Something I’ve been wanting to do here is branch out a little. Everything on the site is either about the Kingsmoot series or about other fantasy stories I’ve read.
I guess I need to humanize myself a little better. Not that I’m not human, but that I have other interests too, and I want to write about them. What better place to do that than right here?
I’m going to start with cooking. A few years ago I had the idea for a video series I was going to call “Cooking the Books.” I never got it off the ground, but the idea was to work my way through a cookbook, make all the recipes, and decide how good the cookbook was.
The thought being that if you call yourself a 15 minute cookbook, but the meals take 30 minutes, that’s a lie. So I wanted to find good and accurate cookbooks, which I could keep using for years to come.
Like I said, that didn’t pan out. But I thought of it again recently, when the New York Times released a cookbook called Easy Weeknight Dinners. It’s exactly the premise I’m interested in: I want different things to cook which are easy and can be made quickly.
So I bought it.
The Intro to the book might have been written by me. An amateur cook looking for fast and easy, but just as likely to burn them as produce something wonderful. The biggest thing would be doable, as the editor says. A great recipe I can’t make? May as well not exist.
This week I planned to make the first recipe.
Remember how I said it needed to be quick and easy? Keep reading.
The recipe is called Mayo-Marinated Chicken with Chimichurri. It’s the very first recipe in the book.
You have to make the chimichurri 24 hours in advance. And marinade the chicken for 4-24 hours.
So yeah, I failed right away.
We planned to make it Tuesday, but then discovered these time problems, and ended up pushing it to Thursday.
The chimichurri wasn’t difficult, just a little tedious to make. My outcome looked sort of like theirs, so I guess I would call it a win.
It smells awful though, and didn’t taste much better. I guess I just don’t like it, which is fine. They suggest several other sauces to go with the chicken, and I probably would have liked one of them better.
I would definitely look for a store-bought version before making it again myself though.
As for the chicken, there wasn’t much to it. Cutlets hammered to a quarter inch thick. I think mine were a half inch, but I was a little tired of it by then. Dredge in mayo-chimichurri mix (it doesn’t at all taste like mayo), let it sit for a few hours, then cook. They said 4 minutes a side, but I had to do it about 6 because mine were thicker.
I’m so afraid of raw chicken I tend to overcook it, and it ends up dry. My wife always says chicken breast is dry anyway, but I think she’s decided that before even trying it. Some can be deliciously moist. Not mine though.
Anyway, it came out okay, I guess. I just didn’t much like the flavor.
My chicken with mashed potatoes and chimichurri sauce
Was it easy? Not really. Too much prep to get it to easy.
Was it good for a weeknight? No, if you have to do all the steps, including planning ahead enough to get it marinated.
So, yes or no on this one? I’d probably give it a qualified no. Would I make it again? Maybe, with a different sauce. I think I would give this recipe a 5 out of 10.
And that’s the start of the cookbook. We’ll see what next time has in store for us.