Burnt Hopes

I was so excited on Christmas day to end up with a Rachel Ray cookbook after our family gift exchange game. My cooking has become non-existent and before it became non-existent it became really boring. I was making the same two things every week and I am sure my hubby and kids were thankful when I decided to get really lazy and not cook at all. But, Rachel Ray brought hope. She was going to reinvigorate my kitchen and put my stove back to work. I did not want to over-promise and under deliver so I made it my goal to cook one item in the cook book per week and continue with the other monotonous menu items for the rest of the week until I felt comfortable enough to incorporate the new items.

I found this great recipe for noodle bowls and headed to the store. I could not wait to get home and impress my husband and kids with this new dish! I got home, unloaded the groceries, opened the cook book and realized that I'd purchased the wrong type of noodles and not enough chicken broth.

Plan B: find another recipe in the book which contained only ingredients that I could find in my cupboards. I found one for Honey-lime chicken. I proceeded to make the marinade, place the chicken in the marinade, and then cook...scratch that, I mean burn the chicken. Yup, my first attempt at a simple Rachel Ray recipe ended in disaster. As I sit here typing 24 hours later, the smell of burnt chicken lingers in my house rudely reminding me of my failed attempt to expand my cooking talents. Being the wonderful mom that I am, I still made my children choke down the burnt chicken. I could not bear to see that $6.00 worth of chicken go to waste. They are still alive so there really is no need to waste CPS's time with your phone call.

Tomorrow is another day. I will put my cooking skills to the test once again. I have also tweaked my goal a bit. It has been changed to: Cook one successful Rachel Ray recipe per week.