Baked Chicken w/ Parmesan / Garlic Crust

This is one of my favorite meals. It's easy, quick-ish and tastes outstanding. I've learned though to make it even quicker. This is one of those recipes that calls for things I use quite often so I look at my recipes for the week and find all the common denominators for them. So this weekend (Sunday) I minced a lot of garlic, grated a bunch of Parmesan and spun up some bread crumbs in the food pross monster. It's amazing to me how a little advanced prep saves so much time later in the week. I love to cook for my family - it's fun (most of the time) not a chore, but when you come home from work - already tired and not really up to doing much more it's great to have something mostly ready to go. I'm ready to make it again right now. 


Here's the recipe: Baked Chicken with Parmesan and Garlic Crust
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Comments from the Counter:

It only takes two slices of bread to make the breadcrumbs - don't use the cardboard they sell at the store - ugh.
I don't use the basil, but I do modify the mayo by adding either lemon juice or lemon juice and zest (depending on how ambitious I am)
Either thin cut chicken breasts or pound out regular ones to make them thin-ish.
Coat the 9 x 13" pan w/cooking spray to make sure nothing sticks.
Always check the temperature - 160 degrees minimum.
Very good leftover too.

Willoughby's Return

My thoughts: I enjoyed this book. I'm a skeptic in general of fan fiction - this is probably only the 3rd or 4th fan fic I've read, but I think this could be the best type. True to the character but developing new ideas and new story lines. Sense and Sensibility is a good story, not my favorite book by Miss Austen, but an interesting story about two opposite sisters, but there are parts that can be rather tedious [Elinor - tell Lucy Steele that she's a conniving hateful creature and you have her game all figured out]. Willoughby's Return makes good use of Marianne - she's still a little emotional (read: jealous), impetuous, easily swayed by what she feels - she's Marianne. But Elinor - she's such a buzz kill. In S&S I like Elinor and to give credit she's a very minor character in WR, but famously dull and judgemental - glad she's just a minor character.
Margaret becomes a real character in this story, and is, perhaps, a blend of both of the best parts of Elinor and Marianne - spirited, but knowing, not so trusting as to be blind, but easily (perhaps too easily) falling in love. It's interesting to see Colonel Brandon (wish Jane had given him a first name) be something a little more three dimensional, but still absent. And Brandon's other family, that's an interesting project, isn't it? Not a good situation. I can totally understand Marianne - why she feels that way - I'm a jealous type too and and could NEVER share my husband with anyone ever. Jealousy is not a good quality, but what can you do? It's not rational, but then again, it wouldn't be, now would it?
All that said, the ending was nice but maybe a little to 21st century. Would Eliza talk to Brandon in such a personal way? Would Brandon apologize to Marianne for neglecting her? I'm thinking not so much. Margaret's story works better for me - it's believable though a bit transparent - but nice nonetheless - lovely lovely story.
What does one think about John Willoughby? Yes, he really loved Marianne. But not enough. Do you feel bad for him? Maybe like Elinor does when he explains why he married someone other than Marianne ... but to me he's an even bigger tool because he married a woman he didn't love - just for the money... weak.

Blooms in the Garden - late March

Sparaxis (orange and white) - I planted these about 4 years ago and they still come back, though perhaps a bit less, year after year.

Lady Banks Rose Cluster - They don't smell like anything, and they have no thorns, but just once a year they look glorious. 

Lady Banks Rose from inside the bay window in the kitchen.

 

White Irises of unknown origin - beautiful every year - and almost always a surprise - they just appear one day and hang on for a couple of weeks - a nice addition to the rose bed. 

More photos to come as April is here. 

Can Jam April - Herbs - more deliberation

herb |(h)ərb|noun1 any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume


So does that eliminate some of the things I've been thinking about. I'm thinking fennel is a vegetable, but perhaps it's both depending on what you use it for. Lemon grass - that would qualify. 
In my research, rosemary and quince (does it sound like a posh law firm?) showing up quite often together, but we don't get many (any?) quinces around here. 
I did not realize I had so many British canning/preserving books -- they don't seem to often bother with a water bath and have this odd (IMO) notion of turning the jars upside down after sealing them - to what purpose, I do not know, but ...
Pickled asparagus could be right - esp right now, but would need to introduce and herb and frankly, beyond tarragon, which I could take or leave, I'm not sure what to add that wouldn't over power the asparagus. Blue Book / Preserving - blanks - as was, The Glass Pantry (see Library Thing site for details), so ... more research, but first - time away. nice. 

Persuasion (2007)

I haven't written anything about this because I was so disappointed the first time I saw it and wanted to watch again to see if I was right on first appearances. Yep. I was right, sadly so. Rupert Penny-Jones makes a fine Captain Wentworth and isn't bad eye candy, but there are several problem not the least of which is the hour and a half run time - come the frig on - tell a story w/ any real feeling or sense in an hour and a half?? Not likely. That said, my biggest problem is the letter. It's the frigging letter from the book - how can you do this and screw up the one thing, that matters in the story? Unbelievable. Still can't get over the astonishment of that. Read the entire letter!!! (How do you know when you've put TOO many exclamation points behind something?) 

And then there is the running - there is no running in the book for Anne to find Wentworth, because he's just outside waiting to see if she comes to him - which of course she does, because, um who wouldn't? I do have to admit that the wedding present is a nice touch - but that's about it. It's a disappointment. Give me Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds any day of the week. They can't be topped - not until Persuasion is given the 4 hour treatment - any perhaps not even then.

Can Jam April - Herbs

So the challenge for this month, well, April anyway, is herbs - well, hell - that's wide open. What is currently growing in the garden for me - rosemary, oregano, and parsley. I had no idea parsley would survive the winter (the coldest for the longest that I remember), but it came through with flying colors and looks great right now but may be about to bolt. I've not grown it before - so I'm not quite sure how it works. Oh, and fennel  - forgot that. And the cilantro will probably return as it usually does. I'm betting The Glass Pantry has a few ideas.
Need to check the farmer's markets to see what else is out there right now - hopefully not necessitating anything flown in from across the planet.

Glazed Lemon Cookies

Lemons - is there anything (no really anything) better than lemons - so versatile, so tart, so... yellow. Come on - lemons are wonderful. I'm not a fan of chocolate (gasp!) so desserts can be a little limiting, but I'll try almost anything lemon. Lately, Martha Stewart had a whole list of lemon desserts of which I printed about half a dozen really interesting ones. The first one I decided to make was the glazed lemon cookies. Let's just say they were a hit at the office (if not at home).

Desserts are difficult at home. I like to have things available for Emerson and Steve, but I'm thinking they don't care so much. And here's the deal - I don't want tons of sweets either, but I do like to try things - perhaps the homeless shelters would like experimental cookies... who knows.


That said, here's where you can find the recipe to some great! Glazed Lemon Cookies.


Comments from the Counter:
I used one regular lemon and one Meyer lemon - yum.

Zest from both lemons as well.

Balance in the Kitchen

And I'm not talking about flavor balance...
How does one balance their interest in cooking, and experimenting in particular, in the kitchen with the job, duty, whatever of serving dinner every night? Being right now in the middle of the can jam - which is great fun - and trying to put dinner on the table for MotH and the Boy. And there is never enough weekend in the weekend ...besides there is still the garden to attend to (ie. plant)...
My counter has cookbooks open and magazine folder to particular pages, but I can't get to them all... at least not now damn it.
Am I setting myself up for failure or just setting my expectations too high?*


* Sounds like something from Sex and the City.

White Soda Bread

I've been a bread chicken - too afraid to try especially if it involves yeast, so I finally decided to try thanks to St. Patrick's day. Recipes abounded for soda bread, but many involved currents or raisins or caraway seeds - blech. I finally found a recipe where the odd stuff was optional and had the bonus of including all things that I already had at home. cool.
Last year I bought a copy of Bread Baker's Apprentice, but I've yet to crack the book It just seems daunting. But I'm strongly encouraged by my experience this week. Let's just put it this way... I started Shallot Confiture - the beginning of a four day process, made dinner, and made fresh bread all in the same night - damn skippy - that's impressive. At least to me.

Recipe is here - since I can't post it w/out breaking the law... 


Comments from the Counter:
I used a little more than 1.5 cups of buttermilk, but it worked out okay.
My first bread. Cool.

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Blogging about recipes

I read an interesting piece on blogging about recipes that made me a little sad. I'd always figured that if you gave credit like I do then you had done the right thing regarding where the recipes you try came from - hell, I even link to Amazon or elsewhere  so it's easy to buy the book if someone (anyone? ... oh yeah no one) is interested. But it seems that this is not the case. I need to ask permission to reprint a recipe - even though I would think one recipe out of a book full of recipes would be fair use. Especially since I transcribe the recipe as is, out of respect to the original, and list my changes in both ingredients and how I do things in my Comments from the Counter. Apparently, that's not legal.
So where is the rule book, or hell, even the guidelines for bloggers? I take care to give credit - hell, that's just the right thing to do. I mean you do that on papers in college, on your thesis - you don't steal anyone's ideas and always give credit - it's, again, the right thing to do. But now what? Almost all my photos are mine. I rather enjoy taking pics, but even then, if I use something, I credit and link to the original. Finding this out is, I don't know, kind of disappointing, but I guess that's what happens when lawyers are involved - aren't they always in this country??


After all this is my online recipe journal - disappointing. You make me sad (oops, do I have to give credit to MP&THG now too - bugger).


Downer.