Don't be such a chicken!

I have waited to post this until I was sure I wasn't going to die or be immediately hospitalized.

Last week my mom and I went grocery shopping at Costco. I love their prepared meals, the ones with the clear plastic dome lids that snap to the black bottoms...do you know what I am talking about? They are usually in the deli section where they have the tortilla wraps. They have a new chicken florentine, well, new to our Costco, anyway. For $9.03 I purchased three lovely butterflied breasts stuffed with that good florentine stuff inside. I planned to make them one of the nights I had evening commitments, for a fast dinner.

By the time we got home it was dark and I had two sleepy kids to put to bed. Mom and I both unpacked the car. The next morning, I started to load some tea stuff for church in the back of my van when I noticed...oh no....I left the chicken florentine in the car over night!! SIGH....I walked back and told my mom defeatedly that we should throw them away, shouldn't we?!? And somehow, I just really wanted her to say they could be salvaged. The lines at Costco were horrendous and I couldn't stomach standing in the lines again with 2 sick kids. But if any of you think of me as a germaphobe, my mom is much worse. She is the lady that took a can of Lysol with her to the beach and would tell us not to touch anything in the bathrooms before she sprayed it all down. We weren't even allowed to touch anything after that, anyway. She brought her own toilet paper, too. My mom is such a germaphobe she won't even share a drink with her own kids. When we were little she and my dad told us they would buy us a drink rather than share one with us. I am not sure what they were more afraid of, backwash or kiddie germs. Who would have thought a little salmonela wouldn't bother her???

The thought crossed my mind that being hospitalized or dying wasn't worth $9.03. But I completely ignored it. My mom and I both agreed that if we cooked the chicken really well to an internal teperature of 170 degrees it would be fine for 55 minutes. What got into us germaphobes, I have no idea. And just to check, we called Hubby. He has his own Jack the Germ issues...and he was skeptical, but thought that quite possibly our chicken might be fine.

We cooked the chicken. When it came out of the oven, I even gave it a good zap in the microwave for some insurance. Five days later, we are still standing.