My sister is special

Had a bit of a fun day today full of chores and errands and odds and ends that accompany me taking the early shift in to work and skipping out with plenty of time in the day. This inevitably led me back to my parents' house, where I naturally raided the fridge and ended up hauling away a few pounds of produce from my grandfather's garden (yet again). Don't call the police on me yet, I had permission :) Besides, who is going to actually refuse fresh cow-horn peppers, jalapenos, okra, and apples? Not me, for one!

As I was grabbing my loot and laughing madly, my sister was lackadaisically reaching for a bag of croutons as a snack while she watched her talk shows. I gave her a look, and asked if she wanted me to make her some real food. She said there wasn't anything to eat in the house, which I turned into a challenge. Now, limited items is one thing, but my sister is a special sort of picky eater. She likes a lot of those southern veggies (collard & turnip greens, etc) that I don't care for, but she doesn't like onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, or a bunch of other little things that show up in far more variety. I settled on jalapenos and some olives, which are more snacky things than real veggies, but that was okay. I found some chicken strips in the freezer and thawed them out, then dropped them in the deep skillet. Then I reduced a can of chicken broth in a small pot. When reduced, I added it to the chicken in the skillet, then I added a little cheese, some garlic, basil, and a touch of cayenne pepper to make a sort of sauce. In went the olives and peppers while I cooked some whole wheat rotini in the pot. When it was just shy of done, I drained it and added it to the skillet and let it simmer together, adding a teaspoon of bacon bits at the end. It wasn't the healthiest thing I've ever made and I would have done it a lot differently if I were cooking for myself, but it was really a fun thing to have a challenge like that.