The Coffee Mill and in my final days when I was thinking about all I was leaving behind. In between, over the last 13 years, Chaos&Chicken has been used as a label for a line of food I gave for Christmas, inspiration for hand painted, mixed media birthday cards (as seen above, to right), a blog and even a book title with a few chapters constructed. As I sit in my shoebox, flipping through my 1997 plan for the concept I realize that for me Chaos&Chicken is organic (as all chicken should be) and will continue to change over time. Chaos&Chicken represents me, my passions and my dreams. Chaos&Chicken is a figure of speech, a term of endearment and often a metaphor for this life that is my own. No matter the recipe, the year, the location or the plan-- life always dishes up chaos, some good and some bad-- but when served with a side of chicken (or lamb), shared with colorful characters and good music, it always seems a little more manageable.
