I have rallied. I have been hugging the curb for the past five weeks, but I am ready now to face the space that lies beyond the edges of my head. This is when I am entirely grateful for my compulsive and squirrel like behaviors. I have gifts packed away in little paper bags behind every cabinet door that I bought one at a time and tiny balls of cookie dough that got mixed in phoenix like moments in the middle of the night. Not at all done though–it’s going to take me a good while to remember where everything is, who it’s for, which dough is which, and if it is supposed to get rolled, dropped or stuffed.

It’s time to compete. Make dinner in 29 minutes. Get out the chicken breasts, the onions, the fresh sage, and the skewers. Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes, lay them out flat on the cutting board and season them well with kosher salt, then push them onto the skewers, every few cubes adding a small hunk of onion and a sage leaf. Heat up a heavy frying pan and coat it with olive oil. Add a whole, halved clove of garlic and saute for a minute. Get it out of there and add the chicken skewers, being sure that all the bits of chicken are hitting the pan. Over low to medium heat, let them cook until the edges of each cube are turning white. Flip.

Meanwhile, cut up some yukon gold potatoes, also about an inch all around, toss with olive oil, season with kosher salt, and spread them out in a single layer on a sheet pan. Roast at 400 degrees until tender.

On a separate sheet pan, toss chopped broccoli with olive oil, salt and a few whole garlic cloves and roast that as well until it is still bright green and has a crunch left, but about to go tender.

Serve with a salad of cucumber batons and mascarpone with fresh mint.

Get up from dinner and leave the dishes on the table.