Adventures of MedMan and Le Gal. Dinner for Two

On a hot and sunny day in June, 2011, MedMan and Le Gal promised to journey through life together and do all they could do fight off the evils and hardships of everyday life. Their exciting exploits have been recorded for sharing in the hopes that others learn from their experiences.

The first struggle - cooking a real meal. Together.

The culprit: Frozen chicken drumsticks (that never should have been purchased by MedMan).

The scene: The kitchen, Gilbert Drive, Shreveport, Louisiana

Tool of destruction: Cast-iron grill pan

The story: Most people that know Le Gal know that she has recently discovered a cooking blog. Our Best Bites is a treasure trove of simple, but delicious recipes with plenty of snarky comments that add just the perfect amount of smirks. Le Gal took it upon herself to clean out MedMan's freezer which is full of freezer-burned and unlabeled packages of unknown date. The two things she could identify - chicken drumsticks and dressing. Her plan: log on to OBB and find a chicken recipe and defrost some dressing. Of course, OBB didn't disappoint and Le Gal found the perfect recipe: Spicy Honey-Glazed Chicken. Recipe can be found at http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/06/spicy-honey-chicken/. The happy couple had all the ingredients on hand. The outside grill was at the gadget guy's shop for repairs so MedMan pulled out his trusty, but-never-been-used grill pan. Sounds oxymoronic doesn't it? I'm right for two reasons. First, it is cast iron. Pretty much perfect in every way. Second, it's a grill pan. The next best thing to a grill. Sometimes the best thing. Like when it is raining or super cold. Therefore, not so oxymoronic after all. So there.

Now, the rest of the story.

Here's the chicken all spice rubbed up and ready to go. The spice rub has about 15,421 spices in it, but so worth it. I think.

The sauce. You know, made of honey. Well, honey and cider vinegar. It was delicious. I'd make that just to drink on cold days. Or hot days. Or perfect days like April 25th. Name that reference?

There that beautiful chicken is on the smokin' grill pan. Why all the smoke? Because of the honey. Oddly enough, honey has sugar in it. When sugar gets hot, it burns. When things burn, smoke is created. In this case, it was eye-watering, open the door smoke. But, we were expecting it, so no real tears or break-downs. Tip of the day from MedMan and Le Gal: Be prepared for anything. And disconnect your smoke detector before using a grill pan and sugar based sauces.

Ta da! The chicken. Nice char from the grill pan and the honey. Carmel colored. End result: delicious.

The whole plate. Spicy Honey-Glazed Chicken, crock pot macaroni and cheese, a steamable vegetable medley, and dressing. The chicken was finally edible and THREE whole items were removed from the freezer. MedMan and Le Gal: 1, freezer 0.

Truth and justice win again.