Monday, April 6, 2009

Capers


I received "the" phone call every teacher yearns for last night about 9:30.

You know ... the one cancelling school.

I should have gone to bed early because I still had to go to a day long data team meeting in town.  This committee consists of some of the best and brightest teachers in the district.  I think somebody screwed up when they assigned me!  I always leave the meetings in awe of all the things other teachers are doing.  I also have a list of things to google so that I can educate myself before the next meeting.


I really needed to get a good night's sleep so that I would be at my best.

So of course I stayed up until midnight surfing the internet.

Pioneer Woman had posted a chicken scallopine recipe earlier this week and I printed it off so that I could try it sometime in the near future.  In all honesty, both Mardell and I print off recipes all the time and very rarely do we ever try anything that we have printed.

However, I am a big fan of Pioneer Woman and all day today I caught myself thinking about chicken scallopine when I should have been thinking about standards based report cards.
Can you blame me?

So as soon as we were finished with our monthly meeting, I went to the grocery store for provisions with a resolve to try the recipe.  It called for capers.  I've never seen a caper much less tried one.  I couldn't find them in the store, so I called Mardell.  What did we ever do before cell phones?!  She directed me from the spice aisle to the pickle aisle.  Silly me.  I found a small jar and bought all the other necessary ingredients.

There's a good deal of pounding and chopping involved in this recipe, so I was happy. I like recipes that call for pounding and chopping.

I pounded the chicken, seasoned it, dredged it in flour and fried it.
I cooked the linguine.   I cleaned the mushrooms and sliced them.  I poured the wine into a cup and finished off the rest of the bottle.

  What?

  It was a small bottle.  Really, it was.

Finally, it was time to add the capers.

Capers are mysterious.
They were once used as currency on ancient trade routes.
I have to admit that there was a bit of trepidation because I don't think that's where the phrase "Put your money where your mouth is" came from.

But to quote Pioneer Woman, 
"Honestly, I try not to like capers. I want not to like capers. They’re weird little greenish-brownish mystery pellets.
But the flavor—OH, the flavor they impart. They’re tangy and special. Trust me."

So I stepped outside of my comfort zone and trusted her.
 
The smell was tantalizing.  Trust me.
I could hardly wait to try it.

I rinsed the linguine and plated it.
(That caused flashbacks to scut work at Pasta Villa!)  [shudder]

I lovingly placed the golden brown chicken breasts onto the bed of linquine.  I spooned the creamy mixture over everything and topped it with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

  It looked marvelous.

  It smelled marvelous.

  It tasted



... well, not so marvelous.

I do not like capers.
I do not like capers in a box with a fox.
Or in a boat with a goat.

Let's just suffice to say that the dogs loved them! 

3 comments:

Three Sisters said...

Note to self: Do not eat capers in a box with a fox.

Too bad you couldn't salvage the chicken and linguine. I guess sticking a potato in it doesn't absorb the extra flavor (it works in soup).

Sister One said...

We did salvage the chicken ... it stilled tasted kinda funky, but it was edible and I was starved. Don't I look starved?

Mary said...

It must have been the fox in a box that did you in! Are you sure you followed the recipe correctly?? Did it REALLY call for fox AND box?? I think if you had only added the fox OR the box you might have enjoyed it much much more!!