Wednesday Night Dinner.

Let's see. What's for dindin tonight?

I went down to the freezer in the utility room this afternoon to find some kind of meat with which to build a meal around and I found some chicken bosoms. Now, I'm thinking a Chicken Satay. Sounds like a plan.

I boned the breasts by hand (No need to use a knife here.), saved the bones in a freezer bag for stock later, then cut the chicken into small, even pieces.

Here are the ingredients for my marinade: juice of one orange 2 TB soy sauce 1 TB Thai red chili paste 1 TB Thai style chili sauce 1 TB pickled ginger 2 TB sourwood honey 2 TB peanut butter

I took a zip-lock bag and positioned it inside a measuring cup, with the sides over the edge, then added the marinade ingredients.

Red curry paste goes into the orange juice.

Chili sauce goes in.

Sourwood honey. Oh what ??? You can't find real sourwood honey???? So sorry.

Pickled ginger.

Peanut butter.

Notice I'm using my flexible mats I got for Christmas. Just funnel the chicken into the marinade.

Squeeze out the air and massage the meat.

Let it marinate for at least an hour.

Now, here's the back of my sofa, the front of which stares at the wide screen TV on the wall over the fireplace. If you look carefully, you'll see Mr. Hawthorne's head on the right, barely visible. And there's Beau, on Mr. H.'s recumbent body, looking over the back of the sofa. At 7 PM tonight, one of Middle Hawthorne's friends came upstairs for another feeding. He mentioned something about Beau loving Mr. Hawthorne, and I just casually mentioned, "Well, ya know? The dog would like me inordinately too if I spent my whole day lying on the damn couch, letting the dog climb up on the couch with me, while I watched stoopid movies all day long." Middle Hawthorne's friend responded: "Well, yeah." Then, I asked him, "Artemus? You've been here all day long. Right?" (By all day long, I mean since 2 days ago since he's been spending the night.) Artemus: "Yes ma'am." Rosie: "Well, Artemus, where have you seen me every time you've come upstairs?" Artemus: "Hmmmm. In the kitchen .... Cooking?" Rosie: "YES!" "And where have you seen Mr Hawthorne?" Artemus: "Hmmmm .... I don't think I have. He must be in his room watching TV." CASE CLOSED. Beau likes me. A lot. But he's damn obsessed with Mr. H.

But Rosie digresses. Let's get back to dinner preparation.

I have olive oil, sesame oil, minced red and white onions, minced garlic minced ginger root, and Mr. H.'s cayenne peppers. Remember, I keep my ginger root in the freezer. When I need it, I take it out, slice off a piece, nuke it, then hand-squeeze it, and oodles of juice comes out.

Here are the additions going into my olive/sesame oil/ onion/garlic/ginger mixture. I have: soy sauce red wine vinegar brown sugar ketchup peanut butter juice of one lemon (I probably would've used lime if I had it, but I didn't.)

In the meantime, the chicken pieces are still marinating and I got the leftover rice from the other night's cabbage rolls out.

Went out to the garden and brought in parsley and cilantro. Minced. Now, I'm going to make my sauce.

Olive oil and sesame oil got heated up. Then I added white onions, red onion, garlic, and ginger.

A bit of freshly ground cayenne flakes went in. Remember, I grew that stuff!

Cook and stir for about 5 minutes.

The rest of the sauce ingredients are on deck.

Soy sauce went in.

Then the brown sugar and red wine vinegar.

Ketchup.

Pickled ginger.

Peanut butter and lemon juice.

Cook about 5 minutes, stirring. Set off heat and save.

I poured the chicken and its marinade into a bowl.

Then I started skewering the chicken pieces, longways.

I found some pineapple pieces and juice in the fridge, so I skewered them up, and poured the juice onto the skewers.

Salt and pepper and I'm ready to go.

I heated up my iron skillet, added oil and butter, then placed the skewers in.

Cooked for about four minutes, turning.

Pineapple slices went in last with the biggest pieces of chicken still cooking.

Chopped up a head of broccoli.

Broccoli went into the steamer for a few minutes.

And here's my dinner, ready to plate. Top left, I have chicken and pineapple skewers. Next, top middle, I have creamed corn. Top right, leftover rice. Bottom right in the blue dish, I have broccoli steaming. In the bottom middle, I have my sauce for the chicken. Bottom left, I have minced parsley and cilantro. Small container between corn and chicken is leftover Hollandaise sauce for the broccoli.

Perfectly steamed broccoli.

Excellently grilled chicken and pineapple skewers.

My plate: Chicken & pineapple with sauce Creamed corn Steamed broccoli with Hollandaise Sauce Rice with minced parsley and cilantro

Closeup of rice, corn, and chicken.

Closeup of chicken and pineapple.

Broccoli with Hollandaise Sauce.

Chicken with sauce.

My plate.

HOLY COW!!!!!! Was this ever good. Mr. Hawthorne said, "It's good." Me: "What?" Mr. H. "I said it was good. What, you didn't hear me?" Me: "Yes, I heard you, but you said it was just good." Mr. H. : "Yeah, it was good." Me: "It was just good????" Mr. H. : "Jeeze, I said it was good. What else do you want??" Me: " I frickin' wanted more than 'good' ." Well, LETMEJUSTSAY .... Middle Hawthorne and Artemus came upstairs to eat with us. And CANIJUSTTELLYA, nothing's left. I HAVE NO LEFTOVERS!!!! Whoot! Personally, I thought this deserved more then "just good."