Aaron's Favorite=Bonus Points for Me:)

Aaron's done work for the weekend, but he has a loooong week ahead of him because he has to take on 2 extra shifts (just an FYI, he works continental shifts and does 13 hour days plus an hour and 15 minute drive each way so this adds on an extra 30 hours or so to his work week)...extra shifts=unhappy hubby, unhappy hubby=unhappy wife, unhappy wife=well you can take a guess.  I'm hoping to lift his spirits a bit tonight with his favorite meal, Chicken Parmesan.  He doesn't make it easy on me though, because he likes his with alfredo sauce for the pasta instead of the normal marinara, no biggie though, I can whip up an easy creamy parmesan sauce to go with it:) 

Tonight's Dinner:)

I had never made Chicken Parmesan until I met Aaron, and since then I've made a lot of it, tried different recipes and am constantly fine tuning my own recipe.  Wouldn't you know it, that when I was in Shopper's Drug Mart yesterday that the new Cook's Illustrated magazine that was out had Chicken Parmesan on the front as one of the "tested" recipes, of course I bought it!!  After checking it out I found a couple of tips that I'd like to use which is perfect since I was already planning on making it. 

Chicken Parmesan

For the Sauce

1 Medium Yellow Onion, chopped
3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 can (28 oz) Diced Tomatos
1 Tsp Dried Oregano
1 Tsp Dried Basil
Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes
Pinch of Sugar
*Optional 1/2-1 Tbsp Epicure Marinara Sauce Mix

For the Breading

3/4 c. Panko Breadcrumbs
3/4 c. Parmesan Cheese, grated (Cook's Illustrated tip, I increased the amount)
1 Tbsp Dried Thyme
1 Tbsp Dried Oregano
1 Tbsp Dried Basil
1/2 Tsp Epicure Poultry Seasoning
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Black Pepper

For the Egg Wash

1 Egg, lightly beaten
1/8 c. Milk
1 Tbsp Flour (This is a tip from CI, cuts down on a step and a dish)
Salt & Pepper

For the Chicken

2 Chicken Breasts, sliced in half and flattened (CI tip, less pounding this way)
1/4 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 c. Parmesan Cheese, grated
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
8 ozs Mozzarella, sliced

Start off by making the sauce, heat the EVOO in a medium saucepan over medium high heat.  Add the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened.  Add the minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to maintain the simmer and cook uncovered while you prepare the chicken, about 12-15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Combine the ingredients for the breading in a shallow bowl, I like to use a 9x9 cake pan, and the ingredients for the egg wash in another shallow bowl. 

Dip each chicken piece in the egg wash, coating well and allow the excess to drip back into the bowl.  Place the coated chicken in the breading mixture and coat all sides well. 

Heat the 1/4 cup of EVOO in a large frying pan on medium high heat, the oil should shimmer but not smoke.  Add the 2 cloves of minced garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly.  Add the chicken pieces to the pan and turn the heat down to medium and gently fry until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes per side. 

Spread enough of the sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan to thickly coat the bottom and carefully place each chicken piece on top.  Add the remaining sauce to the top of each breast and top with the sliced mozzarella and parmesan cheese. 

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the cheese is entirely melted.

I'm pretty sure each time I make this I get a "Get out of Jail Free" card from Aaron, not that I've ever needed to use them...except for maybe that time when...ah, never mind...lol. 

Happy Birthday Carson!!

Sunday is my "day off" in the kitchen unless I feel like making something because we go to my Gramma & Grampa Smith's for Sunday Dinner every week.  It's not just my family that goes, it's the whole family, my aunts, uncles, cousins and any friends we decide to bring along with us.  Sunday Dinner at Gramma and Grampa's is a really special time for all of us, being able to get together as a family every week is just, well awesome:)  Today's Sunday Dinner was even better because my cousin Dani's little guy is turning 1 on Tuesday so we had a little birthday celebration tonight.  I also had Jalena today so Jenn and Adam could do some work so we had a whole crew of kids to entertain us:) 

Since it was his birthday, Carson did have to get his birthday spankings, I think his mom forgot he was only one...lol. FYI..no babies were hurt in the making of this video:)

We like to call Carson the man of 1000 faces, but tonight he was all smiles...must've been all the cake:)

 

Of course, we also have all of our boys with their toys, as they've gotten bigger so have the toys...lol

We finally got to eat some dinner, Gramma always puts on the best spread:)

After dinner it was time for cake and ice cream...Dani made the cake, it looked and tasted pretty darn good!!

No First Birthday is complete without the cake smash!!

 

 

Of course the girls had to have a little dance party:)

Jalena did have a serious heart to heart with my mom though..haha

Connor went to spend the night at Aunt Kim's so I only had the two girls to bring home with me, I think they had a pretty big day.

Like I always say...Family, Friends and Food, what more could you ask for!!  What an awesome day we had today:)

Oh, and I forgot to show you the slow rise pitas from last night, we made some into Pita Chips at Spring & Rawky's.  Unfortunately, this girl didn't make it to dinner, a major headache kicked my butt and I had to leave just after the kids ate some pizza:(  Spring & Sarah both told me that the pitas were a big hit so it looks like they might become a frequent player in the kitchen:)

Pita for You, Pita for Me

Me and the kids are heading to Spring & Rawky's tonight for dinner:)  Spring's my cooking partner in crime...she makes the BEST cakes and is my go to for them because I'm not so good at them.  I found a recipe for Bacon Jam and I'm pretty sure we have a date to make some next week:) 

Anyways, there's going to be a bunch of people there and about 10 plus kids, most of them girls...poor Connor is going to be so outnumbered!!  Spring's doing up some souvlaki and other stuff and she asked if I would bring some pita's.  I've never made them before and the funny thing is I was looking at some pita recipes to try when she asked...must've been a sign:)  So here I am spending my Saturday making pitas.  I'm doing 2 different recipes to see what the difference is, mostly in method since 1 batch is doing a slow rise in the fridge for about 4 or so hours.  

The slow rise in the fridge recipe comes from a blog called Smitten Kitchen, I've found some pretty good stuff there so check it out.  The other recipe is one I ended up having to change up a bit from my 55 Classic Recipes: Bread from Around the World and it's the one I'm going to play with here:)

Pita Bread
(adapted from 55 Classic Recipes: Bread from Around the World)

225 grams Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, plus extra for dusting
6 grams Active Dry Yeast
1 Tsp Sugar
1 Tsp Salt
2/3 c. Warm Water
2 Tsp EVOO

To start it off, I proofed the yeast using 1/4 c. of the water and adding the sugar, mixing it a bit.  Then I added the yeast and let it proof for 10 minutes. 

Once the yeast was proofed I put all of the other ingredients in my mixing bowl and dumped in the yeast mixture.  I mixed that all up until everything was wet and mixed together and then let it sit for 20 minutes to autolyse it.  I did this because I'm all out of bread flour and all purpose has less gluten in it and this is a way to let the gluten start to work before kneading.

Waiting to Knead

After the 20 minutes was up, I kneading the dough for 5 minutes in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a dough hook.  It was still really sticky so I added another 2 tbsp of flour and let it mix another minute. 

I lightly floured my counter and dumped the dough out onto it and gave it a quick knead by hand until it was smooth and elastic.  I lightly greased a large bowl and added the dough to it, turning it over and giving it a light spray with oil.  I covered it with some plastic wrap that I had sprayed with oil and then a tea towel and put it on the fridge to rise for about an hour.

After the dough was done rising, I punched it down and divided it into 6 equal pieces on a my lightly floured counter and shaped them into balls.  Then I covered them with an oiled plastic wrap and left them to rest for 5 minutes.

Once they had rested, I refloured my counter and took each ball and rolled it into an oval about 6 inches long and 1/4" thick and placed them on a lightly floured  tea towel and covered them with a piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap again.  Then I left them to rise again for about 25 minutes.

I preheated my oven to 450F and placed one rack on the middle upper level and one on the middle lower level with my baking stones in preheating as well. 

After the 25 minutes was up I placed 2 pitas on each stone and baked them for 5 minutes, letting them puff up nicely.  They did start to brown a little, but no big deal, for me anyways. 

Once they were done I placed them on my wire rack to cool down and then put them in a basket with a tea towel over them to help keep them soft until I went to Spring & Rawky's. 

For some reason, on a whim, I decided to make up some Chipotle Roasted Red Pepper Hummus:)  This is a recipe I adapted from Epicure's Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and is the first time I've added chipotle to hummus.  I've always loved the Sabra Chipotle Hummus you can get at the grocery store so me being me, I want to see what I can do:)

Chipotle Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
(Adapted from Epicure Selections)

1 19 oz. Can Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp Epicure Hummus Dip Mix
1 Tbsp Epicure Roasted Red Pepper Dip Mix
2 Tbsp Sundried Tomatos, minced
1 Tsp Ground Cumin
1/2 Tbsp Dried Cilantro
1 1/2 Tsp Chipotle Chili Powder
1/4 c. Warm Water
3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
5 Tbsp EVOO
1/4 c. Tahini, optional
(I didn't have any, was gonna make some, got lazy & didn't, wish I did)

Take all ingredients and put in food processor.  Process until smooth.  For me, it's usually a minute or so, I don't like it very chunky. 

That's some nice looking hummus if I do say so:)

I'm a Little Saucy Today

Since Aaron's back to work this weekend I figured I wanted something easy to make for dinner and that wouldn't cause a huge ruckus at the table.  Pizza is such a fun dinner to make, the kids can get involved, they both love to eat it and it's simple and satisfying.  I use the dough recipe out of my Cook's Illustrated cookbook, it's simple, I can do it in my food processor so it's not a lot of mess and it tastes good. 

I usually have some pizza sauce sitting in the cupboard but it's more for emergency's, I have this thing about having to do things myself.  I've made a couple different pizza sauces from recipes I've found before but they just didn't do it for me.  I spent some time finding a bunch of different recipes that looked interesting and have come up with something that will suit my taste.  Why you ask, well first off because it's going to have some sundried tomatos in it, something I picked up and have been waiting to use, but more importantly, it has wine in it and wine just makes everything better!!



Sundried Tomatos

Carrie's Pizza Sauce

1 28 oz. can Diced Tomatos
1/2 c. Onion, chopped
4 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1/4 c. White Wine (not dry, more sweet, like a Pinot Grigio or Riesling)
4 Cloves Garlic, minced
2 Tbsp Sundried Tomatos, minced
1 1/2 Tsp Dried Oregano
1 Tsp Dried Basil
1/2 Tsp Sugar
1/4-1/2 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 Tsp Coarse Salt
2 Tbsp EVOO

I started by heating the EVOO on medium heat in a medium saucepan (saves on dishes).  In went the onion and I sauteed that for about 5 minutes and then added the garlic and sundried tomatos for about 30 seconds or so.  Next up was the wine, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes, I let the wine work it's way into everything for a minute or so.

Then I added the rest of the ingredients and let it come to a slow boil. 

I reduced the heat and then let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes. This helps meld all the awesome flavours together:)  Once that was done, it came off the heat to cool a bit before I put it in the food processor.  When it cooled off a bit I dumped it in my food processor and processed it until it was smooth, about 20-30 seconds.

There it is, voila, an easy homemade pizza sauce:)  It made about 4 cups of sauce which is enough for 4 pizzas.  I only made 2 so lucky me, I have enough for 2 pizzas in my freezer now. 

 

How freaking good does that look:)  We just did one with pepperoni, bacon and cheese and the other with pepperoni, bacon, onion and cheese...nice and simple. 

 

I'm also pretty happy that I'm getting much better at shaping my dough to look more like a pizza and not The Blob...I wish I had some pics of my first pizza shaping attempts, they were pretty scary, lol.  

Baked or Fried...That is the Question

I've always been more of a meat and potatoes kind of girl...don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed salads but was never a huge fan of cooked veggies.  Then I met Aaron, he loves veggies, his favourite, asparagus, which of course is one veggie I wouldn't touch, I mean people call it ditch weed for crying out loud and my dad always called it dog pee sticks.  The good wife that I am though I started looking for ways to make it that would entice my palate to eat more of it, and go figure, I've found a few ways that I'll actually have seconds of:) 

One of my favourite ways is to marinade the asparagus in Thousand Islands and then throw it on the grill, my friend/wife, it's a long story, don't ask, Jenn showed me this and it's another reason I love her.  It's so crunchy and, well, grilled...grilling makes everything better.  As much as I love to BBQ, I'm not a fan of doing it in 4 feet of snow with a wind chill of 20 below, I'm exaggerating a bit but you get the point, it's just not going to happen so I've had to come up with some alternate methods.  I tried roasting it under the broiler with the dressing but that came out a soggy mess, however, doused in EVOO and sprinkled with a lot of garlic powder is pretty awesome. 

For tonight, I wanted to try something different, something crunchy, tasty and outside the box.  This is where my iPad, some paper, a pencil and creative thinking comes into play.  You know what asparagus kind of looks like, green french fries, that's right I'm making asparagus fries, and while I'm all creative and stuff, I'm going to do some baked in the oven and some pan fried to see which method works better for me...if I'm lucky, they'll both be awesome and I won't have to fight with Connor to eat his veggies!!

Crispy Asparagus Fries
(adapted from How Sweet it Is & Baker Lady)

1/2 lb Asparagus
1 Egg, slightly beaten
1/4 c. Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1/4 c. Plain Bread Crumbs
1/3 c. Panko Breadcrumbs
1/8 c. Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 Tsp Dried Tarragon
Pinch of Onion Powder
2-3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to Taste

I started by preheating the oven to 425F.

Next, I set up the asparagus assembly line using shallow bowls.  In bowl number one was the flour and I seasoned it with some salt and pepper, bowl number two was the beaten egg and finally in bowl number three was the plain breadcrumbs, panko breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, tarragon, onion powder and some salt and pepper.

I trimmed the bottom inch or so off the asparagus and gave it a quick wash and then I  just shook it off a bit, you want some of the water to stay so the flour will stick. 

Into the flour

 

First, I rolled each piece of asparagus in the flour, coating it as much as I could and then gave it a good roll in the egg.  Then it went into the breadcrumb mixture, and I rolled it around really well and pressed the breadcrumb mixture in as best I could.

 Bread Crumb Mixture

 For the asparagus that's going in the oven I took a shallow baking sheet and placed a wire rack on top that I had given a quick spray with olive oil.  I placed the asparagus on the rack and popped it into the oven for about 15 minutes.

Ready for the oven

 

Next up was the asparagus to be fried.  I heated a large skillet over medium high heat and added the EVOO.  When it was nice and hot, it shimmers a bit when it's ready if that makes sense, I added the asparagus but only as much as it would hold in a single layer.  I fried them, turning them when they were golden, about 4-6 minutes.

 Into the Frying Pan

Baked

 

Fried

Once they were done I served them up with Epicure's awesome Roasted Garlic Aioli and they were awesome:)  We all liked both equally, even Connor and I would definitely make them again. 

On top of the awesome Crispy Asparagus Fries we had Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken with Herbed Ricotta and a concoction of Sprouted Rice and Quinoa with Toasted Almonds and Veggies that I came up with today. 

This has toasted almonds and sauteed celery,
carrots, green onions and garlic in it...
so good and good for you too!!

My only problem...does your kitchen look like this after dinner too...lol