"Breakfast"

I went to Panda Express for dinner tonight. Leroy was delighted to get noodles. "Mom," he says, "this is the best breakfast ever!"

Chicken Parmesan

I finally felt like cooking, so I made Chicken Parmesan.

I also made the marinara sauce by using a pizza sauce recipe and marinara sauce recipe.  It was SOOO good.

Recipe for Chicken Parmesan from the Food Network (with my changes):

Ingredients:

• 4 slices whole-wheat bread leftover bread
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 teaspoons paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 (6 ounce) skinless boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1 jar good-quality marinara sauce (about 3 1/2 cups) I made my own sauce
  
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Place the bread in the bowl of a food processor and process until fine crumbs are formed, about 25 to 30 seconds. Put the crumbs on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, until golden. (You will wind up with about 1 1/3 cups toasted crumbs.)

In a medium bowl, toss the crumbs with oregano, garlic powder, paprika, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites and milk together. In a third bowl stir together the flour, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Dip each piece of chicken, 1 piece at a time, in flour, shaking off excess, then egg, then bread crumbs, shaking off excess.

Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Place breaded breasts in a glass baking dish and spray on each side with cooking spray, about 5 seconds total per side. Bake breasts until cooked though and crumbs are browned, about 15 minutes. Top with marinara sauce, mozzarella and parmesan and return to oven for an additional 10 minutes, until cheese is bubbling.

And the sauce recipe I used (from allrecipes.com, but modified by me):

• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried garlic
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• bay leaves

Mix all ingredients together in a pan and heat through.

My Lunch

Four drinkable yogurts, barra de pan with meat, gouda cheese and apple. Yum!

Scones

The other day I made some blueberry scones with lemon frosting.  I used my roommate Jayne's recipe, which she got from food network.  I love them, and so did Hollis.  So this time around I made a double batch.  And we didn't have blueberries, so I used frozen wild berries.  And we didn't have a lemon, so I used an orange instead.

This is the recipe:

Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence foodnetwork.com

Recipe Summary 
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 8 scones
User Rating: 5 Stars

Blueberry Scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt 
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks
1 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing the scones
1 cup fresh blueberries

Lemon Glaze:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 lemon, zest finely grated
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift together the dry ingredients; the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using 2 forks or a pastry blender, cut in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream. Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not overwork the dough. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Take care not to mash or bruise the blueberries because their strong color will bleed into the dough. 

Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 3 by 1 1/4 inches. Cut the rectangle in 1/2 then cut the pieces in 1/2 again, giving you 4 (3-inch) squares. Cut the squares in 1/2 on a diagonal to give you the classic triangle shape. Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with a little heavy cream. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until beautiful and brown. Let the scones cool a bit before you apply the glaze. 

Technically you should make this simple lemon glaze in a double boiler (i.e. over a pot of simmering water with a heatproof bowl set on top) but it's even simpler to zap it in the microwave. Mix the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar together in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon zest and butter. Nuke it for 30 seconds on high. Whisk the glaze to smooth out any lumps, then drizzle the glaze over the top of the scones. Let it set a minute before serving.

Baked Waffles (aka German Pancakes)

Baked waffles (also known outside of my family as German Pancakes and Dutch Babies) are delicious and super easy to make. But I hadn't made them for a very long time, and they fell into obscurity until my sister Neoma reminded me of them. These are pictures of the first one we made here in Spain.

I have never seen one look quite this big and chunky.

I've also never cooked one in such a big pan.

It deflates quickly after you take it out, but it is still delicious!!!!

Recipe

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tea salt

Preheat oven to 450 F or 232 C

Mix all ingredients together.

Melt 1 tbsp butter into the bottom of the pan in the oven.

Remove pan from oven and quickly pour the batter in then replace it back in the oven.

Cook for 12 minutes, keeping a close on it, in case it rises too close to the heating element.

Enjoy topped with powdered sugar, cinnamon and sugar, jam, or just plain.

It's the best!!!

Pasta!

Here in Spain, peppers are super cheap, especially at the local outdoor market (4 huge peppers for 1€, ~$1.30), so I've been putting them in most of the stuff I cook, and I cook about 80% of the meals.
I've created a delicious recipe for pasta sauce in an attempt to satiate Michelle's deep abiding love for pasta. Since inception, I've made it at least once a week.



1 chorizo (a bratwurst size Spanish pork sausage)
1 large red bell pepper
1 large spicy Italian pepper
1 medium sized onion
1 carton of tomato sauce with olive oil (about a cup and a half. I can just buy it at the store, and it is not as good with just plain tomato sauce)
dried powdered garlic
oregano
mozzarella cheese (optional)

Cut the chorizo into small chunks a little larger than a centimeter a side and fry it in a pan until cooked. Drain the grease. Chop the pepper (being careful to remove the stems and seeds) and onion into ~.5 centimeter squares and add to the meat. Allow it to cook together for a few minutes until the vegetables are cooked (I like the peppers to be a little firm and crunchy). Add the tomato sauce and olive oil and allow it to simmer for a while and spice with oregano and garlic powder to taste. Serve hot over pasta (cooked) and top with mozzarella or like shredded cheese (I really like emmantal).

I've taken to chopping up our peppers and the appropriate proportion of onion and freezing them, making prep time only about 20 minutes.

Making food is fun to do

I signed up to bring hard boiled eggs to the Relief Society birthday dinner. I don't like hard boiled eggs, so I never make them. I decided to try making them in our steamer that our niece Robyn gave us. It had egg holes, and I guessed how long to steam it. We weren't sure if it was done, so I had Hollis cut one open for me.

And you know what it looked like? Eyes.