When you are with someone for numerous years, you do one of two things. You can either fall even more in love with them or you can start to hate some of the littlest things about them.
My hubs and I have been together almost 19 years. Hmmmm. Where are we? I think for the most part we really dig each other. He likes my squishy parts and the color I dye my hair. He looks past my old lady eyeglasses and says I’m pretty. And when I dress up I think I can hear a “BOING” when he sees me enter the room.
I still am in love with his baby blues and think he has the softest hands in the world. He makes me laugh like no other and could be a spooning Olympian. His smile makes me smile and there is no one in this world that makes me feel safer.
There are some qualities that I think we look at with love goggles. I know I leave my socks in the bed and hog the covers. His sound effect reel while he sleeps would probably cause the average woman to smother him in his sleep but I consider it a soothing lullaby. (Okay, that is BS. When he snores, I poke him in the butt to jostle him. I then pretend to be asleep and that I don’t realize why he was startled.)
He never can find things even if they are in front of his face and I have the tendency to rearrange the house on days I am bored. I mess up the living room with ongoing craft projects and he hasn’t seen the top of his dresser since 2007. And I will not deny that I roll my eyes each time I see his cereal bowl in the sink when the dishwasher is right there. (We are getting a new one in a couple of weeks for my BIRTHDAY!!! Hubby says it counts as a birthday present since I’m the only one who uses it!!!!!!)
But all these little things can be tolerated because it comes with the package. You take the bad because the good is just so wonderful!
My mind wandered in this direction the other week when Earl was gone on a business trip. I will admit it….I was lost. I couldn’t sleep in the bed because there were no cuddles on the other side. The house was too quiet because I missed the sound of him clomping from room to room. And the worst part was that I felt like I lost my smile. I cried each day and just longed to laugh with him.
The only good part of this whole thing was cooking. Earl is a great person to cook for because he loves pretty much everything I make. Over all of our years together there has only been two meals he didn’t’ care for….jerk chicken and lemon pepper chicken.
I will agree with him that the jerk chicken I made was dreadful. It was so bad I have not been able to eat anything like that since! The lemon pepper chicken is another story.
When I make lemon pepper chicken breasts, I make lemon PEPPPER chicken breasts! I just load it with lemon pepper seasoning. It is one of those dishes I made when I first started to cook and I love it to this day. I do not cook it for him because he ends up having a coughing fit and has to eat antacids the rest of the night. (He also wants to eat ice cream immediately after the meal to cool his burning mouth.)
So while he was gone, I went wild. I made a giant pan of lemon pepper chicken. Nothing fancy….just a perfectly cooked chicken breast, over seasoned with lemon pepper with a light lemon butter sauce over pasta. Mmmmm, it was great and made my mouth pucker. Too bad the guy I wanted to pucker on was gone for the week!
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- Lemon Pepper Season (Lawry’s is my favorite)
- Olive oil
- Optional
- Cooked pasta
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/4 lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp butter
- Parsley (which I didn’t have this time but I usually add)
- Heat oven to 375 and place a casserole dish inside.
- Lay chicken breasts on a plate and coat with lemon pepper. Add as much or as little as you want.
- Make sure you coat both sides.
- Heat a medium skillet over medium high heat with a good swirl of olive oil.
- Sear the breasts for about 3 minutes per side.
- Take the breasts out of the pan and pop them into the oven for about 12 minutes. (Check for doneness before serving.)
- While you are waiting for the chicken to finish up in the oven, deglaze the pan with white wine.
- Let the wine reduce by half and add the lemon juice, butter and parsley.
- Serve with the cooked chicken.
They look great!
If you like pepper, they are wonderful!!!