broth

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Gravy

I recently was made aware of these words of wisdom that have been in use for hundreds of years. My wife baked a chicken in the oven last Sunday, this creates a lot of leftover food for two people to consume. She decided on Tuesday, that we would have hot chicken sandwiches for dinner that evening. The idea was to put some leftover chicken on some bread next to mashed potatoes, dressing and a vegetable, then cover the potatoes and meat with a liberal helping of chicken gravy.
My wife started preparing the food around 5 p.m. She asked,” where is the strainer?” I replied, “in the cupboard where it always is.” I asked,” why do you want a strainer”? “She replied, to strain the chicken stock.” She got out the strainer and got it done and put the liquid into a pan. Then she announced that “she wasn’t feeling well and asked if I would finish preparing our meal?” I said, “I don’t mind doing that.” After she sat down, I went into the kitchen, the chicken was already out on the stove ready to be cut up. I thought I better prepare the gravy first so it was good and hot before I put the food on the plates.

I put her kettle of chicken stock on the front burner and made some thickening with flour and water. While I was waiting for the chicken stock to start getting hot to make the gravy, I cut up chicken meat put it on some sliced bread, put on a couple scoops of potatoes and some dressing along with some broccoli chunks. It was ready for the hot gravy and the microwave oven. The chicken stock started to boil, I slowly stirred in the thickening and soon had a very nice looking gravy, I tasted it with a fingertip it didn’t taste like chicken at all, I put in a big scoop of chicken stock base from a jar, and added some salt and pepper,

I continued to boil the gravy until it got nice and thick, it looked real good.
I put a liberal amount of gravy on each one of our plates, then gave each one about 3 minutes in the microwave oven, they were very hot and ready for the table. I announced to my wife that dinner would be served within a few minutes, so she better come to the table right now. When she got to the table she said, I don’t feel good, I think I’ll just eat some watermelon. I felt kind of bad, I went to all that trouble making the gravy that she just had to have, had the plates ready, all she had to do was sit down and eat but she only ate watermelon.

Food doesn’t seem to taste the same when you cook it yourself but my hot chicken plate did not taste right. I told my wife, I made caramel in your chicken stock kettle yesterday.”Did you wash it real good before you put your chicken stock into it? There was caramel stuck all over the inside of that kettle after I got done making the caramel corn. I don’t think you washed the caramel off the kettle before you put the chicken stock in. Oh yes, “I did she says.” Well, my gravy does not taste right!. I never waste food so ate almost everything on my plate.

I was going to be a real boy scout, later I did the dishes, there was some stuff in the food strainer, I couldn’t figure out what it was, after a closer examination I realized it was pieces of rhubarb. She had made rhubarb sauce on Saturday, she must have taken the rhubarb sauce out of the refrigerator thinking it was her chicken stock, strained the rhubarb out of the sauce then asked me to make chicken gravy with it!

I cannot believe it, this actually happened, I think possibly through all this madness, I have come up with a new type of sweet and sour sauce. How else could I have eaten that whole plate full of food? I just had another thought that is even crazier. Did she do this on purpose! Just to see my reaction, that is why she only ate watermelon? I guess nobody will ever know if it was a mystery or just Murphy’s Law at work.

Prov. Cliché Too many people trying to manage something simply spoil it. Let’s decide who is in charge around here. Too many cooks spoil the stew. Everyone is giving orders, but no one is following them! Too many cooks spoil the broth

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