jim brentar dinner report 28 september 2013 Up way too late yesterday! Twas 5am before I could get to sleep. I always get super-energized after a good gig like last night’s. (Just ask Mary Kay.) That was fun! Slept late. A bit worn out today. Didn’t get quite as much done as I’d like. But I’m now up to 135 songs I’ve written! But who’s counting? ; ) Good thing I don’t have to be anywhere. But I do have to cook dinner! Cooking dinner always energizes me, too! And, if we eat late? So what? We did everything else late today. And I am starting out with all the ingredients I need on hand... and a plan! If you’re still reading this here, you probably remember me saying a few days ago about my trip to the store. Spent too much time on dinner? I also mentioned the desirability of thinking ahead at the store? If you remember (or even if you don’t) I bought chicken breasts, chicken “tenders”, and hamburger. The breasts went in the cheesy chicken rice casserole. The hamburger went into the Johnnie Marzetti. (Please note that Mary Kay chewed me out for calling it “John Marzetti” instead of the proper name for the dish.) That leaves the chicken “tenders”. I use the quotes for two reasons. First, they aren’t breaded or cooked or preprocessed in any way. Just raw chicken cut up from the right part of the bird (chicken breast tenderloin) and with the right cut. Second, when I got the package out of the fridge, I noticed that I had accidentally grabbed the thin-sliced boneless-skinless breasts instead of the tenders. Oops. No matter—this will actually make breading and frying them quicker and easier. Because, you see, I had a plan! When I saw them at the store, I IMMEDIATELY thought, “Breaded. Fried.” Immediately! And I knew we had potatoes that needed to be used. So; fried, breaded chicken breast; mashed potato (mixed mashed, actually—potato, cauliflower, garlic. carrot), and... DIGRESSION on meal planning: Here at Cabbage Creek, we think out meals as follows—some form of protein (could be beans, cheese, tofu, etc. it doesn’t have to be meat) (Actually, it couldn’t be tofu here. Mary Kay doesn’t eat tofu.), some starchy side (potatoes, pasta, rice, etc), and some “green vegetable” dish (could be a salad, steamed asparagus, frozen peas, roasted bell peppers, etc.; could also include veggies not colored green, like squash, tomatoes, jicama, beets, etc). The green veggie decision has thousands of possibilities! Maybe millions! Yeah, some are too impractical, and some are combining flavors that shouldn’t go together; and unless you always use canned or frozen veggies, you can’t keep fresh veggies of every type always on hand. Ever go to Miles Farmers Market or Whole Foods and count the number of different kind of veggies there are? So, if you were gonna go to the store anyway, you still have millions of possibilities. If you want to go with what you have on hand, you might be down to hundreds of possibilities. ; ) Meanwhile, back at the menu/meal plan... Veggies can be every bit as decadently delicious as any other type of food (except maybe ice cream... or chocolate... or baco... STOP IT!). Don’t be afraid to find new and yummy ways to cook them! This one I did tonight was the first time I’d tried making this particular dish. Earlier today, Mary Kay brought up the possibility of escalloped chicken and noodles. (Yes, that’s how they spelled it in the cookbook.) But I had a plan! Breaded! Fried! Mary Kay said that sounded good, too! So, fried it was; but the thought of “scalloped” something sounded good! (Yes, that’s how I usually spell it.) But the meat and potatoes are already decided! Therefore, SCALLOPED VEGETABLES! I will (if I remember) insert, as a comment, the link to the recipe I used. Believe it or not, it comes from Paula Deen (from her web site). Paula has never been one of my favorites (Mary Kay agrees). Not because of the controversy; but because she has this tendency to use ingredients like canned soup, Velveeta, oleo (and other partially hydrogenated oils), and a variety of processed foods. However, in this recipe, there are no processed food ingredients! (Except sour cream, but how many of you out there make your own sour cream?)(Or your own cheese?) Please see the recipe link in the comments. But it basically involves blanching and shocking the broccoli cauliflower and carrot... DIGRESSION: Mary Kay would want me to make sure everyone knows what blanching and shocking is. I know that if you’re still reading at this point, then you know what blanching and shocking is. Mary Kay insists. Blanching and shocking means boiling or steaming the veggies for a short time (shorter than you’d probably use if you were cooking it to be eaten steamed or boiled), then rinsing or soaking the veggies in cold water. Cold as you can get! Use ice cubes! Use exclamation points! But you want to stop the cooking process as quickly as possible. But you all know that! Mary Kay also wants me to remind you to chop/cut all your veggies to about the same size so that they cook evenly. I’m not pulling my hair. I’m not! Really! Regressing: ...basically involves blanching and shocking the broccoli cauliflower and carrot, sautéing some onions and garlic and making a white sauce/cheese sauce, and putting it in the oven for a while. Never made that particular dish before (I’ve done scalloped potatoes and scalloped ham and potatoes, but not scalloped veggies). And where you’d expect to find the proverbial can-of-cream-of-mushroom-soup, that’s where the recipe instructs how to make the sauce from onions, garlic, butter, flour, milk, and sour cream and cheese. Excellent! See, you don’t have to use processed foods! I had everything on schedule until dinnertime got real close! Then I’m trying to make the gravy for the mixed mashed, set the table, check on the veggies for the mashed, get a skillet ready for the chicken, check on the scalloped veggies in the oven... The chicken breasts are not yet breaded! Breading stations (flour/buttermilk egg wash/bread crumbs) have not been set up yet! (Note: actually I decided to use a mixture of breadcrumbs and potato-chip crumbs) Thank goodness, Mary Kay got the breading stations set up, and she even breaded the breasts and put them in the skillet I prepared. Ain’t she something! She said she really would have preferred to pound out the breasts with a little flour. But they were already thin sliced. Not poundoutable. But pounding some flour into the meat with your meat tenderizer (that wooden or metal mallet that looks look it could be used in a Capitol One whats-in-your-wallet commercial) really does wonders for both taste and tenderness. So, thanks to Mary Kay to keep dinner from going too late! I’m almost done here for today. Just two funny things here to mention. Funny thing #1: I fried the chicken in Crisco. YOU HYPOCRITE!!! YOU JUST BEMOANED A COUPLE OF PARAGRAPHS BACK ABOUT HOW PAULA DEEN OVER-RELIES ON THAT... Yeah. My bad. Anyway, if you’ve got something like canola oil or something with a high smoke-point, then that’s what I’d recommend. If you don’t have anything like that handy, well... Don’t use olive oil. Smoke-point too low. Same with butter. Even corn oil might not be high enough. But Crisco has a high smoke-point and is excellent for skillet frying. Funny thing #2: First time I ever tried potato-chip crumbs to bread something. It worked great! The mixture of potato-chip and panko made a nicely crisp breading! Check the comments for a link to the scalloped veggies recipe. The recipes for fried, breaded chicken breast, mixed mashed, and gravy will all be shared soon. And Mary Kay, says... (you probably saw this coming)... “Buy the cookbook!” (But we’re still writing it!)
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 04:47:57 +0000
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