The truth of the matter is, I should not be allowed to spend
more than a day outside the company of real people (note: while I enjoy my
co-workers immensely they do not in this function qualify as real people). Last night was my first night of “freedom”
after a week of rehearsals and shows at Longwood Gardens, (The Mikado, so
Asian) and the first time I’d been alone in my apartment for more than five
minutes (other than sleep) in two weeks.
I spent the entire 4 hours before bed putting away groceries, cutting up
said groceries into respective “for lunch” items, making some chicken, and
doing copious amounts of laundry. Then I
fell into bed completely exhausted and unable to sleep…adorable.
During the marathon of “doing everything in the world I haven’t
done in two plus weeks” I made part of a foodsperiment that I fully intended to
eat for dinner tonight. I threw a salted
chicken thigh (yes, I am officially obsessed with chicken thighs) into the oven
at 325F covered with blueberries, apple pieces, and some nectarine bits. I left it in there while I was folding my
last load of laundry, roughly 20 minutes, and threw the handy-dandy top onto
the ceramic thing and threw it into the fridge.
Today when I got home after a day at the office that made me
mostly wish I drank more wine…by myself…in my apartment…except that would make
me feel total skeevy and sad and alone and like I’m about to adopt sixteen cats
and a frog. Anyway! I decided it was too
hot to do anything and did a lot of rooting around in the kitchen for things
other than my pre-determined meal because it sounded outlandishly non-delicious
to me. Instead after I’d had my
appetizers of goat cheese and garlic/parm pita chips, and a bowl of delicious
cherries, I decided it was time to experiment for serious using my “too hot to
make my brain work and woops I went to the store without an actual list and I came
out of there with a bunch of stuff that might not seem like it would go well
together but it was on sale so I bought it” ingredients for a true
foodsperiment.
Olive and Blueberry
Chicken Surprises – from my brain
Ingredients:
- Cooked chicken thigh and fruits (see above) – check
- Tiny can of black olives, presliced – check
- Olive oil – check
- Half a clove elephant garlic – check
Step 1: Peel, smash, and
slice the half clove of elephant garlic, which is a little sweeter than other
garlics and generally awesome for gazpachos.
Step 2: Heat a dash of
olive oil and about half the olive brine (I’m not sure that’s the right term)
in a medium skillet.
Step 3: Add the garlic and
allow to heat 1-2 minutes. Then add the
olives. Cook for 2 minutes.
Step 4: Add the fruit from
the chicken dish that looks totally unappetizing. Cook with the rest for another 2 minutes.
Step 5: Add the chicken to
the dish and watch the brine and olive oil burn off. Realize that’s 100% not what you want and
throw into the pan about a ½ cup of water.
Cook, stiring occasionally and flip the chicken thigh.
Step 6: Plate and eat this
meal even though it doesn’t look all that great.
What a pleasant
half-surprise! I’m guessing I can hold
off on the sixteen cats for a few more years, but this dish is not something I would
ever serve to my mother…come to think of it I’ve actually never made a meal for
my mother…it was mostly olives, which are delicious, but I think I would add
more fruit next time. The sauce actually was the best part. I mean I ate the
thing, it was pretty good. It had too many olives. I officially could never be a hermit. Then I watched Crazy Stupid Love, because I’ve
never seen it and Ryan Gosling is beautiful.
This foodsperiment gets a +5 for
being seriously random, +5 for Ryan Gosling (whatever, I said it), +5 for being
very healthy, and +5 for knowing that I can still cook after all this
time. Happy Sperimenting!
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