Makin' Dinner

My wife finally came home. She had many interesting stories to share, many of which probably aren't appropriate for this forum...but you have no idea how much I'd like to rant about some of it.

What I did want to share was what I did for her. Apparently the bus group stopped for a brunch at 9:00 and continued on the road around 10:45, and didn't stop again for a lunch or dinner. To welcome her home, when my daughter and son went to pick Mom up I went to work shuffling into the kitchen to make some dinner for her. I found a simple recipe, which was good because at this point I wanted something that I would show effort in preparing but I didn't want her to find me laying on the floor in a daze from exertion.

Let me make it clear that I don't want this to turn into a cooking blog; I am sharing what I did to welcome my wife home after being gone nearly a week. I'm not a chef. I'm not even a cook. I'm just obsessed with cooking shows (especially since my operation) and wanted to do something to welcome her back, and since I'm not a culinary genius this was really kind of an effort for me stretching beyond my comfort zone.

I took 2 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups of skim milk and once it was nearing a boil whisked in a cup of yellow cornmeal. I took two cans of Hormel white chicken breast, 97% fat free, and added that chicken into the mix, removing from heat and stirring with a wooden spoon until it had thickened (which didn't take long at all; in my inexperience I found it surprising how fast it thickened up on me).

Once removed from heat I added a cup and a half (it was a plastic pouch bag) of shredded Parmesan cheese. I stirred that until it was all melted; I now had a cheesy polenta with chicken mix.

I took that mix and put it into a pan that was approximately nine inches squared, pre-rubbed with a stick of butter and smart choice butter substitute to "grease" it. Then I put on a little over two cups of Ragu' chunky mushroom and pepper spaghetti sauce and sprinkled some four-cheese mix on the top; I placed the whole thing on top of a cookie sheet with some aluminum foil to make it easier to handle and shoved it into a pre-heated oven set to 350 degrees for about fifteen to twenty minutes.

I helped complement the meal with some garlic breadballs and rolls from Easter dinner, gently reheated to add their aromas to the kitchen (especially the garlic knots!).

I was very apprehensive about how it would be received; I had a base recipe to work from, but I added the chicken and cheese blend and had used more cheese than the recipe called for; I worried about how watery the Ragu' would be as well as whether the polenta would "set" properly.

Both my wife and daughter (I figured she wouldn't eat it since there were MUSHROOMS in the sauce, but I was wrong!) said they liked it. My wife actually had two servings! Because I bought the disposable dishes for this purpose, there was an easy-fit lid ready to be used for saving the leftovers. I figure she can take it in to work tomorrow. I was so glad they liked it! The prep was fast, cleanup was relatively simple, and the short prep time meant I wasn't completely wiped out by the time I was done. The hardest part was the temptation to taste a bit of it as I was prepping it, because I was extremely afraid that it would end up being bland or needed some seasoning. Apparently the sauce and cheese took care of that. I thought that by adding chicken as a protein that this would be less a side dish and more an entree.

Wonderful, simple, and she seemed to appreciate it. I know I didn't have a vegetable for the meal, so for my efforts I still overlooked something that a seasoned cook would regard as a rookie mistake. I don't have an excuse for it, I simply focused on that dish and that's it. I was a little sad that I couldn't really smell it cooking; my daughter said she could smell it when she came in, so I guess maybe it's because I was in there prepping it so I didn't consciously smell it so much.

Welcome home!