The simpler the better

I used to think that good cooking required fancy techniques and ingredients that I could hardly pronounce let alone cook with (what the hell is xanthum gum and what would I even do withit?). As I've become a better more seasoned cook, I've found that keeping it simple usually garners the results that I am looking for and produces better, tastier food.

Case in point: the great polenta debacle of aught nine. I had found a recipe that I thought was going to be amazing - a red wine and mushroom polenta - that was going to blow Kelly away and make me some culinary hero for months to come. As is turns out this experiment was a disaster before it began- a multi-step, complicated recipe using a main ingredient I have never used before. If you have never used polenta, it's one of those things that you really can't walk away from. It requires constant attention and monitoring; or maybe I shouldn't have dumped it all in the water at once (probably a little of both). To make a long and frustrating story shorter and with kid-friendly language (I assure I was using none of that in the kitchen

that day), what I was left with was a purple clump of inedible mash. It was horrifying. Of course, Kelly, the saint that she is, took a few polite bites before excusing herself to make some peanut butter toast. A culinary hero, I was not.

Fast forward to Thursday's dinner. Ingredient list:

• Chicken.
• Home-made spice rub.
• Fresh sweet corn at the peak of its season from a farm we could have driven to.
• A compound butter made from the spices in our cabinet.
• A hot grill.
• A beautiful summer night.
• An adorable wife

Simple, easy, and delicious. In a word, "perfect." It's not to say that I won't try polenta again (I am both stubborn and Italian) but I now know that sometimes keeping it simple is the much more satisfying route.