Simmer Time

So I've been playing around with cooking lately. It being summer I have more time on my hands! As per my limited budget, there aren't many options by way of dinner. It's usually chicken and something made of carbohydrates, like pasta or rice, or it's cereal or yogurt or even a sandwich! Thrills. 

I love to cook but it's just so freakin expensive. Luckily I have a pretty good selection of herbs and chicken is a versatile bird, you know? Lately I've been getting risky. I mean, even if it's terrible, I'm still the only one eating it, so no one has to suffer but me. I think it's an honor code or something. If you cook it, you eat it, you know?

So last night was my most successful experiment! It could have been awful. I decided to make some chicken and rice and I wanted a glaze of honey with something special in it. Here's my recipe! You can try it.

chicken breast sauteed in olive oil and garlic, then simmered for 15 minutes in a mixture of

honey, water, a bit more olive oil, cinnamon, pepper, and curry powder. 

I served it over jasmine rice. delicious. though it still needs something else, maybe some red pepper or something to give it some zing.

Waiting on the Rain

This morning, being home, I decided, as I often do, to work and read out in my backyard. I had to hurry and make it out before it started raining because I wanted to get to my seat under our pavilion. It was so exciting! I had to gather my books and supplies and scamper out there before the drops started to fall, and for some reason I felt like a little kid again. Sadly, it only sprinkled for about 5 minutes, but Texas is like that. It fools you into thinking it's going to do one thing when it does a completely different thing. I kinda like that, though. Regardless, I'm sitting under my pavilion in the sun. 

But this is similar to many things in life I think. We see an opportunity and make a decision about it. We get excited and prepared to experience that opportunity, run outside, arms full of hope, ready to accept it full on and with an open heart, and bam! It's something completely different entirely, something you did not ever see coming! It may be worse, it may be better than before-but either way it's completely different and completely disappointing for a bit. It kinda knocks the wind out of your sails, you know? But at this point, I think you have two choices. Important ones. 

One: You decide to hold resentment against that changed opportunity and grow jaded about taking chances on similar opportunities ever again. You keep your hope and your heart to yourself and wait for the chance to use them only on your terms and not on the terms of an unknown situation. In other words, you go inside and watch through the window, hating the sun and resenting the rain for not meeting you when you wanted it to. 

or 

Two: You accept the difference and see what you can do with the new set of circumstances using the things you brought with you, your heart and your hopes. You sit under the pavilion anyway, though it's in the sun and not the rain. You wanted the rain, you got the sun, but if you wait, maybe the rain will come again. 

I decided to wait in the sun. It's much better this way, I'd say.