Well, no more. We are now venturing forth into the crazy world of culinary creation. We will, of course, start slow, learning what we can. Who knows where the journey will take us, but we will have fun along the way. It will be an opportunity to learn and grow, an opportunity to find some great food, and most importantly, an opportunity to spend time together.
Our first adventure was Bacon Wrapped Chicken. How could we go wrong? Bacon wrapped anything has got to be good, right? The recipe came from the Taste of Home 5-Ingredient Cookbook. As the title suggests, it contains recipes with few ingredients. A good place for us to start.
Recently on Food Network's Worst Cooks in America, Chef Beau MacMillan used an analogy that really made sense to me. He said that learning and practicing recipes are to a cook what learning lines and rehearsing are to an actor. As an actor this analogy really clicked in my head. Before, I had always thought, how do chefs, or even good home cooks, know what works and what doesn't? It's because they have practiced their recipes like I rehearse my lines. We want to practice and rehearse recipes until we can get to the point where we can then improvise and create on our own. The 5-Ingredient Cookbook will be a great place to start and the Bacon Wrapped Chicken was a great recipe to begin our journey.
I had never had to flatten chicken. Hadn't ever worked with raw chicken at all. So, Jami handled the poultry station. Now the recipe called for using a meat mallet to flatten the chicken. We don't own one, yet, but Jami used a rolling pin to hammer the meat to the desired flatness. After she flattened each piece, I spread the onion and chive cream cheese on it, along with butter and salt. The Jami rolled it up and I wrapped the bacon around it.
It was delicious. We served the Bacon Wrapped Chicken with mashed potatoes and rolls. We were very excited with how things turned out. Even the kids enjoyed it. One thing we are going to try the next time we make this meal, is replacing the onion and chives cream cheese with something more along the garlic lines. Possibly mixing fresh garlic in plain cream cheese.
We also had a blast cooking together. It was really fun. We were able to spend time with each other and that was the best thing about it.
