Bits Of Dust

Archive for February, 2009

Since the oldest got to cook last night, the youngest wanted to cook breakfast.

He scrambled the eggs, set the table, poured the drinks, and called his brothers to the table.

Of course, his favorite part of the breakfast is the hash browns.

This evening, our oldest son decided to cook dinner with me.

We had some chicken, pancetta, mozarella, roasted garlic, and tomato sauce, so we made some Chicken Parmigiana.

We started with some chicken and dredged it in flour,

then we dipped it in some egg,

and rolled it in breadcrumbs.

Once the oil was hot, we put them in the pan,

until they were cooked to a golden brown color.

We took some tomato sauce and poured it in the pan, and then put the chicken in the pan with a nice delicious slice of pancetta on top.

Once all the pieces were in the pan we covered them all with fresh grated mozzarella cheese. Do you know how hard it is to grate a soft cheese?

After 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven,

we sat down to eat a delicious dinner.

The brother-in-law was in town last week.

We ate well.

You can now order Chef John, to go. This is an historic day.

That’s right, you can now subscribe to Food Wishes on iTunes! Of course, I really don’t know how it works, only that my video recipes can now be watched by a whole new segment of society – the one with those white wires hanging from their ears.

All I can say it, “It’s about time, Chef”.

Our local grocery store has a great deal each week on ripe bananas. How can you pass up a bag full of bananas for $1.49? I guess the more important question is, what can you do with a bag full of ripe bananas?

You make Banana Bundt Muffins, of course. My wife has this cute little muffin pan, well, that’s what I will call it, where the muffins are baked in the shape of little bundt cakes. What better way to eat banana nut muffins?

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup mashed bananas
1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl.
Beat in the egg, banana, and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Fold into creamed mixture just until moist.
Fold in walnuts.

Heat muffin tins for 5 minutes in oven before filling with batter. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full with batter and bake for 20-23 minutes. If you are using a normal muffin tin, adjust the time to 23-25 minutes, and if you are using a super jumbo sized muffin tin, adjust the time by adding 10-15 minutes.

Cool for 5 minutes then remove from pan. Serve them warm, trust me, you won’t be able to eat just one. Helpful Hint: If you don’t expose the center post when filling the tins, you will have a nice well to fill delicious butter. Okay, so it’s not the healthiest, but it is very delicious.

I can’t remember if I posted this photo yet or not, but I think it was taken the last time we had store bought flour tortillas.

We’ve been making them fresh ourselves for a while now.

It’s amazing what happens when you put lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cheese, cucumbers, avocados, and hard-boiled eggs together in a bowl.

It’s amazing how some delicious banana pudding can make all the troubles of the world disappear.

No, I am not going to post the recipe. If you don’t know how to make it, you can find it on the side of the Nilla wafers box, or the Jello vanilla pudding box, or somewhere. It’s so easy even *I* could make it. (Although this time it was a joint effort by the wife and I. Truly a work of art.

Tonight we had a dilemma. No one could decide what to make for dinner.

The wife wanted something hot, the kids wanted fast food, and I wanted shrimp. I have been craving shrimp for a while now.

So what did we decide on?

We made beef fajitas that were sizzling when they hit the table, and shrimp fried rice (to sooth my craving). No, I didn’t slave away for hours and neither did the wife, we cheated.

We stopped at the grocery store and dinner was prepared by Tyson and Stouffers tonight. I know, dinner in a bag could have been burgers and fries from Five Guys, but no, we settled with the stuff much closer to home.

Tomorrow night’s menu? Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and veggies. Yes, homemade. Happy now?

This was the first Super Bowl Sunday, in years, that we didn’t make chili or deviled eggs.

The kids all wanted something different so…

Our oldest had chicken sandwiches and a cream soda. The middle child gorged on hot dogs and a cream soda. The youngest had chicken nuggets, smilies, a hot dog, and a coke.

I figured, since they were all eating something else, I wouldn’t waste my time making a pot of chili, so the wife had a chicken sandwich and a root beer, while I had a roast beef sandwich with the most delicious Au Jus sauce, a chicken sandwich, a hot dog, and a root beer. Yes I know, I overate, but you know what? The Super Bowl only happens once a year so shut up!

The wife didn’t watch the game and the four of us who did were split on who should win. Needless to say, half of us were disappointed. I hope you had a great day!