Moon Over Chicken Parm-a

I'm a sucker for terrible puns and wordplay. I apologize. If you can't tell by the title, I made Chicken Parmesan tonight. This was the first recipe from the "Everyday Cutlets" section of the "Everyday Entrees" chapter. It's another one of those recipes that I always expected to be so complex and time-consuming, but it really can't get much easier.

The most time-consuming part of the recipe had to due with my lack of marinara sauce. I had to whip up some before attempting the recipe and, luckily, I had double-checked this earlier today. Had I started the recipe not knowing I would need sauce, I would still be cooking and very hungry.

The marinara sauce takes between and hour and an hour and a half, but after that it was smooth sailing. I tossed the chicken cutlet in some EVOO spray and Italian seasoning (no fresh herbs here, but come next year when Katie and I have our herb garden, my dishes will be singing a different tune). I then cooked the chicken for one minute on each side in a smoking hot pan just to brown the outsides.

The toaster oven was preheated at about 450 degrees (the recipe said 500, but anything higher than 450 on the toaster oven is broil, and I knew that wasn't how this should be cooked). I put the chicken on the cooking tray, covered it all around with some sauce, then topped it lightly with mozzarella cheese. Giada says in her introduction of this recipe that she lightens it up by not smothering the chicken in cheese (hey look! Someone else thinks healthy like me!) and, in case you haven't noticed at this point, by not breading it.

I finished it off with some Parmesan cheese on top (obviously) then let it cook till the cheese was melted and browned, about 5 or 6 minutes.

That's it! That is Chicken Parmesan ala Giada. I have to say, it was just as good without all those bread crumbs clouding the chicken flavor. I liked that the recipe called for more actual Parmesan cheese than mozzarella, and the dish did taste lighter overall. I'm used to being in a food coma after a serving of chicken parm and spaghetti, but this cutlet alone was just enough! I must also say, that I can now make marinara sauce in my sleep, and it's a damn good marinara sauce (sorry Mom and Dad, but yes, I did just use the word damn).

I'll be taking tomorrow off for the national holiday. It's my birthday in case you haven't heard. I'll be turning the big 2-1 so hopefully I can find some dinner off-campus so I can enjoy a glass of wine on the side! Until next time!

Mmm...Toasty!!

I know I was supposed to make a dish last night, but a spur of the moment girl's night happened and I ended up eating some excellent, authentic Mexican food instead. I had a California burrito with veggies in it. Delicious!!

Moving on to today I finished the "Fresh From the Pantry" section of the "Everyday Pasta, Polenta, and Risotto"chapter with Orecchiette with Toasted Bread Crumbs. As all the recipes in this section are, it was easy and didn't use too many exotic ingredients. It was also worthy of a "yum-o!"

First things first, I cooked the orrecchiette (aka the pasta). This is pretty much a fancy name for shells. However, thanks to Giada's side note, I now know that orrecchiette means "little ears" which makes total sense.

Once the pasta was added to the boiling water, I began making the "dressing" of bread crumbs. This type of recipe is one that was probably used in order to use leftover stale bread (this is not my inference, it's totally from the side notes). I always think of bread crumbs as more of a coating for meat, so I found this use for it really interesting. I sprayed some EVOO into a heated pan, then added the bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. This only needs to toast for about two minutes and it's very easy to tell when it's ready. You definitely don't want to let this cook too long otherwise it WILL burn.

I drained the pasta (but not completely) and tossed it into the pan with the bread crumbs. Some of the pasta water stayed in the little ears which I think helped since the bread crumbs stuck to the pasta a lot easier. I also tossed in some finely chopped prosciutto.

Prosciutto is another new thing for me. I'm definitely not a fan of ham (though I could probably eat my weight in bacon or ribs) and I know that prosciutto is a type of ham. For years, people have told me that it doesn't taste like ham and that it's just salty. Me being me, I didn't believe them and refused to try it because I KNEW it tasted like ham. Well, I was wrong again. I tried a little piece of it before adding it in with everything else and alas, it really just tasted salty. You win again world.

After tossing all this together, I transferred the food to a bowl and added some chopped fresh parsley and Parmesan cheese, then dug in. It was really good, though I think next time I need to go a little easy on the salt. Between the bread crumbs, prosciutto, cheese, and actual salt, it was a bit much, but not enough to ruin the dish. I also needed some other wet element in it since the bread crumbs make it very dry (this may not have been the case had I used the amount of oil called for in the recipe rather than spray oil). With a few tweaks, I could probably make this dish even better, but for today, it was just fine :)

I'm off now to make some more pumpkin cookies to bring over to a friend's house tonight. I'm going to try putting a glaze on them this time instead of using cream cheese frosting since it dries much quicker. Wish me luck and check back tomorrow (so soon!) for my next dish: Grilled Seafood Salad!