Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Good morning crew,

When we first started living together I was a little perplexed by some of the unusual habits my wife has in the kitchen. Well, last weekend I got an education.

We stopped by my in-laws' house to spend a few hours with them on Father's Day and my mother-in-law decided to make her fried chicken tenders and noodles recipe for lunch. A pretty good meal. She even makes the 'noodles' from scratch.

So my father-in-law, the wife, and I were sitting around the kitchen table talking, while my mother-in-law laboured away at the kitchen sink a few feet away going through her preparations.

At first I didn't pay too much attention to what she was doing, but my eyes were slowly dragged to the unusual manipulations she was going through. It's not that she didn't know what she was doing, it was more like watching a carpenter who figured out how to drive nails with a wrench.

First, she opened the packages of seasoned chicken breasts in the sink and began washing them under the tap. When I asked her why she was washing all of the seasoning off the chicken she said she didn't like seasoning, but these packages were on sale, so she got them anyway. Well, it's hard for me to criticize a little thriftiness.

But after she had a pile of freshly scrubbed breasts, she began cutting them up into chunks right in the bottom of the sink. No cutting board necessary. And because the bottom of a kitchen sink is a rather restrictive space, she was using a little paring knife instead of a carving knife or a chef's knife.

Then, as she cut each chunk, she began arranging them around the edge of the sink - in order to let the water drain off of them I assume - since I couldn't see any other reason for this. It was a close thing too, because she made four big chicken breasts and she was starting to run out of room around the edge of the sink. She was forced to precariously balance a couple pieces on top of the faucet.

"Why don't you just pile them on a plate?" I asked.

"This way I don't have to dirty any extra dishes," she explained to me as if I were a little slow.

But there was a method to her madness, and eventually all of the nuggets got dredged in eggs and flour and made it into a frying pan without too much incident. And like I mentioned earlier, it turned out pretty good.

Now I may or may not have imagined it, but I thought there was a very subtle grittiness to the chicken which I really hoped wasn't Comet Cleanser.

Laugh it up,

Joe

joe@gophercentral.com

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*-------------- Guaranteed to Roll Your Eyes --------------*
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