The Fiasco that was Dinner

This evening rang in the start of the Spring semester of ballet for Madelynn and McKenna. This means two hours of sitting in a metal folding chair, in a church hallway for Mommy. Good times!

In true Amy fashion, I totally prepared dinner so that the evening would be smooth sailing. I found a scrumptious looking recipe on Pinterest. Put everything in the crockpot (with a last minute rescue by my dear neighbor! I mean, who runs out of garlic?), and off we went to dance class.

Three hours later, we returned home. I realized that instead of cooking the chicken on high for 1 1/2 hours, or on low for three hours, I cooked it on high for three hours. Pretty dry chicken. In really liquidy sauce.

At this point, Madelynn is beside herself with grief over the (not new) fact that she will not be getting a puppy anytime soon. Sobbing. Hysterically. So, Branden took her to the UPS store with him in order to further discuss the issue. The result? Madelynn will be working to do extra chores to earn money in order to help pay for a fence that will house a future puppy. Hmmmm.....

So I remove the chicken from the sauce and attempt to reduce it on the stovetop. But it's not quite right, so I added some brown sugar and hot sauce (not in the original recipe, mind you) and turned my attention to the chopped salad I was creating. Now, when you're reducing a sauce. It needs stirring. Constant stirring. Especially if there's sugar in it.

At this point, Marek has lost all patience. Its an hour past dinnertime, he is hungry and he wants fed IMMEDIATELY! His solution is to hang on my legs until I give him food.

Still making that salad. There's a LOT of crap in that salad!

You guessed it. I burnt the sauce black. A roiling, boiling pan of nastiness. I just set it outside, closed the door and shut off the smoke detector. Plan B....

Started a new sauce (minus garlic!) and stood by the stove with a whisk! I gave McKenna a bowl of Cheetos and had her entice Marek into their bedroom like you would a little puppy. Hey, it was desperate times!

Just as I was getting the sauce finished, McKenna decided she'd had enough. She too was hungry, and tired to boot. Along with her, came Marek. My tiny kitchen now held me and my two grumpy kiddos, who are both crying.

I finally served up dinner to kids that were not at all impressed, and a hubby that said "That wasnt bad". Spent way longer cleaning the kitchen than I did making it dirty. And cursed the decision to serve rice to my one year old, while I was attempting to sweep the dining room floor.

However, I am so happy to report that this evening did not end in the bottom of a bottle or a storm of tears for me. I was able to chuckle at the absurdity of it all and be thankful that this is not the norm!

I think, perhaps the takeaway here is the next time I get cocky and think to myself, "We've got this. Branden and I are pros!", that I should NOT EVER THINK THAT AGAIN!