Still Hoping For That Call From The Ellen Show

I was watching the Ellen show the other day and they showed one of the winners in their home makeover contest.  Well, it was not me, but it was a nice young couple that had neither central heating or central air in their home.  I at least have heat and a few window fans and a very ancient shiny brass and fake wood ceiling fan......Can you say envious.......

I wrote up the To Do list for This Summers Projects.  I keep hoping a little public accountability will goad me into doing some of these projects.  Things like painting I can do all by my lonesome, things like tiling/renovating the bathroom....well, I can do the demolition, just not the renovation.....

You can see the list below, looking at it, I've forgotten to add in some of the yard projects, more pavers for in front of the runs, re-seed lawn, work on flower beds.......

I could also use a really, really skinny person who does not mind the creep crawl space and the crawl space in the attic as well......

Sigh, the contest is not over yet, I will keep my fingers crossed, light a saint candle and think happy thoughts!

You Can Never Have Enough Pasta~ Sunday afternoon or Sunday Night

I work weekends away from my home. I sometimes say "I have a weekend place in Massachusetts" . While it's bigger and slightly better equipped than my house (ie it has a washer and dryer), there is no place like home for cooking. I do cook there on the weekends with the occasion order in for pizza or take out Chinese, but I still love a good Sunday lunch

I do however, have about an hour and half drive home on Sundays. I try lock up and be on the road no later than 5:35 PM, sometimes I stop for a bottle of wine at the local packy, sometimes I don't. My goal is to be home, with all the dogs, laundry, food, etc unloaded no later than 7:30 PM with a pot of water set to boil for something for dinner...

I grew up eating macaroni on Sundays for Sunday Lunch it's what Italian Americans did. They went to church and then had macaroni and gravy for your mid day meal. The two greatest Sunday afternoon meals are the Italian American macaroni and gravy and the English Roast Meal.  Both I love.   Since it would take too long to do a Roast Meal when I get home on Sundays, I stick to a pasta dish.  The leftovers are usually my Monday lunch.

This past week, I made a dish that I saw on Pioneer Woman cooks blog.... It a chicken Florentine pasta, you can see her dish and the directions here.  I made this on Sunday when I came home and as I did not have any chicken, I just added extra spinach. I had the cherry tomatoes in the house and I had the end of a wedge of really good locatelli romano cheese that I shaved into slivers for the pasta. You could use grated cheese if that is all you had in the house... It was soo good I made it again on Monday. I was out of wine, so I just doubled the chicken stock. It was still tasty. I also used a little chopped onion as I was trying to use up things from the fridge. Yummmm

Things I love

1) Laundry drying on the clothes line
2) The zen of mowing the lawn
3) The herb garden re-emerging from the winter!
4) Not caring that the lawn has both violets and dandelions in it.


Please note, this is not a complete list.....,.

Chicken Linda

This past weekend was Garden State/Bucks and Trenton Dog Show weekend. It is by far, one of my most favorite dog show weekends ever.   The highlight of the weekend is The Trenton Lunch-Capital T, Capital T and Capital L.  The most magnificent food is provided by Linda Buonauro and set up by me....

There is usually some lovely leftovers, they come home with me. On Monday I make Chicken Linda.  Chicken Linda is a recipe designed by RC Carusi and it's simple and  simply luscious.

What you need

1-2 chicken breast pounded thin, I also cut them in half.  I do one chicken breast per person
2 pieces of prosciutto per piece of chicken (2 chicken breast-8 pieces of prosciutto)
Fresh mozzarella
Roasted red peppers.

To Make

Cook your chicken breast until they are almost done. I use the method that The Kitchen has for cooking perfect chicken breast.  Click here for the link.  I cut the time down by about 4 minutes as the chicken has to go back into the pan. I also omit the salt as the prosciutto is salty enough.

While the chicken breast is cooking, take your prosciutto and lay it in a cross pattern, place a piece of fresh muzz on the prosciutto and top that with some roasted red pepper.When the chicken is done, place your chicken on top of the red pepper and muzz and fold over the prosciutto.  

In a hot skillet, place your chicken in the pan, muzz side down.   This is one of the times I use a non stick skillet, I want a hot pan with a little oil in it. Heat the pan, add a little vegetable oil,(not olive oil) just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. I don't want the chicken to stick to the pan,. You will cook the chicken for a 2-3 minutes per side to  melt the muzz and crisp up the prosciutto. The heat should be a low/medium heat,but watch your skillet to monitor the temperature.You may need a little more or little less time depending on the heat/thickness of the chicken.  You don't want to overcook your chicken and overcooked prosciutto is a crispy salty waste of good prosciutto.

I served this with an Israeli couscous pilaf, some steamed broccoli and a nice Pinot Grigot for dinner.   You can also add a little pesto the the packet if you have it, I've made it both ways, but prefer the more simple version. A little pasta with pesto on the side would be good too! 

Things I Hate

1) Fake people

2) Being lied to

3) Grit in my teeth

4) Cold weather when it should be spring time

5) Having to babysit Adults


Please note, this is not a complete list....