scald epitome of incomprehensibility Not me, thankfully, but a knife, a cutting board, and two bowls. I poured boiling water over them to kill possible germs. My parents left for the cottage for a week and it's my job to keep the kitchen clean and not worry, take care of the garden and not worry, and write my novel and not worry. Except they left me two chicken breasts and I'm not experienced in cooking the things. So, worrying slightly? Yes. I took one, cut some pieces off. Still tough, partly frozen. The middle part near the bone was the toughest, so I thought, "Eh, I'll just throw it in the compost," but then thought better of that - not just because of bugs and germs, but also because I'd be wasting edible food. So the big around-the-bone piece got a coating of flour like the small pieces had done and went in the pan with them. The sauce, I dare say, was good. Dijon mustard, honey, white wine, peanut oil, olive oil, celery seeds, coriander seeds. Onion slices added early on, mushrooms and lambsquarters leaves from the garden added later. Except I was concerned about the big piece being cooked enough. I phoned up my parents and consulted my mother on the state of the cooking, as I peeled meat off the bone with a fork so it'd cook better. When I finally ate it, the part around the bone tasted overdone. The other pieces, good. I saved some for tomorrow - I don't usually eat a lot of meat at once. Why'd they leave me a whole other chicken breast? The over-chickening would be fine except it's a pattern. I mean, twice my mom got me books as presents that weren't the kind I read - mystery-thriller things when I'm more into high or low comedy, drama, sci-fi, comics, sometimes fantasy, sometimes biography, maybe romance, maybe a murder mystery once in a while if it has humour and/or interesting characters...basically books that are different than the ones she got. Is this horrible? No. Am I insulted, scalded, burned? No and no and no. But I feel she should know what books I like by now. ...Anyway, as proof that my settings swing from Carelessly Impulsive to Overly Worried, rather than settling on Reasonably Cautious, I boiled two kettlefuls of water and poured it on anything that touched raw meat. As if salmonella was a foe that had to be vanquished instead of a germ that can be there or not. 240722 ... e_o_i I did the scalding thing this time too, as taught by Dad - just to be safe - but I repent my grumpiness about the over-chickening, because now I have two ways to cook chicken and they both taste good. This one was just putting the piece in a small pan (with parchment paper) and adding a sauce with olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary and dried oregano. Less fuss. But yum. 240723 ... e_o_i (I mean a baking pan, not a stovetop one. It went in the oven for 40 minutes.) 240723 what's it to you? who go blather from