Burnt Offerings

I consider myself a fairly good cook. However, there are days I do get distracted and until I made good friends with my crock pot I ALWAYS burned beans. My family at times accuse me of having adult ADD. Today was one of those days that I wondered myself..

I found a new recipe for a southwestern chicken dish for which I had all the ingredients including the tortilla chip crumbs. (you know these, the bottom 1/3 of the bag that is not edible!! Yeah! so I will now toss all crumbles in the freezer until I make this dish again)I put the chicken quarters on to boil and did a bit of housework. They were frozen so I knew they would take a while and I decided if I turned them on low, I could get the barn chores done. Well, that was probably true but while doing the barn chores, I decided Halle, my filly, needed a few lessons on picking up her feet. Then my old cat was in desperate need of being held and I obliged by plopping down on a hay bale and giving him a good scratching. It was about this time I remembered the chicken and after sprinting to the house I found a kitchen full of smoke and some very burnt chicken. But only on one side;!! I very carefully cut off all of the burned parts and the rest was not toooo bad, only a bit, ummm smokey, shall we say. Alas though it was not enough so I needed to cook a couple more pieces. I put those on in another pot, the first one was in such sad shape that will require several Brillo pad scrubbings.My husband came in, in the interim and with a raised eyebrow asked if there was a change in dinner plans. Nope. I have it under control. The second batch of chicken was simmering along quite well. My sister called. Would I come for a visit? (she lives next to us.) Sure. No! I am cooking chicken. I decided to check my email. Soon I smelled the ever so familiar almost burned smell of chicken. Geeezzz. Once again I made a dash to the kitchen. I saved that round. Long story short.. the dish was good, an excellent use of ingredients on hand, but not one to fix while otherwise distracted!