did someone say chicken parm?

Sorry for the lapse in posts...sometimes life just gets too busy and when I have to decide between sleeping and posting?

But I am back, with a vengeance!  I have two things to share with you tonight.  The first is a really yummy chicken parm recipe that has evolved over several different renditions.  The one thing I have gotten away from is using bread crumbs... no matter how you cook the chicken breasts, the bread crumbs always soak up the oil and it tastes like chicken and oily breadcrumbs!   My favorite way is making a batter of flour, water, garlic and onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper, and lots of grated parm.  The consistency is like pancake batter.  Dust the chicken with flour and dip in the batter.  Let the excess drip off and cook in a hot pan with olive oil and butter.

An alternative way is what I did last night, which was to dip the chicken breasts in bread crumbs, then into a mixture of egg, milk, salt & pepper and parm cheese.  Drop right into a pan with oil and butter, and brown.  I can't explain it, but the flavor is outrageous!  Pop it in the oven with some cheese to finish cooking.  A little sauce and parm, pasta, and you're good to go.

Call me crazy, but I have been known to slice and cook egg plant the same way.  After cooked, I would either layer the egg plant with ricotta and sauce as a lasagna or put out on a platter sprinkled with parm cheese, and a dish of marinara sauce for dipping.  Yup.....crazy!

Lucky for you there is yet another installment to share with you.  Sometimes when I come home from work, I feel like eating something particular....like tonight.  I had a hankering for mac and cheese.  Unfortunately I didn't have all the traditional ingredients necessary to make a really good cheese sauce, but I did have some interesting choices.  This is called raiding (or cleaning out) the refrigerator....

I was looking for something that could become a cream sauce...Not only did I have a little left over lobster spread, but I had some artichoke dip, cherry tomatoes, and cooked pasta.  I don't know about you, but I see a dinner brewing here....  I get a pot, pour some half and half in it, spoon in the lobster spread and artichoke dip, some fresh garlic (of course!), grated parm cheese and a little muenster cheese (just because I had some).  Grated some fresh black pepper and sea salt, threw in the pasta and cut up a bunch of cherry tomatoes.

Unfortunately I had to stop there because I had to scoot out to my son's lacrosse game, but had I more time, I probably would have added some kind of protein like sweet Italian sausage and fresh spinach.  I have to say, though, it was pretty tasty the way it was.  And, I used up a bunch of things in the fridge!

I hope all these things I create get your creative juices flowing enough so that you can create yummy masterpieces too!  If not, at least it is entertaining reading, right?  ox