learn from mistakes? i usually don't.

soon i shall be embarking on a fantastic trip - gastronomic bonanza if you will - to the city by the bay. with such a trip on the horizon i've been trying to save my pennies. san francisco is not cheap and since i plan on eating and drinking my way to oblivion i'm gonna need some cash.

hence my thrown together dinner the other night. after a rough day in the basement and an equally rough night of laundry and cookie dough (more on that later) i scanned my fridge and cupboards.

(1) frozen chicken breast
(2) potatoes and sweet corn from the barton pickin' patch
(3) fresh herbs

these items had potential.

first i snipped some fresh thyme and some chives. i coarsely chopped thyme and garlic together and rubbed it all over my chicken breast.



then i seared the breast (skin side down) in a lil' olive oil in my dutch oven. (i love my dutch oven. stove top to oven to table. marvelous!)



then i flipped it and seared the other side. i probably should have let the skin side go for a little longer but i was impatient and hungry.



something i always seem to forget - garlic burns easily. very easily. at first the aroma of the searing chicken was fabulous but then all of the sudden i caught a whiff of burnt garlic. shit!! how many times do i have to learn this lesson? hopefully i won't forget again since i am actually taking the time to document my mishaps here.

so i lifted the chicken out of the dutch oven and scraped out some of the burnt garlic chunks. (rats!!) then i dropped the chicken back in and put in into the oven to finish off.

while the chicken breast was in the oven i boiled three small red potatoes. i left the skins on and i left them whole. i also put on water for the sweet corn. when the potatoes were tender i took them out and gently pressed them down flat - inspiration supplied by the pioneer woman's crash hot potatoes

i checked on the chicken and it needed just a few more minutes so i plopped my smushed, buttered & salted potatoes right in alongside it for a few more minutes of roasting.



while those were finishing up i boiled my sweet corn - just a few minutes - and i chopped up some chives for my potatoes.

here's dinner.



i paired this meal with a mojito because they are so, so, so delicious. despite the burning of the garlic early on this turned out to be a pretty darn good dinner. plopping the potatoes down in the chicken juices to finish off was a good idea.

so i mentioned cookie dough earlier. i don't want to toot my own horn or anything but i am kinda known for my oatmeal cranberry cookies. i take them to events and to family gatherings and i always pass them out as gifts around the holidays. people like 'em. i like 'em. the woman i work with likes 'em enough that she gave me $10 to make her some. she said she had a craving. ha!

i doubled it so i had a ton of dough and i let it chill in the fridge while i made (and ate) my dinner. with so much dough i had a long night ahead of me.

this is just the beginning.



and this was just about halfway through.



i ended up stopping shortly after this due to sheer exhaustion. using another pioneer woman tip i rolled up the remaining dough into a log and wrapped it in wax paper. i put that inside a freezer bag and i figure i'll surprise my co-worker one day with a couple more cookies.

i'll be taking a break here for that big gastronomic bonanza i was talking about. i'll return with photographs, detailed notes and i'm sure a couple of good stories.