KITCHEN ADVENTURE: CHICKEN BREAST WITH GOAT CHEESE. Well, except for setting off my smoke alarm (managed to catch something on fire on one of the broiler heaters), this went really well. And very simple.

All you have to do is: Buy a chicken breast with the skin on. Cover a tray with foil. Loosen the chicken skin with your fingers. Smear goat cheese under the skin (this was demi-complicated at first, until I figured out how to kind of stuff the cheese down under the skin). Brush/smear olive oil over both sides of the chicken. Broil it skin-side-up for approx 5 minutes (this is when my oven caught fire!); then bake it at 375 for approx 15 minutes. Take the chicken out, pepper it, and, if you’re me, top with shredded fresh basil leaves.

It was delectable: moist and juicy. The fresh basil was a good choice; I bet you could also top it with dried basil and rosemary before baking it, or, if you feel like being complex, work the herbs into the goat cheese before you begin.

Serve with, maybe, a baked potato, or roasted new potatoes, and maybe a broccoli crown. From Jane Galt I learned a super-easy way to cook broccoli in the microwave: Get a big ol’ crown and cut off the hard, tough end of the stalk (you don’t have to be exact–just cut where it looks good to you). Put the crown in a dish in about three inches of water. Squeeze half a lemon over the crown. Cover the dish. (If you use plastic wrap to cover it, be sure to wear oven mitts when you take the wrap off, because the steam will be very hot.) Microwave on high for five to seven minutes. Drain, pepper, and eat with (if you’re me) lots of butter.