Oh Metropolis (Also, are you kidding me?)

On Tuesday I dragged out all my winter clothes (read: the clothes I usually only get out when I visit Peoria in the winter), loaded up my car, and headed home to Metropolis (Illinois) to see the family. The schedule was jam-packed. Which, when combined with my relatives' general Internet-impairedness, explains my absence from this blog for six days. I don't wish to make a habit of this... Stay tuned...

My sister got this brilliant idea that, since I would be in town, we should take advantage of my brother's employee discount and get some pictures made at Sears. Just us kids, like when we were little. Except they didn't have to squeak the ducky to get us to smile. In fact, I'm really excited to see the final product. All we did was crack each other up the whole time. So that -- when you include all the beauty-fying I had to do -- took up most of Wednesday.

The past three days I hung out with various familial factions. But most of all I burned up the Wii at my mom's house. Fat ladies and Wii fit? I'll be working that into a standup set. Not that I do standup, but I write sets all the time. Weirdo...

Best night? Thursday. Cooked chicken fajitas at mom's house, which, even my picky 4-year-old nephew didn't spit out. Success! Here's the breakdown...

Cut the following ingredients into strips:

• One big green pepper
• One big sweet yellow onion
• Two or three Roma tomatoes
• Three butterfly-cut chicken breasts
  

NOTE: This is the extra-meaty recipe. Perfect for Southern folk. :)

Also, I used about a half a bulb of garlic. You can use a garlic press, but I prefer just to mash each clove on the cutting board using the flat side of a chef's knife. I cut these into fairly large pieces and remove any green shoots. Not everybody likes this much garlic, so let your palate be your guide. Also, if you don't want to get spicy bites of garlic, you can chop it really small.

(Here's where I would have put in the picture my mom took while I was cooking. Would have, if I had remembered to get it out of her camera before I skipped town. Dumbass...)

Add 1-2 tablespoons of olive (or your favorite cooking) oil to a hot skillet. I actually used two skillets, totally necessary when cooking for a big family!

Toss in the garlic and onion, and stir. Cook until the onion starts to turn transparent. Try not to scorch them. I say try, because I almost always scorch some of them.

Add the chicken and green pepper. Also add salt and pepper according to your taste. You need to add at least some salt, as this helps the juices come out of the meat and veggies to make the sauce.

Keep stirring occasionally. Once the outside of the chicken strips aren't pink anymore, I add the tomatoes. Put them in too early and they'll totally melt. Which is fine, you just end up with fajitas in tomato sauce. Still yummy.

About now is when you'll want to put your tortillas in the microwave. Wrap them in a damp paper towel to get a steamed effect.

I usually search out the biggest chunks of chicken, and cut them in half with my stirring spoon. Once they're good and done all the way through, serve the fajitas! I like them with just a little sour cream and cheddar cheese. However, if you skip these last two ingredients, this is an extremely low-fat, high-veggie, all around healthy meal!

RE: Are you kidding me?

I got home this afternoon to find a summons for jury duty. For February 2. There's no box you can check that says, "Hey, I'll be living in another state that day!" So I guess I better go down there. Like I didn't have enough to do this week.

Eye roll...