Day 7+8: Colin's big show: Parmesean-crusted chicken cutlets

Day 7: The meal that tastes and looks amazing:
and
Day 8: The meal that was just as good the next day:

• Parmesean-crusted chicken cutlets (published March 1, 2007) and make-ahead mashed potatoes (published March 12, 2007)

Long day. Drama club makes me hungry. I come in STARVING. So time for an after-school snack because tonight's dinner is going to take a while.

Parmesan-crusted chicken cutlets don't have a lot of ingredients.

The first step is to slice each chicken breast in half lengthwise and then to bread coat them in the crust before pan frying them.

We ran out of Parmesan and hand to improvise with "farm cheese" from Colin's secret Santa

Timing everything just so. It's a drippy, messy process but the result is decadent.

While Colin got started on the chicken, I went to work on the potatoes. This recipe asked for the potatoes to be baked instead of boiled. The result was very similar to the boiled mashed potatoes I've made.

Bake, half, de-flesh and mash. That's the process here.

In some ways this baking method was easier. Prior to baking I microwaved the potatoes for a few minutes to get it started.




Halving the potatoes, while hot, was a lot faster than peeling them one on one.









While the potatoes baked, Colin cooked.

Fammie wished for tuna.

After they were complete, it was incredible.

Crispy, but not burned. Melty but not chewy.

The chicken cutlets were just perfect. This recipe was perfect and our cheese modification didn't hurt it at all.

So good.

It's great that there was enough for two dinners for two. Wednesday was delicious. Thursday was delicious.


Thursday was another late day. Colin worked late and I had fillings put in.

Day 3: Thursday. Dinner's Revenge

It's great to be a meat-eater:

Tonight is chicken. Tonight is roasted apples. Tonight turned out pretty ugly. Smelled great, tasted better.

• Roasted Chicken Thighs with lemon and oregano (Bon Apetit December 2012) -Add some sliced Braeburn apples to the above for a yummy fruit

It's been a tough week for us. I sprained my ankle on Saturday. Colin and I are battling a cold (and winning). eBay's Bucks are ambiguous to redeem on the mobile eBay and PayPal apps which caused Colin to worry that he was double-charged for purchase. Pretty stressful. Let's have some comfort food. Let's love ourselves, our home, our kitchen, and our meal. The perfect answer is always chicken.

One problem: Fammie doesn't agree that it is comfort food. She wants the tuna back. The cat's don't approve.

Apples for roasting.

It's great to cook for yourself:

This recipe calls for boneless chicken thighs. Do you know how tough it is to find boneless chicken thighs? I'm not sure the cooks at Bon Apetit shop at real grocery stores. So I de-boned them myself, nearly cutting my thumbs off in the process. Meat's ugly. My fruit is a little prettier.

Lemons for caramelizing.

The chicken recipe called for thin slices of lemons to brown prettily. Turns out, Thursday night I'm not a pretty cutter. Thank goodness for apple-corers.

Roasted apples with lemon and oregano.

Apple corers even make roasted apples look good.











It's great to eat what you cook:

There's a good reason I haven't photographed the meat. It's pretty, but only in the belly.

The prize for Ugliest Dinner: Roasted Chicken and Roasted Apples

We've been watching House of Cards while eating recently. It is great to enjoy meals on their own, but House of Cards is just so good.

The aftermath.

Tomorrow is Friday. Tomorrow is pasta. I always love pasta. I hope to share it with company.