wagi8 Ritzy! Cheddar! Chicken!
In my 20swagi8, my happy place was the Bed Bath & Beyond near Lincoln Center. (R.I.P.) An eagerness to play house — and to grow up — meant using my meager teaching paychecks to buy a new pot, a new pan or a new knife whenever I felt lost in the world. Nothing calmed my anxious nerves like gliding down those escalators and thumbing my way through the gadgets and housewares that would come to overstock my first adult kitchen.
My kitchen is fully stocked and optimized now that I’m in my 30s, honed through multiple moves, career changes, failures and some successes, too. I don’t need any more pots and pans, so my paychecks these days mostly go toward white Cheddar Cheez-Its (the best Cheez-It flavor).
My new happy place is the Target in Downtown Brooklyn, where the snack aisles are long and tall, and the Cheez-It selection is supreme. I mention this not just as a recommendation for a casual midweek stroll to calm the nerves, but also as a reminder that anything can be an ingredient in a recipe, so long as it tastes good.
My Ritzy Cheddar chicken breasts call for a sleeve of buttery Ritz crackers and freshly grated Cheddar cheese to coat sour-cream-tenderized chicken, but you could use whatever snack-aisle heavy hitter speaks to you and your inner child.
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Ritzy Cheddar Chicken BreastsView Recipe →
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