Smoked Chicken

Welcome Home indeed.

Chris and I have been getting settled and back into the swing of things.

We still have about 16 boxes of gifts to open and quite a few more boxes we need to start closing.

Thursday was Chris's first day back on the job at Fidelity. What better time to tie on an apron and get in the kitchen to cook up some dinner for my husband?

Little fact about me...I have never made the same meal twice.

I like to experiment and try new things.

I have never broiled anything in my life, so I decided our first married meal would be a good time to give it a go.

I've also never defrosted frozen veggies in the microwave. Let's go ahead and try that too.

I made the marinade for the chicken and put it in the fridge. While waiting the prescribed 20 min. for the marinade to sit in the fridge (who knows why?!), I put some water in a glass and put that in the fridge too so it would be cold for Chris when he got home.

After 20 min. in the fridge, I took out the marinade and starting reading the next instructions.

"Place chicken in pan and place in oven."

Wait, what do I do with the marinade?!

After reading back a few steps I realized I was supposed to put the marinade on the chicken, then put it all in the fridge.

So I basted the chicken with my handy pastry brush, because did I register for a baster?...nope.

Into the oven it went.

Chris came home 20 min. later.

I relayed my story of how I was cooking dinner for him and how we were going to have our first married meal at home together.

As I turned to get his water out of the fridge, the smoke alarm started sounding wildly.

The smell of burning filled the entire kitchen.

We opened the oven to find the chicken wasn't burned, but the pan was.

In fact, the chicken wasn't even done at all! Still pink inside.

Chris offered to make himself a turkey sandwich to which I told him if he even dared lay a finger on any lunch meat I would dissolve into a ball of tears on the kitchen floor. My first married meal...ruined!

We managed to move the chicken to another dish and waited another 20 min. for it to cook.

Meanwhile the rice was getting cold and the veggies were getting soggy.

The water though...yum. Super cold.



When dinner was finally ready, Chris smiled and ate and made me feel like I had done something more spectacular than setting off the smoke alarm and burning a pan.





He even helped do the dishes. Using a brush to brush a brush.