Let's Toast To Another Year

My mother in-law is celebrating her 74th birthday and I wanted to make something special for her. Keep in mind when she and my mother visit, we normally go out to dinner. I never cook at home. It's just never been a part of my DNA and given it's a Friday evening, hey, what time are we leaving for the restaurant!

Tonight, to everyones surprise, I made a nice elegant dish. It was a chicken breast cooked in champagne sauce (I was really to use a dry white wine but there was none in the house) over rice with black and green olives served with green beans and cherry tomoatoes. Sound pretty fancy? Well, I am here to tell you it was not. Once again, my good friend provided me with the recipe. I was writing it down on my way home this evening and then got to the store and realized I left the recipe at home. Anyway, I guess when you are me, you get used to these things happening.


Let me tell you about the recipe, you brown the chicken in olive oil, once that is done, remove the chicken and brown an onion with one table spoon of flour. Add the chicken back into the skillet and at some point you are to add a little lemon juice (1/2 cup I think), wine and chicken broth to cover the chicken. Somewhere, I screwed up the recipe because I think the sauce was to be a little thick. Add the olives and serve over rice. Really, it did not matter because the family enjoyed it.

You know, the trick to this culinary experince is to enjoy your hits and misses. You can always try the dish again and correct what you believe you did wrong to improve the dish the next time.

Oh, now I really am going to need a divine weight loss interention. My mother looked at my legs this evening and asked me when they got THAT BIG!!!!!!

So, here is a toast to a Friday evening dinner.