Creative Cooking

Today, I decided to be creative.

I've cooked a lot of things in the kitchen before, but most of it has been simple, run of the mill stuff (think: spaghetti, beans and rice, omelets). On the few occasions that I have cooked anything slightly more fancy, I followed the recipe. To a T. Almost neurotically, in fact.

(I want to get it right. I don't want to screw up. This seems to be a theme in my life: more on that later.)

But tonight, I wanted chicken (it's also the option in my freezer right now) and I wanted rice instead of pasta. However, I've had chicken and rice several times since living here (in my apartment, having to cook for myself). What can I say: it's easy. I like it. I know how to not screw it up (usually). I also have pomegranates right now too (yay fruit/veggie trucks!), and thought it would be fun to use one.

So, I google searched. As you do.

My results were....less than fruitful.

Oh, there are some great recipes out there. They just called for things I don't happen to have on hand. A slow cooker, apple cider vinegar, pomegranate juice, or some sort of alcohol. (Since I'm not quite 21 yet and go to a school where I'm not allowed to have alcohol in my on-campus housing, even for cooking, bear with me.)

So I thought, hey! Why not make something up?

I decided to smush up about half of the pomegranate seeds I currently have out of the skin (cooking for one here, remember) and cook the chicken in the product, braising style.

Problem: I don't have a blender or juicer. I do have a nut/fruit/veggie chopper thing. I threw the pom. seeds in that and got to work.

(Note: blending would be much easier.) (Note 2: there are no sees in the chopper in that pic. Just in case you were worried. That's just a pic of the device)

I threw this in a pot when I was done and added a bit of allspice and a tiny bit of cranberry juice.

(then I forgot to take any more pictures.)

I placed slices of chicen breast in the pot and covered them with water. (Note 3: if repeating this recipe, do use pomegranate juice or enough pomegranate puree stuff instead of water for better flavor.)

I then braised the chicken. (Heat until boiling, turn down to a simmer until chicken is cooked through.)

Luckily, I already had a bit of leftover rice made up and the beans were frozen, so while the chicken was cooking, I popped those in the microwave. When everything was done, I plated the beans and the chicken over the rice, used some of the extra juice for flavoring on the rice and sprinkled some of the leftover fresh pomegranate seeds on top. The beans got a little garlic powder and voila! My first freehand meal!

The chicken was good, juicy but not super flavorful. next time, I would probably use more pomegranate and less water, and even more allspice or other seasoning. (Does lavender go well with pomegranate?)

All in all, a pretty good meal. Would try again, with a few tweaks here and there.

I did learn a few things, however:

1. The internet doesn't have all the answers, especially when it comes to creativity and individuality.
2. Sometimes you need to learn to stop being afraid of messing up in order to be creative. Great things can come out of this. (Delicious things even.)
3. Messing up is a part of learning. Even if the overall outcome was a success, I learned more by not getting it perfectly right the first time. 
4. Pomegranates, chicken and rice do actually go well together.

So there you have it! My delve into creativity on this monday evening. Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think or if you ever decide to try a similar recipe. Thanks for reading!