Pineapple Chicken "Salad"

So happy it's Friday!  This is kind of a late Friday post, but it's been a hectic week!

I'm going to post the recipe first, and do a little bit of talking towards the end.  I must warn you... the end is a personal story.  Something that I've kept to myself for far too long.  And I really hope you read past the recipe, because it's me being vulnerable.  It's me being emotional.  And it's not something I do very often.

Ingredients:

Chicken:

2  chicken breasts
salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups lettuce, chopped

Glaze:

1 cup apple cider
1/2 cup frozen pineapple
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
 

 

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, cayenne, and baking powder.  Rub mixture on chicken breasts.  

 

Heat large skillet under medium high heat and add olive oil.  Add breasts to pan, cooking for about 5-7 minutes per side.  Finish in oven for about 8-10 minutes, or until white throughout.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan under medium high heat, add pineapple and apple cider.  Bring to a boil and add brown sugar and soy sauce.

Combine the corn starch and water and mix into a slurry.  Add to saucepan and bring to a boil.  Simmer for about 2 minutes and set aside.

Divide lettuce among 2 plates.  Top lettuce with chicken and spoon sauce over.  

 

This was simplicity at it's finest.  At first, I didn't think it was "complicated" enough.  I pretty much call this a "salad" because I didn't really have anything to make an actual side salad with.  And I didn't have any side dishes I could whip up very quickly, so I just decided to serve the chicken on a bed of lettuce.  But then Andy reminded me that things don't need to be complicated all the time.  Sometimes simple is just enough.  And he's right... this was a great simple meal!  Enjoy!

And now comes the part of this post where I really open up to you.  If you don't like emotional stories, or even sad ones... I don't suggest you read on.  But I hope that most of you do, because I don't open up like this very often, but I think this is something that I need to get off my chest.

First and foremost... I'd really like to thank you guys for letting me be a little "sappy" and sentimental this week on Tuesday's and Thursday's posts.  If you know me, I'm not one to be like that... at all.  I'm not a very outwardly "emotional" person.  But this week in November is always different.  I didn't think I'd be ready, or willing for that matter, to talk about this, but just allow me to be vulnerable, just once more.

6 years ago, on November 13, 2004... I lost one of my best friends.  Josh.  Josh was my boyfriend at the time.  We'd met eachother during our freshman year at college.  He was a musician, and I was a girl who had a fancy for musicians.  We fell in love and moved to Florida together, on a random whim after our first year of college.  It was the craziest thing I had ever done.  Leaving home, leaving all I knew, to be with someone and let him follow his dreams.  We were happy.  

Josh loved the ocean.  We would go to the beach almost every day.  To have the sun hit our faces and to let the waves crash into us.  It was our "paradise".  That November, my best friend Nick, came to visit us.  It had been 4 months since I'd seen any of my friends from back home, and it was awesome that Nick came  down to hang out.  

I had to work on November 13th, and so while I was working, Nick and Josh decided to go to a different beach, one farther down the strip and popular for it's "larger" waves.  I was about halfway through my shift, and I remember calling our apartment and no one answering.  At first, I thought nothing of it, but after 4 or 5 calls, and still no answer, I didn't know what to think.  I remember distantly hearing sirens while I was at work, and didn't think anything of them either, because we had a hospital that was nearby and sirens were normal.  But shortly after these, my friend Nick came frantically through the store where I worked with bloodshot eyes, just saying "Peggy, I'm sorry."  My heart immediately sank, and I didn't know what was going on.  He just kept saying we needed to go to the hospital.  That we needed to go.  I rushed out of work and sped to the hospital.  I prayed to God that Josh would be okay.  That this was just some freak accident that ended happily.  

Nick explained to me on our car ride that they were at the beach, in the ocean.  They had gone farther out than planned, and not knowing that the waves were especially strong that day, Josh had been taken under by a rip current.  It was too strong for him to get out of.  

Fortunately, a surfer named John Lane, had heard Nick's yelling for help and came to bring Josh's body back to shore.  After calling 911 and trying to perform CPR, they did all they could do to save him, but it was just too late.  They had rushed him to the hospital, but the doctors said that he'd already been gone.  

This was truly the worst day of my life.  I was 19 years old and I lost the one person that meant the most to me.  I was angry.  I had never lost someone... not even a grandparent.  This was something I believed I would never have to go through, and I did.  

It's been 6 years, and I don't think I've ever expressed this much emotion about this traumatic event.  It's hard for me to talk about it, but I feel it's easier to write.  It's a weight lifted off my shoulders, but I know it's something I will never forget.  I'm a person that believes that "things happen for a reason" and I believe that if Josh had not made an impact in my life, I wouldn't have ever stepped foot into the music store that Andy works at, and would never have met him.  I don't know.  It's a hard thing to deal with, but I know Josh would have wanted me to be happy.  And I believe I truly am.  

So today, I remember Joshua Allen Scurlock, and I'm glad you've let me open up to you.  That you've listened to my words.  Thank you.