Oregano, Curry, Lemon Pepper, Oh My!

I am very pleased with myself, and when I'm pleased with myself, I like to share it with everyone else.

The other night for supper, I cut two boneless-skinless chicken breasts in half. I made a little aluminum-foil bowl for each one and squeezed them into a casserole dish. Then I seasoned each one differently: oregano, curry, lemon-pepper, and honey-ginger.

At August's suggestion, I made up some unflavored couscous. It turned out to be a brilliant addition. Not only did we get to have four different flavors for one meal, but you could drizzle the broth of your choice on your couscous.

I have a new company dish. Anyone want to come over?

Food Fights

I thoroughly enjoy cooking, but I'm not a "foodie." When I get in the kitchen to create, I make good, familiar food: Italian, barbecue, and close enough to authentic Southern to taste good but not actually kill you. I don't often branch out into exotic dishes that involve, say, eggplant and saffron.

The other day, I was feeling bold and creative. I found a bottle of red cooking wine in our pantry. (Surely this gives you an idea of how unsurprising my cooking is, if red wine is a daring choice.) I made up a red-wine-honey-rosemary sauce, poured it over chicken breasts, and let it simmer. August, I knew, would be most impressed.

My children were not. Ladybug wandered into the kitchen and wrinkled her nose. "What do I SMELL?" I am still training my children that criticizing Mama's cooking is walking really close to the death penalty. I snapped, "It's not for you. I'm cooking broccoli for you and Titan." They love broccoli (bragging here) with butter and dill weed.

Not deflected, Ladybug wailed, "It smells like mud soup!"

"Get out of the kitchen."

A few minutes later, as the savory aroma and red wine and rosemary filled the kitchen, Titan ran through.

A word about Titan. He's lucky that he isn't known on this blog as "Upchucky." This child has always had a massive gag reflex. Before Titan was born, I had a horror of vomit. Thanks to him, that's a fear I've confronted and conquered. It's getting better as he gets older, but I'm looking forward to turning the care and cleaning of him over to his wife.

So, Titan ran through the kitchen. "Something smells bad!" he wailed.

"Go out of the kitchen!"

Titan clapped a hand over his nose, ran into the back room with the new carpet, and... threw up.

So the chicken almost burned while I desperately scrubbed regurgitated goldfish crackers from the new carpet (vinegar and water does the trick). I saved supper in time for August to come home and say, "Mm, something smells good!"

I banged a few pans around. Meanwhile, Ladybug strolled in. "Do you smell that, Daddy? What we're having for supper is broccoli and something that won't taste very good."

August made Ladybug apologize to me. The next night I made pizza.