Sage Me From Disaster

I tried the Cooking Light app recently and was pleasantly surprised with my first selection of recipes, so decided to try another combination: Chicken with Sage Butter, Garlic-Roasted Kale, and Herb Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Like recipes in Cooking Light magazine, the app give details. For example, here's the delectable screenshot of the Herb Mashed Sweet Potatoes:

Screenshot of Herb Mashed Sweet Potatoes

The lower four windows provide menu accompaniment suggestions. In the upper right corner, you can save the recipe and retrieve at a later date, or build your own menu. There is also a dropdown menu in the upper left corner to select the type of food you're looking for: entree, side, dessert, and so on.

Tapping "See Recipe" in the upper right corner shows you something like this:

List of ingredients

Note that each recipe has an Overview (the picture,) Ingredients, and Directions. The ingredients are detailed, easy to follow. So are the directions - and each ends with calorie, fat, protein, carb, fiber, and more counted and displayed in bold:

Calorie Display

All good, right?

Then I started cooking, and the app was not to blame for what followed.

Cooking is a study in second-by-second mindfulness. You must be attentive to what you are cooking and to what you are doing at all times. If you fail to pay attention, something's bound to happen.

I had an extraordinary amount of kale in the house - both from the last weeks of my CSA membership, as well as from the local store. I washed it up and blanched with the intention of freezing immediately. And then I lost my concentration.

In emptying the large pot of boiling hot water, I dumped a sizeable portion on my left hand. I cussed, dropped the hot pan, then picked it up and finished pouring the water. I saved as much the kale as I could, started cooled water running on my hand. This happened in a matter of a minute or so, and my fingers felt like they were on fire.

After the burning subsided, I headed to the computer to ensure I'd treated the burn correctly. I had, and there was no need to call friends with medical experience or rush to the ER. I returned to the kitchen and kept running cool water on the burn. I watched for signs of blistering, and was relieved there was none.

Once again, I didn't bring my iPod Touch into the kitchen. My kitchen's just to small the the potential for water-induced damage too high. I wrote out the bare minimum instructions for the recipes and got started.

I minced shallots, threw them in a pan with some olive oil and brown sugar, and set others aside for a sauce. I set a peeled potato on another burner to boil. I pounded the chicken thin, dredged with salt, pepper, and flour.

I also prepped the kale. Or rather, I didn't use kale, but instead chose Tatsoi. This is another dark, leafy green, and has a mild taste. I don't like the sharper tasting greens, so this is a wonderful find. I figured I could mix it with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic, and roast quickly in the oven for about the time suggested in the recipe.

The chicken went into the pan, and I drained the sweet potatoes. I returned to the oven, stirred the tatsoi, and mashed the sweet potatoes with the shallot and brown sugar mix.

I flipped the chicken and returned to the oven. And was greeted with a wave of smoke - the tastoi was burned, mostly. I blinked my eyes, pulled the pan out, and set it aside.

Burnt Tatsoi

I pulled the chicken out of the pan and set it on a cutting board to rest. A pat of butter went into the pan, along with sage leaves, followed quickly by the remaining shallots, salt, pepper, and fresh-squeezed lemon. I used a whisk to stir the whole thing up, and the sauce was ready in no time.

I centered the herb mashed sweet potatoes on the plate, added chicken and sauce. I put some beautiful sage leaves on the side for pictures. Looks good, right?

Chicken with Sage Butter. Herb Mashed Sweet Potatoes

After picture taking, I decided to taste the tastoi, and was pleasantly surprised. While the vast majority was burnt and crispy, some was salvageable - and had a roasty autumn flavor.

The meal was prepared in little over an hour that floated by quickly. And, despite the burns to my fingers and tatsoi, the meal tasted delicious. I can honestly say that I've rarely prepared a bad recipe from the Cooking Light group.

I do not, however, recommend the app. For me it's just too cumbersome to operate while cooking. I can't see using a wet finger to tap on the screen to move from ingredients to directions, or from recipe to recipe. If it was all shown on one screen - maybe. Do yourself a favor, save money on the app and buy the magazine.