More Evidence That I Can't Cook

Today, I was ambitiously adventurous.   I decided for the remainder of the week, we'd use the Martha Stewart Food Magazine's set weekly menu, minus one day when we should be eating out (for a recruiting dinner.. free food, thank you ma'am!).  With that, Jordan and I were off to get some groceries and my first ever, whole chicken.

Monday's recipe called for me to cut the chicken into 8-10 pieces.  Whole chickens were on sale, and I got one for less than $4!  Score!  So I thought...

A frustrated hour into youtubing "how to cut whole chicken" videos, jumping back when I accidentally pulled the wing out and I thought my chicken stood for a second, wishing I was vegetarian more than ever, and wondering how one small chicken could produce so much chicken juice, my chicken was cut, but not into 8-10 pieces.  I had about 4 whole pieces consisting of legs and wings, and then a bunch of substandard and messy strips and breasts.  I probably threw away more chicken that was necessary, but I was done.

Dinner wasn't so bad, but Jordan wouldn't eat it and had Trader Joe's frozen Chinese dim sum instead.  That, in my eyes, is always a fail.  *le sigh.  At least he ate the chicken broth plus shredded cabbage and tomato soup I put together with his dumplings for lunch and the french toast I made from breakfast.

Left: How it shoulda looked.  Right:  How it looked.

If there's one thing I've learned from me not knowing how to cook, it's how sweet my dear husband is for eating it all, and even telling me it's good sometimes.  They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.  Well... I'm still working on that.