Drunken chicken

Note to self:  do not marinate Nate's chicken in white cooking wine all day and then also make a "subtle" white wine cream sauce to go along with it.  It will taste like chicken chased with a shot of hard liquor (Nate's words, not mine - don't get excited, I still haven't been craving meat).

That's right, yesterday, I had a brilliant plan.  Marinate some chicken in the same thing I'd be using for sauce that evening.  I was thinking how genius I was and how delighted Nate was going to be to have something different and exciting for dinner.  I just had no idea how exciting...

When I went to season the chicken, I poured out the liquid that had accumulated over the day and thought to myself, "Hmmmm, how weird.  The chicken apparently somewhat melted to the bottom of the bowl while it was thawing. It's never done that before!"  And as I was putting it into the pan to cook, it was practically falling apart.  Well, I had completely forgotten what I had done at this point, so I had no idea that the chicken was literally decomposing because it had been sitting in something close to vinegar all day long.

And I didn't remember until Nate took a bite of his dinner and his eyes bugged out of his head as he asked, "Um, Kate, how much wine did you put in this sauce?" 

Poor, poor Nate, who is such a trooper, proceeded to every last bite of that chicken, eyes watering and tastebuds on fire.  I couldn't even eat my own dinner because I was laughing so hard it was dangerous to put anything into my mouth.  And the only thing he would say is, "Well, I might go to sleep right after this."  Oh, and he also cautioned me not to ask him to drive anywhere.  Hah!

In short, I think my adventures with cooking wine are over.  Perhaps next time I'll marinate in something a little safer...