A Recipe for Frustration
by Judie Holcomb-Pack
Winston-Salem, NC 

Day 58 of stay-at-home confinement. I’ve made every recipe I know and am now searching through recipe books for something – anything – for which I have all the ingredients on hand. This one looks doable and as I skim the ingredients, it appears I have all of them – chicken, rice, broccoli. I pull out a skillet and get to work. 

The first ingredient is four chicken breasts … too much for just me and besides, I only have one chicken breast. I will have to make adjustments. Step one: I cut the chicken into thin slices. I look at the next step. Uh oh, I need a bag of frozen broccoli. Don’t have that, but I do have some fresh broccoli, so I will have to make an adjustment. No worries.  

Next I will need Minute Rice. Stymied again. I only have Uncle Ben’s Long-Grained Converted (Catholic?) Rice. I will have to make another adjustment. I stay on task and focus on the chicken step. 

Another roadblock. I need a quarter cup of Italian salad dressing. All I have is a packet from a take-out salad from McDonald’s. Not quite a cup, so I’ll have to add something. Olive oil should do. Another slight adjustment. 

I cook the chicken slices in the Italian dressing/olive oil mixture. The next ingredient is a quarter cup of teriyaki sauce. Yay! I have that! A few dashes of garlic powder and it appears that I’m back on track. The recipe now calls for a cup and a half of water, then stir in rice and broccoli and cook for 20 minutes. For a moment I’m stumped. I don’t need that much water since I’ve substituted the Minute Rice for Uncle Ben’s, which I made earlier, and the broccoli that is already steamed. I will have to make one last adjustment. 

I grab a wooden spoon and stir the whole mess together. Done is better than perfect. It was good. 

Don’t ask for the recipe.

Copyright 2020 Judie Holcomb-Pack