So I had company!

Better late than never.

My friend R☆ came over and I made many things. First off, Banana Cake, from a recipe of my fraternal grandmother. Unfortunately, I fell victim to one of the pitfalls of baking- if you change the amounts of things, it won’t bake properly. I added an extra banana that I had swiped from my brother’s house earlier. The extra banana threw off the amount of moisture in the cake, and so it was undercooked when I pulled it from the oven. “Why didn’t you use the toothpick test?” you ask. Well, I have no toothpicks. And after searching through my apartment, I have nothing resembling a toothpick. It’s still good, mind you… it’s just a little gooey in places.

For dinner I made a chicken. I put it into a simple brine for an hour, then butterflied it, rubbed under the skin with garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then broiled it. Yeah, it burned a bit. I think my rack was a little too close to the broiler. So, first the skin was a wee blackened, and then… it too was underdone. Seriously, it tasted fine, and R☆ said it was good, but I was still a little ashamed of my work.

Alongside the chicken I made a salad. The croutons I made out of some cubed bread tossed in the remaining fat after the chicken was removed from the pan. These I broiled for a few more minutes until golden brown and EXTREMELY delicious. (I got this idea from Alton Brown’s book I’m Just Here for the Food.) The dressing was the leftover chicken fat, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, Tabasco sauce, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

The star of the meal was definitely the croutons. I want to make those again. Actually, I want to make them now, just to snack on. Mm….