As the Latin Saying Goes....

I am a firm believer that if you're going to publicize your successes you should be equally ready to publicize your disasters - after all, that is the inspiration behind "Cooking with Kilby". And with that in mind, tonight's was a doozy.

It started out wonderfully. Yesterday afternoon I decided to marinate some boneless, skinless chicken breasts overnight in a garlic-basil paste; a friend at work had provided me with a beautiful bouquet of basil from her garden. With the full knowedge that Sunday was going to be a bit of a write-off because of competing commitments (read... work ones!) I decided to make it simple.

• a quick barbecue of the marinated chicken;
• some steamed new potatoes, sprinkled with freshly chopped chives;
• fresh baby carrots with chopped rosemary; and,
• some pan-fried French haricots with garlic..

Admit it - you can taste how good such a simple meal can be.

So I wrapped up the other "commitment"; lit up the barbecue; washed the potatoes; peeled the carrots; trimmed the beans; chopped the chives, rosemary and garlic; seasoned the water; put on some great music (in this case it was a great medley of 60's rock... you know, Herman Hermits, The Zombies, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap...);

... and then I singed one side of each of the chicken breast, and the potatoes over-boiled and got mushy; so I decided to mash the latter and take my chances with the former. I pan-fried the beans to a medium success, but the potatoes were a glutinous glop and the chicken breasts had a dry, and yet surprisingly mushy interior. The carrots were blasé, suffering from my desire to be simple and undressed (read - got too lazy); but the pan-fried haricots were the surprising star for the evening (kinda like the Jordan team making the podium in the US Grand Prix when there were only 3 teams and 6 cars competing).

Kim was a trooper - although she tread a fine balancing act - we've had more than one domestic caused by her trying to pussy-foot around a disaster - but this time I was quite prepared to admit that I wouldn't feed it to a competitor.

And so it has not been a good weekend for food in the Kilby household.... I'm still trying to see what some Americans have raved about in a watermelon soup (Saturday night's disaster); and the dried-out mushy chicken will barely make do for an accompaniment to salad as a weekday lunch at work... it is destined to be a bad week anyway.

As the saying goes "Cave cibum, valde malus est". Or, if you're going to cook, cook; if you're going to make an iTunes playlist, make an iTunes playlist - But don't do both!

Now, on to some successes.