Honey lasts forever….. Or so I’m told.
I have read that honey has been found in 4,000 year old tombs and is still good.
I won’t, personally, have a chance to investigate that and I won’t, personally, search for any actual scientific tests to prove or disprove that statement.
The only reason I mention it is that when we switch from summer to winter cooking I also switch from summer to winter pantry / fridge items.
One such item was maple syrup. I don’t expect that maple syrup will last as long as honey…. Nor will I be alive long enough (4,000 years) to test that opinion. After a sniff and a taste it appeared as good as ever, even though past its ‘best by’ date.
I was inspired to use it.
Click here to Pin Maple Mustard Chicken Breasts
PrintMaple – Mustard Chicken Breasts
Easy recipe for boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a savory pan sauce.
- Prep Time: 3 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Skillet
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, cut in half
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1/2 cup (4oz, 120ml) chicken broth
- 2 tbs maple syrup
- 2 tbs Dijon-style mustard
- 1 tbs sherry vinegar
- 1 tbs cornstarch (maizena, corn flour) dissolved in 2 tbs water
Instructions
- Sauté onion in oil in skillet over medium-high heat, about 5 minutes.
- When onion starts to brown add chicken breasts, and sauté until lightly browned, about 7 minutes.
- Stir in broth, maple syrup, mustard and vinegar.
- Cover, reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done, about 10 minutes.
- Add cornstarch mixture and stir until sauce is thickened.
- Serve from skillet of spoon onto a small platter.
Notes
Substitute cider vinegar for sherry vinegar if you like. You may not need all of the cornstarch mixture.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 recipe
- Calories: 349
- Sugar: 14.7 g
- Sodium: 693.8 mg
- Fat: 11.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.9 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 22.5 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 34.8 g
- Cholesterol: 110.7 mg
Keywords: chicken breasts, maple syrup, mustard
I’ve been doing fall clean-up this week.
First I tackled the iris bed. I wanted to cut them back for winter. Of course, in order to do that I needed to pull out all the nettles but before I could do that I had to cut the brambles.
The iris were appreciative to be free of nettles and brambles and, as long as I was there, I pulled out most of the ivy, too.
Then I cut back all the new growth from our 2 fig trees and our 2 hazelnut trees / bushes. As long as I had all the cutters out I trimmed the laurel (culinary bay) and cut back the brambles that were sneaking up on it.
We have a lot of brambles. I try to keep up over the summer but they grow fast and I have other things to take care of (potager, herbs, etc.)
While I was doing all this my mind went on a wee bit of a meander. One of the last emails I read before heading out to work was one suggesting I make recipe videos for TikTok.
This is the road my mind took:
I decide to look for a recipe for X on the internet.
Every blog I look at has large individual photos of every ingredient and every step of the recipe which all takes forever to load and tells me nothing. There is rambling commentary to match.
I keep scrolling.
When I finally get to the actual recipe I discover that it’s using packaged food (cake mix or soup mix). I close the tab and go to the next likely site.
Apparently, many people love this as it is very popular among food bloggers.
Now do a video of that person actually making the recipe. I would have to watch the whole video before I knew I was wasting my time.
I couldn’t do it…..
And if I can’t watch it I surely couldn’t make one for other people to watch – even if they would want watch.
I deleted the TikTok email.
I may be showing my age…..
To be fair, from what I read (I read a lot) there are a lot of people, particularly people who are new to cooking, very appreciative of these detailed posts and videos. I’m just too impatient.
The high sugar content of both honey and maple syrup acts as a preservative and it is the flavour which can deteriorate over time. A lot of products are good beyond their expiry date because of the cost involved in carrying out the tests over extended periods. Common sense is essential because food in date can go off if storage conditions or packing fail along the supply chain.
As far as the detailed video’s and instructions – we aren’t showing our age but our experience! They are only needed when it is something we aren’t familiar with. Now to get on with tackling our ivy and brambles today before they take over again.
It was lovely being out in the sun working – but I had to wear long sleeves and pants and gloves as the nettles and brambles were so thick. I was still punished for my efforts. Brambles are almost impossible to get rid of completely.
I’m a firm believer in the sniff then taste test. So far so good. As someone once pointed out – how can spoiled milk (yogurt) go bad? lol
Very rarely will I watch a video on a food blog and more often than not, I watch that particular one because of something in the recipe that I might not have tried before, like when I made macarons. Most of the time, I can’t be bothered because I’m pretty sure I know how to cook better than that particular food blogger does and I’m just looking for some new ideas. Thank you for not doing that. 🙂
Your yard clean up is a lot like mine. One things leads to another thing leads to another thing…I still haven’t finished my yard work and today, it’s really storming out so I’m not doing that today. Maybe over the next few days. I hope.
I watched a Paris Hilton cooking video once – just for laughs. It was hilarious although meant to be very serious. As I was busy cutting brambles the hubs came out and asked why I was working ‘way over there’ I realized I had gone way past the iris bed and was over the septic patch that he burns out in the spring. I stopped. lol