I can’t believe I’m going to tell you this…

I could have titled this blog post…
"Cooking with Chrissy Kathy".   Remember Chrissy?  Chrissy Snow from Three's Company?  Come to find out her full name was Christmas Snow.  Seriously… I'm not making that up.  I loved that show… Jack, Janet, Mr. Roper.  For a REAL walk down memory lane, watch THIS clip of Chrissy at her finest.  I laughed out loud.  ANYWAY, back to my blog post that has nothing to do with Three's Company except that I am sometimes as dumb as our old friend Chrissy.

Yesterday I decided to work on my wife of the year award and make Chicken Chili with Black Beans & Squash from Otey's Men's Health diet.  I tell you what, chopping and mincing, and dicing and slicing.  SUZY HOMEMAKER. BETTY CROCKER.  That's me.  If you're rolling your eyes… you haven't heard nothin' yet.

So, The recipe calls for two chopped garlic cloves.  Now is where the confusion begins.  A garlic CLOVE.  Is this a garlic CLOVE?   

If you answered yes… you also can sometimes be as dumb as Chrissy.  When it came time to mince the garlic CLOVE… I peeled it kind of like a big flaky onion (this is the first time I've cooked with fresh garlic if you haven't figured that out yet) and then realized I didn't know what to do next.  Soooo…. me being the techy that I am, I went to the computer and Googled "mincing garlic cloves".  THIS handy-dandy "how to" site came up.  I looked at the photos (notice I said looked at the photos not read the instructions) and then headed back to the cutting board.  I squished, and peeled, and peeled some more.  Then I minced my little brain out.  I made the prettiest little minced pieces of garlic that you've ever seen.

Holy cow… I should forget this photography
thing and write a cookbook or something.  I am wife of the year... oh ya… mince mince mince.  Wow.  That looks like a lot of garlic.  Why does my whole entire house stink like a $39 a night hotel lobby?  Who knows… I'll just scrape all this garlic in my handy dandy 4 INCH BY 4 INCH bowl and get the chicken ready. Okay.  Step 1. 

Coat
a pot with nonstick spray and warm it over medium-high heat for 1
minute.  Add chicken and garlic, and saute until chicken is lightly
browned, about 3 minutes.

Hot pan… check.  Nonstick Spray… check.  Man, that looks like a lot of garlic.  DING! DING! DING! DING!  MAYBE ALL THOSE LITTLE PIECES ARE THE CLOVES. 

Once again, I call my cooking life line (I'm just going to keep this photo handy for all my cooking posts).

My Mom confirms my DING DING DING DING moment.  Those little pieces are the CLOVES!  And I know you're going to find this hard to believe, but she laughed at me!

So, in case you were wondering, I scooped a tablespoon of my perfectly minced garlic out of my 4 INCH BY 4 INCH bowl and added it to my pan with the chicken and continued on to make the YUMMIEST meal I've ever made!  They really should be more specific in the produce section with their labels.  Can you imagine what the chili would have tasted like if I'd added the ENTIRE bowl of garlic?  There were two BULBS of perfectly minced garlic in there.  THANK YOU LORD for my DING DING DING DING moment and a Mom who always has her cell phone on her.  One more time, let's review…

Have a great weekend.  We're headed to Otey's parent's ranch tomorrow afternoon.  I will actually be able to post now that my high tech inlaws have satellite internet!  Yahoo!