Improvisation

Ever get ready to prepare your planned meal, but it just doesn't sound especially good to you at that time? Yeah, me too. Happened tonight, and thought it would be a good time to talk about improvisation.

Recipes are fine and good, but it's often much more fun to take some of this, some of that, put it all together, and have fun with it. Tonight, I played on the theme of leftovers, but instead of a leftover meal, I went with leftover ingredients. A serrano from the last weeks pico de gallo, another meal's leftover half of an onion, and a third of a tomato. I took these and changed tonights planned chicken and potatoes into something a bit different.

First, I cut the chicken into strips. Frozen chicken is a great thing to have on hand. I'm talking about the kind that's thin and boneless in a resealable bag. Not as tasty as fresh, but it won't spoil within the week either.

Tip: Cut it while it's frozen. If it's too hard, let it thaw a bit, but not all the way.

Next, I diced the serrano, onion, and tomato, then put the onion and serrano in a hot pan with some olive oil. Just a couple minutes to cook some of the heat out of them. Let this cool, and added the tomato, and squeezed half a lime into it.

Tip: Don't touch your face after handling the pepper. If you do, the heat you take out by removing the seeds and white 'veins' will have a party on your face.







Cooked the chicken while about half thawed, in some olive oil and the juice from the other half of the lime. Added some dried parsley for color.



Topped the chicken with the salsa-like topping, and voila, a variation on the planned meal that made the meal more interesting.

It was pretty good, but I wouldn't make it again just the same way. I might add a bit of sugar to the vegetables (a teaspoon?), and leave out half the lime juice. It was a pretty big lime. The best part of the meal was in the fun I had making it.

Improvise, have fun, and even if it isn't perfect, it probably won't be a disaster, and it won't be the same ol' thing.

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