A Recipe of Sorts | Simply Delicious Part 2: I Cooked!

As I joked earlier this week-- this week, when Mr. Big Food has been off and about jetting from here to there-- we like to starve to death when he's not feeding us. 

Miss M and Michael occupied the kitchen Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday Miss M & I nibbled through supper. Thursday, I cooked! Friday I had leftovers from lunch at Thai Siam. Tonight I had Pioneer Mix pancakes. I'm not exactly sure what Miss M had for supper last night or tonight. I do note that the box of Junior Mints is empty. And not a one went on my bowl of ice cream. But I digress.

As the days have worn on , the novelty of cooking for ourselves has worn thin.

Nevertheless, Thursday I cooked! And if I do say so myself, it was danged good-- and a testament to what you can whip up when you have a garden, some imagination, a decent store of basics, and the idea of cooking for yourself is beginning to wear thin.

Pasta. Sauteed Veggies & Herbs in Sauce. Browned Seasoned Chicken Tenders.


If miss M were not vegan, the chicken would have gone in with the veggies and sauce. One of the easiest ways to veganize an impromptu meal is to quarantine the meat. 

Chicken: Chicken breast tenders soaked in milk for 30-45 minutes then shaken in a ziplock bag of crushed herbed stuffing mix and browned in olive oil over a moderately high flame for about 10 minutes, reducing the flame to moderately low to cook through. Set aside.

Veggies & Sauce: Saute onion, garlic, dried celery leaves from last year, a bunch of fresh oregano, green pepper, garden cress, and fresh spinach in that order. 

I think-- I am perfectly happy to be corrected by my daughters who know more than I-- that one of the most important things to learn in cooking is saute timing. Everybody knows that in deep rich soup making, the carrots go in the pot before the potatoes which go in before the cabbage, because in the end, you want the carrots, potatoes and cabbage to be exactly the right textures. But soup is easy since it takes a while. If you err by three or four or five minutes, no big deal. Sauteing is a different ballgame. The entire process takes 10 minutes at most. Statistics meet cooking. It's a margin of error thing.

Add leftover watered-down Prego sauce. And if I had it to do over, I would add it earlier, or omit it entirely. The veggies and herbs were perfect. I thought the time-- a minute or two-- needed to heat the sauce spoiled them. Live & learn.

Pasta: Time the pasta so it's hot when the veggies are perfect. 

But... if given a choice between perfect veggies and hot pasta, put your money on the veggies.