Little Holly Homemaker

Why is it that I feel so proud of myself for doing something I should be doing all the time anyway? Is it validation that this is what I should be doing? Is the good feeling actually a lack of guilt (from when I don't do something I should do)?

Maybe someday I'll actually figure that out, but for now I'll just bask in the glory that was last night's dinner. I took some chicken breasts (skin on, bone in) from the freezer and decided that I was going to try a new recipe. We usually do the skinless/boneless chicken, so I needed something else that would work better with this variety.

Luckily, I'd starred a recipe I wanted to try out that would work very nicely, I thought: Aunt Sandy's Oven Crispy Chicken from Sugar Creek Farm. And, yes, it did work very nicely. Easy to do, smelled great while it was cooking (BigMan asked what smelled so good when all I had done was melt the butter) and looked gorgeous, but the cooking time (about 50 minutes for the breasts, no dark meat) is probably too long to make this a weeknight meal for us.

It was a beautiful meal with mashed potatoes (from real potatoes, not a box) and corn on the cob (of which I was skeptical since it's the end of September, but turned out OK). Bubby ate an entire chicken breast and three ears of corn-- if he eats like this as a 2-1/2 year old, I'm completely petrified about what happens when he's a teenager! I actually made a real meal from actual ingredients and I was darn proud of myself!

The oven crispy chicken is going into the weekend rotation for fall and winter (the oven heating for an hour is too long for the spring and summer). Plus, I have leftovers for lunch and I'm looking forward to making my office jealous.