Month 8 day 17: Spiced chicken and okra

Today I made:
Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs, Cooking Light September 2010
Skillet-Roasted Spiced Okra, Food & Wine September 2010

This chicken was really fast and good. It's just rubbed with a mix of spices and then broiled for a total of 12 minutes, with some honey and vinegar brushed on towards the end. Thighs are always so juicy, and without the bones they are so thin that they cook quickly. This recipe was a big hit with others too, with 66 reviewers! I think that 20-minute recipes probably get used a lot more than most. I will definitely file this one away for future busy weeknights.
Anyway, I love any recipe that doesn't have me messing around with raw meat too much-- when I was in high school, I basically flat out refused to touch raw meat. I remember my mom asking me to set up the BBQ for some turkey legs once, and I was really dreading it... I kept hoping she would be back early from her meeting. Eventually I did have to put out the turkey legs by myself, but I used utensils, and I was still really grossed out. In college when I had to start cooking as part of a cooking club during the dining-hall-less summers, touching raw meat was a pretty big hurdle for me. Now I obviously touch raw meat often, but I'm still paranoid about contamination, so if I can just rub in some spices and never touch it again, I'm happy.

The okra was also really fast, and while G was ambivalent, I thought it was good too. The okra are cut in half lengthwise and cooked on the skillet, cut side down first, then flipped and sprinkled with a ton of spices. Cooking it this way dries it out so it's not as slimy as okra normally is. It ends up tasting somewhat smokey as if it were grilled-- really nice, I thought. It's sprinkled with lemon at the end, so it's a little tangy too. It was a familiar flavor, but I couldn't figure out what it reminded me of exactly. One of the reviewers suggested to use the spice mix on popcorn! Seems like a good idea.

Today in the drying rack I noticed two baking sheets, bought at the same time, side by side. One of them got "ruined" once when we left it in the oven after using it (covered in olive oil), and then forgot about it and turned on the oven to preheat later. The oil got burnt on, and was really sticky for some reason. We set it aside hoping to figure out how to clean it up, but eventually I started using it with foil on top whenever I made a recipe that I suspected might leak out and mess up the baking sheet. Now, this is basically my go-to baking sheet. I love it because I can do anything to it, and not have to worry about it losing its nice clean finish. It's well on its way to becoming as seasoned as the ones at your mom or grandma's house. In contrast, I really did ruin two roasting pans when I roasted poultry in them without enough water on the bottom (so the drippings charred). They had a different type of non-stick finish that just peeled up after the incident. So good work, baking sheet-- way to hang in there!