Appetizing Muse

For all of the baking done in my kitchen during the last few weeks, preparing a decent meal was the least of my concerns.

Baking is not rocket science, but it is time-consuming. The last place I want to be right now is back in the kitchen. We've made do with cold sandwiches, canned food such as ravioli and soups, and once in awhile we went out for meals: Kyoto's teriyaki chicken and grub from the Chinese deli inside Safeway.

Even I was starting to yearn for a home-cooked meal. This afternoon I assembled shake-and-bake chicken using Western Family's seasoning and coating mix, and then cooked sides of cut green beans, white kernel corn and Lipton's chicken flavored rice and sauce.

We've had a stretch of heavy fog lately, with the prerequisite cold dampness, so tucking into a hot meal was much appreciated by my husband. I quite enjoyed myself as well.