It’s no secret that I love watching reality tv. I would call it a guilty pleasure, but it is more like a staple. It’s hard to get away from as it seems to be on every network, every night.

I do have a few favorites, and one of them happens to be TOP CHEF. I got sucked in during the second season and ever since I have found myself watching it religiously. The odd part is that I will sit through an entire episode that I have already seen before. Perhaps Padma Lakshmi has something to do with that (man is she beautiful), but that’s a whole different story.

Yummy

Right around Thanksgiving time I decided “we” needed to add more flavors to our food. Everything was dull and boring. Oh, and when I say “we“, I really mean me, since I didn’t marry my wife for her cooking. She can make a mean grilled cheese sandwich and occasionally surprises me with preparing dinner. However it’s safe to say that I cook 90 percent of the time.

My brother-in-law Chip is such a good cook that he even had me eating brussel sprouts at Thanksgiving dinner. Perhaps it was the enjoyment of the meal. Perhaps it was the delirious and sleep deprived state I was in at the time (for more on that). But I think at that point I was determined to try some new things and make eating at home as enjoyable as going out, if not more so.

I had decided that one of my new years goals would be to add more variety, or simply, more flavor to our repertoire. But on the way home from Jersey, I decided why wait until 2012… let’s get this party started now. So I did.

I found a great app called Big Oven which has thousands of recipes. I wanted to start off slow and gain confidence to try new things. And of course I wanted to keep it healthy to stay in line with “the journey”. I believe the first thing I made was bourbon chicken. Triple the amount of ingredients that I would normally use, but overall it seemed fairly straightforward. It seemed like I was off to a rousing start. The next dish was sticky chicken. Not as many ingredients, but some great flavors. Now I was rolling.

Then I found it. Cola chicken. 3 ingredients, and glowing reviews. Could it be this simple to whip up something delicious? The quick answer is NO, MAYBE, ummm NO. Now, I have made cola chicken on numerous occasions since my first run through… and I have continued to add ingredients to try to turn this recipe into something more than it is. All you need is soda, chicken and ketchup. Yes, you read that right… soda, chicken and ketchup. We have since affectionately named this dish White Trash Chicken. Perhaps that’s why I keep trying to gussy it up by adding the likes of thyme, onion and garlic, along with red pepper flakes, bbq sauce and chives.

I made this dish once again last night. I figured everything would taste better the more times I made the same dish. Not so much. It tasted – ok, but then there was the color. I didn’t know chicken could turn gray. Oh we had a good laugh about it as we were enjoying our WTC at 9:30 at night. So back to the drawing board. They haven’t all been winners, but they haven’t all been losers either.

Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot Pie

The marinated flank steak was enjoyable. The spicy baked salmon was savory. The chicken parmesan (with Cheez It crust) was surprising. And the impossibly easy chicken pot pie was not only easy, but also very tasty.

While you may never see me competing with the likes of other Top Chef’s, I look forward to continuing to trying new things and laughing about my failures. BON APPETITE!