I was sitting on the couch reading a book when my son Alex came into the room holding a package of chicken breasts. “Hey, do you think you can show me how to cook these?”
I flipped my book upside down on the coffee table so I could save it to the page I was reading. “Sure.” I got up from the couch and took the package of chicken from him. “These are pretty thick chicken breasts.” I headed for the kitchen with Alex following me. “Do you want to bake them whole or butterfly them and saute’ them in a little olive oil?”
Alex shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. What do you usually do?”
I placed the package on the counter and reached for a cutting board. “I usually do a butterfly cut, pound them a little thinner and saute’ them.”
“Okay that sounds good to me.” Alex stood next to me as I cut the chicken breasts and left them on the cutting board.
“Can you grab me the plastic wrap from the drawer and the meat mallet from over there?” I pointed to the drawer before I turned the faucet on with my forearm so I could wash the raw chicken off my hands.
“Sure.” Alex got the items and placed them on the counter.
I placed the chicken breast between the plastic wrap and began pounding them flatter with the mallet. “Can you go grab me the olive oil?” I brought the cutting board, with the chicken still on it, over to the counter next to the stove.
Opening the drawer I pulled out a skillet and place it on the burner.
Alex handed me the oil and I swirled a thin layer on the bottom of the pan before turning on the burner.
I placed the chicken into the pan and turned around to ask Alex to get out some tongs when I realized he wasn’t in the kitchen anymore.
I turned the stove off and went down the hall to his bedroom. Peeping my head around the corner of the doorway I could see him sitting on his couch scrolling through his phone.
“Excuse me!” I stood in his doorway with my hands on my hips. “Didn’t you just ask me to show you how to cook chicken?”
Alex looked up, a confused look on his face. “Did I?”
“Yes.” I was nodding my head. “You most certainly did.”
“Whoops.” Alex got up and tucked his phone in his front pocket of his jeans. “Sorry about that.”
As we both headed back to the kitchen I looked over at him. “When you asked me to ‘show’ you how to cook chicken, you really meant would I cook some chicken for you didn’t you!”
Alex shrugged his shoulders and started to laugh. “I didn’t do it on purpose!” He placed one hand on his heart with the other hand up in the air. “Seriously! I swear!”
I shook my head and started to laugh. “So, what just happened?”
“I’m going to say old habits die hard.”
I turned the burner back on, reached into the drawer and grabbed the tongs and handed them to Alex. “It’s all you now!” I stepped away from the stove and leaned against the counter.
Alex clicked the tongs together and looked at the chicken sizzling in the pan. “Alright. I’ve got this.”
Slice of Life 