Sunday, March 28, 2010

Breaking In The Kitchen

March 28, 2010

For our first real meal made and eaten in our new house I wanted comfort food and classic. Enter Chicken Parmigiana from Everyday Food. Easy to make with a ton of flavor and very satisfying. This hit the spot tonight for a home cooked meal :)

 

I used the double oven to its full advantage since I had the chicken under the broiler in the top oven and the garlic toast browning away in the bottom oven. So nice to have two! Cooking on the large center island was also a nice treat, the last few kitchens I have had have been relatively small and now I can cook to my hearts content.

 

 

Ingredients

 

  • 3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
  • 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 8 chicken cutlets (about 1 1/2 pounds total), or 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved horizontally
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • 2 cups jarred tomato sauce (I used Bertoli)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, preferably fresh, cut into eight 1/4-inch-thick slices

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Directions

  1. Heat broiler. Combine breadcrumbs and Parmesan in a shallow bowl. Season both sides of chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Dip chicken in the beaten egg, then dredge in breadcrumb mixture, turning to coat both sides. IMG_2304
  2. Spread tomato sauce onto the bottom of a 10-by-15-inch baking dish. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Place 4 chicken cutlets in skillet; cook until golden, 1 to 2 minutes on each side. Using a spatula, transfer browned cutlets to baking dish, placing them on top of sauce. Repeat with remaining oil and cutlets.
  3. Top each cutlet with a slice of mozzarella. Broil about 4 inches from heat source until sauce is hot and cheese is melted and lightly browned in spots, 5 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately.

 

We served this with garlic toast with cheese on top and a nice big salad to make up for the complete lack of vegetables over the weekend ;) It felt good to sit down at the table and eat a full meal and just relax.  

 

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A shower and bed are calling my name!

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Varying Stages of Chaos

March 28, 2010

In the last 72 hours we are have unpacked about 90% of the house, painted 4 rooms, hung blinds and shades in the important rooms, cleaned and we just made our first real meal in the kitchen. I am seriously exhausted, we have worked hard from about 7am until after 11pm every single night. I may have sat down for a total of 1 hour all three days. Whew. We had tons of help over the weekend and I am so thankful for friends and family doing so much! Our friend Steve was here all weekend except for 8 hours that he worked (at his real job) on Saturday. Talk about dedication!

 

Here a few snapshots of the new house in varying stages of disarray- from empty to painting to the piles of furniture in one room.

 

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How we ended Friday night, classy drinking wine out of plastic cups but it was needed by 10pm!

 

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All of the help taking a basketball break to watch some of the games late Saturday afternoon

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Almost finished living room

 

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My super organized pantry that I am so excited to have, the complete organization freak comes out in me and I use the label maker to mark each plastic storage container.

 

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The office needs to be unpacked, art needs to be home and we have a huge amount of boxes in the basement that need to be sorted and then organized in some sort of fashion. We got a lot done and I feel like I am finally home, such a great feeling.

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