Honey mustard

I kind of splurged and bought some frozen crispy breaded chicken strips from Schwan's. Let me confess, it was a luxury purchase. I have this lofty, delusional goal of slashing our food budget in half compared to last year, and this particular purchase sure didn't help.

Regardless, I was very excited about them. Once in awhile, even I throw caution to the wind.

No, eggs in my pocket goes in a different category. Like, convenient but stupid.

Anyway, I was excited about the chicken strips until I realized we were out of honey mustard sauce.

Ugh, fate! My entire crispy chicken strip experience DESTROYED! I had been undone by a grocery shopping list of days past gone horribly wrong. The perpetually depressed and pessimistic side of me stood there in utter defeat.

Sigh. What to do, what to do?

The dumb things were already in the oven.

There was no turning back.

But then the enterprising, frugal optimist in me arose victorious. We have honey. We have mustard. Could it possibly be just as simple as it sounds?

The boys helped (very loose definition of the word 'helped') mix a little bit of yellow prepared mustard with a lot of creamy honey.

Just for fun, and kind of an afterthought, we added some whole mustard seed. You know, fun the same way sprinkles are fun.

Mustard seed sprinkles!

We got the slop mixed up. I tasted it and thought "Wow! Sweet yet zingy. Not bad, not bad at all". The boys begged for a taste and I knew from the "mmmmmmmmmmmm" and "Can I have some more?" that we had done well.


It was then that the jar of mustard seed caught my eye.

I wondered for a moment if I should call 911.


That mustard seed is old. OLD.

It came with a spice rack we received as a wedding present, a spice rack that we no longer have. That jar has been hauled across the continent no less than three times in the eleven years we've been married.

How on earth did it survive the radical decluttering attacks I occasionally subject our home to?

I picked up the jar and gave it a quick but suspicious inspection. Hmmm, dry mustard seed rolling around freely, no off colors, nice sharp mustardy smell.

Dehydration is a method of food preservation. But, eleven years?

Oh well, considering how things normally go around here, eleven year old dry mustard seed was probably the least of our worries.

And for once I can honestly say, all was well.