Cage Fight

Associate director: "They're going to lock us into a room until we make a decision."

Co-worker: "Like jury duty."

Me: "Like a cage fight."

I guess we all have different frames of reference.

Since I'm not involved in the cage fight, work has been going very well lately. I'm less stressed than I have been in a long time. Probably since July or August 2009. Even less stressed than during my whole December off, since that was complicated by my giant burn and it didn't end well. Very nice. I've been wondering if some source of stress up the management chain has been relieved. Sometimes I know what's going on that makes people worry but sometimes I have no idea. Maybe now is a good time for everyone.

Whatever. I hope it sticks for a while.

Not that I haven't been working hard. I've had back-to-back experiments and haven't had a day off since March 6. I kind of did it to myself so I can't be too mad. I accidentally got scheduled for ten reactors instead of six and thought, "Hey, more data!" and ran them all. I'm a sucker for more data. Idiot. But it went okay, and I did get more data. It doesn't tell me much, but it's more data.

I tried a new way to cook chicken tonight. I was making a meal for a woman from church who can't leave her house. I've cooked for her twice before and knows she prefers healthier selections because she's injured and can't work out. So what's healthier than baked chicken? I put a half-breast in the fridge to thaw on Monday and figured I'd bake it with the excellent spice rub "Pappy's Seasoning" that's fantastic on chicken. But then today after I got home from work I suddenly remembered the last time I cooked for her I made her Pappy's chicken! Obviously I had the same great idea twice. (Just like how when my friend Yael comes over here for dinner I've twice had the great idea to make couscous with chickpeas and vegetables since she's kosher-itarian). I have standards about this, so I had to make something else.

So I remembered how my friend Allison does great looking roast chickens, and dotted it with smashed garlic cloves and rosemary leaves instead of the Pappy's. But there was nowhere inconspicuous to take a taste, so I have no idea how it turned out. It looks pretty good but I have no idea. I'll have to try it again at a time when I can eat it.

I'm also going to try something new tomorrow night. We're having a potluck for my church group and I'm not going to have much time to cook anything what with work and making this meal tonight. I've been very intrigued by the recipe in Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook where you layer hominy, frozen corn, roasted chilis, and cheese in a slow cooker.

I have hominy. I have frozen corn. I have green chilis in a can which is close enough - I'm not going to the effort of roasting chilis for a slow cooker recipe. I have cheese especially because there was an extra package of Mexican blend after our last potluck.

But I don't have 4 hours of slow cooker time so I'm going to bake it like a casserole because I don't see why you really have to make it in a slow cooker. And I'm going to add layers of ground beef because I don't have two cans of hominy, and that should make it heartier. So we'll see. It could be horrible. But there will be boys there. They eat anything. One eats hot sauces as entertainment. Yeah, beef in the hominy should go over fine.

I anticipate having to explain what hominy is at least four times over the course of the evening.