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!