Dicks Pick: A True Masterchef Challenge

Wow! What a night! I got to compete in a Masterchef Challenge!!! Ok, well not really, but sorta. So here's what went down. On Tuesday afternoon, it was a beautiful day. I took some blankets outside and sat down with little Miss Molly outside so she could play. We were blowing these bubbles, well I was blowing them, Molly was eating them, and just enjoying the beautiful weather. As she began running around the yard playing with ball, I was contemplating what I should make for that day's cooking class. I wasn't really coming up with much because I had planned on making some of that Mama Charlie's Italian Beef, which a monkey could prepare with its eyes closed. I sorta figured I would just take the day off. Hey, I got nothing but time to get the hang of this cooking thing! Then, like a bolt of lightening from the sky, it came to me...Rosemary Grape Chicken! Ok, so it wasn't like lightening, but it gave me a jolt as my phone vibrated on my lap...it was Richard! With his "Dick's Pick of the Week," which of course he found on Stumbleupon. He must have read my other blog about always sending me the sweet stuff because this dish, oddly enough, was from a healthy cooking article...perhaps I should be insulted? Maybe I am just feeling a little crazy as it just so happened I had to go to the doctor that day to get my cerclage all checked out, only to discover I had gained 4 pounds since my last visit...the week before...sigh...and they always try to make you not feel bad about it by saying "honey you're pregnant you're going to gain weight," yea but not as much as fat kid on a weekend getaway to chocoworld. I mean c'mon 4lbs in a week! That seems excessive, and of course it didn't go to my belly...if you know me, you know exactly where it went!!! oops, oh sorry guys...not a blog about my weight is it?? hmmm, awkward. Ok, anyway...moving right along...

So, healthy chicken dish! Alright Dickie I can do this. So, being the awesome daughter-in-law that I am I around 1:30 pm say "well, if you guys aren't doing anything why don't you come over for dinner?" I text this to both my inlaws....Moma Mary says she'll let us know. Well, 2:30 comes, nothing, 3:30 nothing, 4:30 nothing...so now it's 5pm and I decide "ok, I am just gonna make the lazy dinner I originally planned on Italian beef out of a plastic container." Woohoo, go me and my mad ninja-like cooking skills. I begin chopping up the peppers to put in with the meat, then from out of the blue, another bolt of lightening!!! Ok, again just a text but that has no literal ambiance. It was Moma Mary saying "Ok, we'll come over." Me: "SHIT!" I tell the hubs they are coming over and that we are short about 1/2 of the ingredients...so a trip into Hell is in order. Well, the grocery store, but this time I literally mean Hell. In our town, the summer is a tourist cesspool of Chicagoans who come in and take over the town with complete disregard to the laid back nature that is our town. They swarm the grocery stores and shops leaving their carts in the middle of every damn aisle so no one can get through, and steel the parking spots we have clearly been waiting for with our blinker on for 5 minutes. Ok, Amy breathe...in and out in and out. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10...ok there all better. 

Ok, got the ingredients and it's now 6pm. Let's get this road on the show! First and foremost, I ask myself "what's for dessert?" I know! A Triple Berry Pie with homemade crust, so what if I've never made a crust or a fruit pie before, how hard can it be!? And so, I begin. My husband begins checking out the recipe for the chicken and says "Amy, you gotta get a move on...this chicken is gonna take awhile." Me: "Well, I figure we can work it out together. Why don't you start chopping." So he does and about half a dozen times he tells me "we aren't gonna eat until midnight!" I on the other hand am much more laid back reassuring him it will all work out. He starts the grill, I begin the steps to the glaze for the chicken and it hits me like a ton of bricks: "we AREN'T going to eat until midnight if we follow the steps exactly. It is at this moment that I tell myself time to Masterchef the Shit out of this meal. I got the pie in the oven, the glaze on the stove, I tell Nathan we are gonna speed this up. Medium heat was increased to High, Corn was thrown on the grill, Chicken was seasoned with some salt, pepper and rosemary, and as ashamed as I am to admit this, Rice-a-Roni was on the stovetop. I am a cooking machine. I am tasting the sauce, checking the pie, calling on the hubs to throw the chicken on the grill and I'll bring the glaze...truly an Executive Chef in the making. Until my husband pulls me back to reality pointing out that we should not put the chicken on until the glaze is done...he's the true chef in our family so I hurry up and finish the glaze...tada the stove timer goes off..."perfect I think, now the pie can cool while we eat." Well, it clearly wasn't done so I go back to the cookbook and realize I got ahead of myself...I was supposed to cover the edges in foil for 25 minutes then remove foil and bake 25 more minutes. I thought for sure the pie was doomed, but what was I going to do at this point? So I turned the timer back to 25 minutes and hoped for the best.

Now, back to the chicken...it's on the grill, the glaze is delicious, the corn is on the grill, and the hubs has taken over from here. I like my eyebrows too much to mess with a grill. I can barely handle the stove at this point in my cooking journey, it's best I stay away from the open flame of a Weber Grill. So, this challenge was a partnered one, and I must say it was awesome to cook with my husband as his equal not as his incompetent wife who was just in charge of opening a jar of salsa and a bag of chips for an appetizer. I think we have found an after work activity that keeps us on our toes as opposed to on our asses in front of the boob tube. After about 25 minutes everything was done, I grabbed a couple of plates for the hubs to put the food on, and we were ready to eat...or so I thought. Everyone just sat there...I said "haven't we waited enough?" And they all agreed the food needed a nap or something, I dunno, so we let it rest per their suggestion, and about 5-10 minutes later, we dug in. It was delightful! The char of the glaze on the chicken was great! Our only complaint was that the flavor didn't reach the meat just the skin. So I think next time, I will marinate the chicken in the glaze for at the very least a few hours. 

And as for the potential disaster with the pie? It turned out beautifully! I will always take the tip I learned from Better Homes and Gardens cookbook to baste with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar to prevent burning, because I believe this to be the only saving grace for missing the aluminum foil directions!  Obviously I need some better techniques when it comes to making the top aesthetically appealing, but the taste was great! And there you have it a beautifully executed Masterchef Challenge. So what did Dick have to say???? Well....




On this evening I had two opinions to use for "Dick's Picks." Obviously, Dick, but also his lovely wife and my beautiful mother-in-law, Moma Mary...I was very nervous to hear her opinion because she is such a good cook herself, but fortunately for me and my newly cooking self-confidence, they both loved it. Even the pie! Best compliment of the night was from Dick, which was something like "this is really good, I think you might have something here." They were both really impressed with the pie skills seeing as I have never made a pie like that before. Got a huge confidence boost from Moma Mary who proclaimed that even she can't make pie crust. Who knows, maybe my purpose on this planet is to bring people happiness through their palettes? I get a huge sense of enjoyment from cooking so if they say to do what you love, maybe a career in cooking is in my future...so much for going to law school! At least I didn't waste 5 full years of my life there, and quit when I realized how much I actually hated it. So, moral of this story..."do what you love, and cook something new, you might surprise yourself with skills you didn't know you may have had!"


Much Love and Happy Cooking Friends,
 Amelia


Recipe Links: I will post the pie separately because I kind of had to make it up, so I'll type that one out.
Chicken:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9jW7Je/www.cookinglight.com/food/in-season/scb-entrees-00400000028109/