Parmesan Chicken

I have been a fool for food network lately and I love these recipes. So here is one that I think is really good. Requires quite a few ingredients but...it isn't too bad. :)

4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 extra-large eggs 1 tablespoon water

1 1/4 cups seasoned dry bread crumbs

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

Unsalted butter

Good olive oil

Salad greens for 6, washed and spun dry

1 recipe Lemon Vinaigrette, recipe follows

Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4-inch thick. You can use either a meat mallet or a rolling pin.
Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate. On a second plate, beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of water. On a third plate, combine the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with the flour mixture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and dredge both sides in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly.
Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook 2 or 3 chicken breasts on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Add more butter and oil and cook the rest of the chicken breasts. Toss the salad greens with lemon vinaigrette. Place a mound of salad on each hot chicken breast. Serve with extra grated Parmesan.

Lemon Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)

1/2 cup good olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Yield: 6 servings

Thumbprint Cookies

By popular Demand (Laura!!!) this cookies are my family's favorite and at Christmas time do not usually see it passed a few days. I finally stole the recipe from my mom so here it is for all of you to enjoy:

Ingredients for Cookies:
1/2 C butter
1/4 C Brown Sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 C shifted Flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 C chopped Pecans

Directions:
1) Cream butter and brown sugar then add egg yolk and vanilla. When blended stir in flour and salt.
2) Whisk egg white in small bowl and set aside
3) Chop pecans, place in small bowl and set aside
4) Make small 1" balls of dough, coat in egg white and roll in chopped pecans
5) Bake 5 min at 375 degree oven, after 5 min remove and place thumb print in each ball.
6) Bake an additional 8 min.

Ingredients for Icing:
1/4 C Butter
2 C powdered Sugar
roughly 4 tbsp grenadine or maraschino cherry juice

Mix ingredients together until icing is thick. Place a dab in each thumb print when cookies have cooled.

Quick (but yummy) spaghetti sauce

If you are like me, you would never even dream of taking the time to make your own spaghetti sauce. BUT the canned ones never do a bowl of pasta justice. So, I invented an amazing concoction last night that went down well for everyone- that none was left! So here it is:

Ingredients needed:
1/2 lb of hamburger
2 Carrots
1 jar Prego (or similar) vegetable medley tomato sauce - basically none with meat or all those cheeses

Directions:
1) Shred Carrots (yes must be shred)
2) in a small pan put 1/2 tbs of olive oil and stir in carrots on Medium heat
3) add ground unfrozen hamburger and cook together
4) when carrots are softened and meat is cooked add jar of sauce, stir together.
5) add in 1/2-1 tbs sugar- to your taste
6) simmer while pasta is cooking

Chicken Noodle Soup

In addition to broad egg noodles, you can make this heavenly soup with angel-hair pasta broken into short lengths or other shapes, such as alphabet pasta or pastina, or add cooked grains like rice.
Ingredients
Serves 6 to 8
3 quarts canned low-sodium chicken broth, skimmed of fat or Cream of Chicken soup works
3 carrots, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces medium egg noodles (or pasta)
Cooked chicken meat, shredded (from Homemade Chicken Stock recipe)
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, or 1 tablespoon dried dill
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
Directions
Place stock in a stockpot over medium-high heat, and bring just to a simmer. Add carrots, and simmer until tender, about 6 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Cook noodles until just tender, about 6 minutes. Drain noodles, and add them to the pot of stock, along with shredded chicken meat. Season with salt and pepper. Heat until very hot. When ready to serve, stir in dill and parsley.

Pasta... Primavera-ish

ok so no one else is posting...tisk tisk... so I made something up, not hard, not brilliant.. but pretty good!

Ingredients:
whole wheat pasta
1 Zucchini
1/2 carton Mushrooms
1 Corn (on cob)
1 c Green Beans
3 tbs apx of pesto sauce
Parmesan cheese


Directions:
1) Boil Corn on Cob for apx 7 min, take out of water and slice off kernels- set aside
2) in same water from boiling corn, put in pasta to cook
3) meanwhile cut up zucchini, mushrooms and green beans-
a) place green beans in frying pan with 1/2 tbs olive oil and 3 tbs (more or less to your
liking) pesto sauce [see directions for fresh pesto in recipe below] and steam on
medium for 2 min, then add in zucchini and mushrooms.
b) cover with lid and steam until veggies are cooked.
4) once Veggies and pasta are cooked serve up and top with fresh Parmesan cheese.

Et Viola!

feeds 2 people, so if you want more... put more in. It takes about 15-20min to make, obviously there is room for shortcuts :)

Pesto Chicken Pizza

Ingredients
- 1 Chicken Breast
- Mozzarella Cheese shredded
- 1/2 c mushrooms (if desired)
any other veggies you like

PESTO SAUCE
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup Olive Oil
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts
- 2 garlic cloves, finely minced

CRUST
- 2 C flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 c melted butter
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- milk to wet
ok, this is where I diverged from the recipe- basically make the crust how you want it, I just did it this way b/c I had no yeast :)

Directions
1) Heat oven to 350
2) Boil the Chicken Breast until there is no pink then pull it apart at the grain into small pieces
3) While Chicken Blend all the pesto sauce ingredients together and set aside
4) Mix crust ingredients together and roll out thin onto a pan
5) Once you have rolled at dough put in oven for 10 min.
6) take dough out and spread Pesto Sauce, chicken, Mozarella cheese and mushrooms on dough to liking.
5) bake at 350 for apx 15-20 min. until it is how you like it! :)

Left overs good for lunch and left over pesto sauce for sandwiches or pasta the rest of the week!