IN THE NAME OF GODDESS, WHAT THE FUCK WAS I THINKING???

Corn.  Oh, wonderful corn!!!

Tonight my kitchen turned into its own private hell.  OK, I'll be honest, it was a self inflicted injury.  The sad part of it is, I never even saw it coming.  As an aside, I am one of those loons that raids local farmer's markets and road side stands looking for the fresh stuff that I can stock the freezer with for the winter.  Please, by the time I'm done our freezer looks like I'm stocking up for the siege of Moscow.  As Goddess in my witness, I'll never go hungry!!!

At any rate, I've been yanking stuff out of freezer like crazy to make room for the current years stash of nibbly bits.  Low and behold, buried back in the corner I find two boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  Damned near a year old.  Thank Goddess for vacuum sealers.  So I yank them out, put them in the fridge to defrost and then quickly forget about them.  Yeah, this was about 3 days ago.  Well, I found them today.  Well, I thought to myself, what the fuck am I gonna do with these things?  Fast!!!  So, I just grab one of my cookbooks off of the shelve.  Yeah.  Betty Crocker.  1959.  That should have been my first red flag...  I decided to make chicken breaded in smashed Corn Flakes. (For you readers out there that are familiar with this recipe, well then, you're as old as me!!!)  Again, what was I thinking???

So, I throw this simple 5 ingredient recipe together and pop it in the oven.  45 minutes later, it's dinner with some wonderful locally grown sweet corn (also from last year).  Hey, I was totally cool with that.  I think the last time I actually had this chicken was back in the early 1960's.  Goddess, I love me a time machine...

When we were done I looked at the baking dish and cringed.  At 375 degrees for 45 minutes butter, chicken grease and Corn Flakes turn into mortar.  A building material if you will.  The "scunge" (yes, that's my own word) that was baked onto the bottom of that thing was frightening.  I soaked it.  Without much success.  I went at it with scrubbies.  Then steel wool.  Again, all without much success.  So I soaked it again.  Hell, it's still soaking.  This stuff is a weird  cross between adobe and concrete.

I have racked my brain.  I don't remember my mother or any of my aunt's hitting this road block.  What the hell did I do wrong???  Have Corn Flakes started being made out of asbestos now???  I'm getting real close to just tossing the damned thing and buying a new one.

Goddess, why???