Smoking Myself Out

 Taquitos

Stir Fry or Barbeque Chicken with Rice

Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots

Those were my menu plans for the weekend. I had skipped Taco Tuesday in favor of homemade pizzas. I work to keep things as fresh as possible. Teagan won't touch tacos yet. I try more and more to make things she won't fight me to try, but are still not junk food like chicken nuggets and fries. 

I got my chicken for the taquitos into the slower cooker during my lunch break on Friday. I made an executive decision to let the chicken cook with just salt, pepper, and chicken broth for seasoning. I do this with my buffalo chicken prep and it makes for a more juicy chicken as compared to cooking in heavy seasoning. I was already off the recipe. My confidence was high. 

After work I shredded the chicken. I stirred in the seasoning. While I was working on this I put one of my cast iron skillets on the eye and poured in some oil. I let it heat up while I assembled the taquitos and prepared to fry them up. I had dreams of crunchy shells, savory chicken, and the pleasure of deciding if they were better complimented with salsa or queso for dipping. 

I got about twenty of the taquitos assembled on my pizza cutting board. The oil started to smoke in the pan. I turned it down a bit thinking I could stay below the canola oil's smoke point. I forgot that a cast iron skillet will stay at the higher temperature even if the eye below it is cooling. Smart thermodynamics. Dumb David for not remembering them. 

I carefully grabbed my first taquito in my grilling tongs and lowered it into the oil. It flash fried into a blackened and blistered nightmare. The oil was hot. The smoke was still billowing. I turned down the eye further. I opened windows and doors. Fans were turned up to max on the AC units. I started coughing and my eyes started watering. Teagan began to loudly complain about the smoke from her bedroom which at the far east end of the house. 

I thought to myself that I need to invest in a couple of box fans again. From time to time I make a culinary misfire and the result is a smoky house. As I waited for the oil to cool and stop smoking I began to ruminate on wanting a more modern kitchen with a hood vent. Mostly I just coughed and hoped that the smoke would stop. I turned the eye off totally. 

Several minutes later the smoke was still pouring off the cast iron. I made the decision that the pan needed to go outside to play. Carrying hot cast iron full of nearly boiling oil is a perilous proposition. I managed it without injury beyond more smoke inhalation and a slightly signed finger. I did dribble a bit of oil in a few spots on the way out the door. Cleaning that up was priority even as I fought to stop my coughing and eyes from watering. 

Half an hour later I preheated the oven. Most of my taquitos had burst open. I put on new corn tortillas while feeling defeated by the endeavor. I was grumpy from choking on the smoke and the failure to fry. I packed the baking dish, brushed on some oil for crispiness, and I dropped them in the over feeling lousy. I had planned for failure so I had a nice coating of cheese baking on top of the taquitos. I wish I had bought the red sauce as well and turned the experiment from taquitos to enchiladas. 

I laid down while they baked. I coughed and gagged a bit. My head was pounding. When the taquitos were done I couldn't have been any less hungry. Still, I was hopeful for the chicken being super flavorful. 

The taquitos were lousy. The chicken was delightful. Chewy, half-baked corn tortillas just don't do it for me. I kept thinking back to watching Amy make a similar dish and thinking to myself that she fried the tortillas  a bit before assembling and baking hers. I should have reached out for a consult. Again, stupid David. 

After dinner all I wanted to do was sleep. I ended up napping until about 10 pm. I was up a couple hours then clearing out my sinuses and coughing up stuff from my lungs. Super unpleasant. Also gross. Sorry to overshare. 

I went back to bed Friday night feeling terrible. I woke up Saturday feeling about the same. I tend to wake up at 7 am every day. A few more gross things that aren't were discussing went on. I went back to bed and napped until 10. 

I woke up hungry. I did not feel like cooking, but I am a big believer of getting back on the horse when it throws you. I resisted the temptation to use the cast iron skillets. Instead, I got out my favorite copper ceramic skillet and got it preheating. 

I fried up sausage. I scrambled eggs. I turned them into delicious breakfast sandwich. I enjoyed not screwing up making breakfast more than I enjoyed eating it. 

While I was cooking I got to feeling exceptionally stupid. We own a deep fryer. It is sitting under a jumble of junk on the baker's rack. I sighed so heavy as I was beating myself up about that use failure that I set myself off on a coughing fit. 

While I made breakfast I also made supper. I dropped a roast, potatoes, and carrots into the slow cooker. I got everything nicely seasoning. My kitchen was a riot of smells by the time supper was started and breakfast was finished. 

I contemplated skipping lunch. I also considered left overs. I have a couple of options. I also have some healthy snacks. An apple or orange would have tided me over until the roast was ready. I am trying to make healthy choices. 

Instead I made pancakes for absolutely no reason at all beyond wanting to. I wasn't craving pancakes. For years when I was avoiding sugar I avoided pancakes. When I did have them it was just with butter. That can be delicious. 

I did stop myself from making strawberry banana pancakes. After I was through half my lunch pancakes I regretted this. I wanted something light but flavorful. I ate about a pancake and a half. I was still feeling like garbage. 

The afternoon nap should have done me wonders. Instead I woke up running a low grade fever and an upset stomach. I had slept until nearly 9 pm. Thank God for slow cookers. My roast was done and making the whole house smell amazing. I wanted nothing to do with it. 

An hour later I gave the roast a try. I wasn't hungry, but with the fever gone I was feeling a bit better. The roast is one of the best I have ever made. I wish I had made more potatoes. The carrots more than made up for them being a bit short on quantity. I ate a small amount and was delighted when my tummy cried out for more. I denied it and stuck to the single helping. 

I feel like trash still. My head hurts. My sinuses and lungs are not thanking me for smoking the house up. I am hoping to shake this by Sunday. The taquitos were not worth the pain. Though I do have some smart plans for trying them again. That chicken mixture is just too good not to try it again. 

In fact, I will likely modify the recipe. I really want to get the nice crunchy tortilla right. I suspect the fryer will get the job done. If I can pull that off the next round will be experimenting with the air fryer. That gadget is one of my absolute favorites. 

Now I just need to figure out the menu for the week. Well, that and I need to recover from smoke inhalation. I think I may Google how long that really takes.