Nostalgia

A recipe that frequently gets revisited due to it;s simplicity and memory is called "Ms. O's Chicken." The recipe calls for a raw chicken breast to be covered in hot butter, and then dipped into crushed Rice Crispies cereal. The Crispies act as a breading agent, similar to Shake 'n Bake. It was a neighborhood recipe, created by Margaret Oleskiewicz.

Her son and I are the same age and went to the same school, so we frequently hung out. After a sleep over, Mrs. O made this unnamed chicken recipe for us. The topping was a mystery until we sat down at the kitchen table. Upon hearing it, I started to have some reservations about chicken and cereal combinations.

There was no time to turn back. My chair was already scooched, the utensils were laid out, and the sauces were out in full display. I was suppose to be picked up any minute by a parent, so any possible embarrassment or discomfort didn't have to last.

I didn't expect to fall in love.

I went overboard with it, and the mom's exchanged recipes. Even to this day, it's something that can be easily whipped up, and has since become a staple in housecooking.

As I've grown up, it's something I wish to get away from. Variations to the recipe have garnered bad to decent results so far. It's been hard to try to incorporate it into a larger meal with sides (corn on the cob works, greens are iffy, kabob potatoes work wonders) yet, my older brother still loves it. Either as is, or with ketchup or barbecue sauce makes him happy, but nothing else. I begin feeling disconnected at this point. I'm trying to hard to get him into more situations where he must eat a different food, yet he's complacent in my odd discovery from 10 years ago.