The Miscellaneous Blog

We had such a fun and busy Labor Day weekend (or as Gigi said, "Flavor Day"). First a visit from Mimi and Butch, from which I'm sure they are thoroughly exhausted.

We started out on Friday night with dinner . . .

. . . . . provided by little miss type A.

Saturday morning we went to the mall. Which consisted of the Disney Store, eating lunch and seeing the ducks and turtles outside of Neiman's. That is pretty much the extent of our mall visits usually. I would love to know what kid figured out that they could run up the side of this planter and slide down on their stomach. Maybe it is something innate that they all know?

Aren't they sweet??? Some of these pictures look bad because I took them with our little camera.

Saturday afternoon it was hot, so we decided to get out the baby pool. Gigi loves the pool. She is a total water bug.

Bobo not so much. He pretty much did this~

and this~

While she did this~

and this~

Then we had some photo ops.

And popsicles.

We had an uneventful dinner at Snuffer's (no pictures of the mountain of cheese fries we ate - you're welcome). And brunch at Ozona on Sunday morning before Butch and Mimi left.

Sunday was Papa's birthday. A-Dub's aunt (Papa's sister) and cousins were in town so we all went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. I highly recommend the Thai chicken pasta--it was excellent and plenty of food for both A-Dub and I. Of course we had cheesecake for dessert. Red velvet is Papa's favorite so that's what he got.

Look at that sweet little belly!

After dinner was over we walked over to this tiny patch of grass near the Cheesecake Factory to take a family picture. At this point the cold front that snapped Dallas' 60+ days of 100+ degree heat had rolled in and dare I say we were all giddy. You would have thought that patch of grass was a park. The kids rolled and played around and we chased them and took tons of pictures.

These older boys' parents are not present (in case you are wondering how everyone fits together). People, there is hope that our kids won't be nightmare teenagers. These guys are soooooooooo sweet and have the best manners! I keep asking their mom where the parenting book is that she needs to write for me. I will keep you posted on that.

Also, is it possible to get 5 kids to all look at a camera and take a picture? No, it is not.

This was our attempt at a family photo. The natives were getting restless, as it was past bedtime.

On Monday morning when we woke up the cold front had completely blown through and we woke up to - gasp - CHILLY weather. Yes, I was COLD when I walked outside. I checked my phone - was I crazy? I thought, it's probably 80 degrees but since I haven't felt 80 degrees in so long it feels cold. Nope, iphone said 69. 69 degrees!!! In Dallas!

A-Dub and I had planned a day of hard work--no fun. We needed to do some major Spring cleaning, but the Fall version. A-Dub was going to clean the garage (which he actually accomplished on Saturday and Sunday) and I was going to clean Bobo's closet, which is the dumping ground for all outgrown baby clothes. I had been throwing old clothes everywhere in there for probably 9 months. I got started on Sunday but didn't finish. With the change in the weather we scrapped those plans and decided to spend the whole day outside! But first I had to clean up the mess I had made.

I need some new storage containers but was so pleased with the closet when I was finished. I should have taken some before pictures. There is nothing I enjoy more than a good closet clean-out.

Right when I came downstairs to tell A-Dub I was finished he informed me that someone had returned "a box" of baby clothes we had loaned them. "Oh really, when did they give it to you?" "On Friday." Seriously?!?! You knew I was cleaning out the closet and decided to tell me about it when I had just finished?!?!? I swear, that man is lucky I love him.

Now I have to find a place for all this stuff! Grrrrrrrrrr. It is still sitting in the hall.

For lunch we did one of our favorite things that we had not done in months--have a picnic! We went to a park that I used to live near so we could feed the ducks with our old bread.

Bobo thought the bread was for him to eat.

This guy was surprisingly timid for a duck that came up out of the water to get fed.

Isn't this a pretty park?

I hope you had a wonderful Flavor Day as well!

I know there's probably a thousand chicken parmesan recipes out there but mine is a little bit different. It got its inspiration from the pinnacle of Italian cuisine known as . . . Olive Garden. Several years ago Olive Garden was serving a "stuffed" chicken parmesan. They sent out coupons with a picture of a chicken breast with a beautiful golden brown crust that had been cut open and had ooey, gooey cheese oozing out. A-Dub was sold. Off we went to Olive Garden. The experience did not live up to the advertising. There was only a tiny smidge of cheese. There was no oozing. Big disappointment. I thought--as I often do--I could do this at home! And do a better job! Although you do have to provide your own salad and breadsticks.

Chicken Parmesan

Tools needed:

Meat hammer with a flat side (I think mine is OXO brand)

Roll of waxed paper

Ingredients:

2 chicken tenderloins for every 1 serving (I have found that big bags of tenders like this below tend to have larger tenders that are better for this recipe than the flat 1 pound packages)

2 cups shredded mozzarella

2-3 eggs

1 cup milk

2 cups Italian breadcrumbs

1 cup shredded (or powdered) parmesan cheese

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tsp Italian spices (spices mixed together)

4 tbsp olive oil

1 pkg spaghetti

1 jar marinara sauce

First you need to go through all of your tenders and pick out ones that are a good size and that are like-sized because you're going to pair up tops and bottoms. I made 7 servings so I have 14 tenders.

Next you need to prepare your breadcrumbing stations. I hate dirtying up two big dishes but I have found that my two 8x8 Pyrex dishes work the best. I have tried using regular dinner plates and it is a huge mess.

In the first dish combine 2-3 eggs and 1 cup milk and scramble with a fork. I love that Bobo is drinking whole milk now so I get to use it in all my cooking. I always have to sneak a big swig of it. So yummy.

In your second dish combine Italian breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt, pepper and Italian spices. Stir together with your hands. I know it looks like a lot. This recipe uses a lot of breadcrumbs.

Now it's time to pound some chicken! Tear off 2 sheets of waxed paper for every 4 servings or so. Make them about 18 inches long. You could do two small sheets for each chicken tender. I combined some to save paper because I was running out.

Stagger the chicken on the bottom piece of waxed paper and place the other sheet on top.

Pound the tenders with the flat side of the meat hammer until they are very thin.

They are probably 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch thick. Repeat with all of the tenderloins.

Set out 1 cup shredded mozzarella near your breading stations.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Caaaaaaaaaarefully peel the wax paper off of two like-sized flattened tenderloins and lay one flat on a plate. If any of your tenders are falling apart at this point, it's okay. Just use the one that is more intact for the bottom. I had one that was basically just held together by the suspicious "string" that runs down the middle of these tenders. What is that???

Generously spread mozzarella cheese along your bottom piece of chicken.

Carefully lay your "top" chicken tender over the cheese.

Pat down a little bit to secure the top and bottom.

I could not get action shots of me doing these next steps because it required both hands and A-Dub was not available to take pictures.

Using both hands, carefully scoop up the chicken tender in your hand and place in the egg mixture. Your only goal is to get it in there in one piece without all of the cheese falling out. You will definitely lose some cheese, you just don't want to lose all of it.

Don't try to flip it over--just scoop up some egg mixture and spread it around on the top of the chicken. Did I mention this recipe is extremely messy? Just wait until you get breadcrumbs all over your eggy fingers.

Using the same scooping action as before, carefully transfer your chicken to the breadcrumbs. From here out it's a piece of cake. The breadcrumbs hold it all together!

Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top to coat. You can even flip it over to get lots on there.

Pick up chicken and transfer to your skillet with the heated oil.

Because your chicken is so thin, it only needs 3-4 minutes to cook per side.

When you flip it over, you want it to be a nice golden brown like this.

Top with a little extra mozzarella and let it melt.

Cook your spaghetti while waiting for the other chickens to cook.

I should probably try to sell this recipe to Sandra Lee because of the jar of Prego! Some may turn up their noses, but I love Prego and well, what's good enough for Ned Powers is good enough for me! I even microwaved it--lazy!

It JUST occurred to me that I should have taken a picture with the chicken cut open so you could see the cheese. It doesn't ooze out as dramatically as the Olive Garden's advertisement chicken, but it does ooze better than what Olive Garden actually served in their restaurant!

One day I will write more about A-Dub's nickname "the Food Nazi." But long story short, he is a health nut. If I dared serve dinner with no vegetables, I would definitely hear about it. I do agree that vegetables should be part of every dinner. I'll even go one further--I think every dinner should include a protein, a carb and a vegetable. Tomato sauce doesn't count. Since a lot of Italian dishes don't have vegetables, I always have to come up with a side to go with them. I used to make salads, but it was a lot of work (washing, chopping, etc.) and no one would eat it--definitely not the kids. Lately my go-to Italian dinner side is zucchini and squash, steamed with Italian spices and a little butter. I use those Ziploc steam bags and it takes 2 minutes. Super easy and squash and zucchini are super cheap!

Be sure to top with some more parmesan cheese. After all, it is chicken parmesan!