ChiCheSau

Chicken Cheese and Sauce

Start with washed chicken cutlets. Dip in milk and coat with panko.
Fry in a little Canola oil and transfer to foil covered cookie sheet. Top with your choice of cheese. We topped with crumbled blue cheese for the adult palate and milder cheddar cheese slices for younger palates. Warm in a preheated 225-250 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted.

Simmer D'Amico Brand or your favorite tomato sauce (D'Amico can be difficult to find).

Plate chicken with jasmin rice and serve with fresh bread.

Add tomato sauce and garnish.

This dish pairs well with a Pinot Grigio.

Pizza night

How long does pizza delivery take? This pizza takes 30-40 minutes.

And this pizza is spectacular.

Start with Capone Foods Neapolitan "00" Pizza Flour for your pizza dough. Also available already made into pizza dough and frozen. Just move it from the freezer to the refrigerator a day before you intend to use it, for perfect, high-gluten dough.

Form the dough and place on parchment paper on a peel.

Using a simple homemade tomato sauce made with homegrown or locally grown tomatoes will guarantee best results. Tonight's pizza is being sauced with D'Amico tomato sauce.

Fresh, local ingredients also include in-season Small Farm garlic.

Sauté Cremini mushrooms with Canadian bacon and minced garlic adding the garlic at the very end and turn the flame off.

Add a light layer of D'Amico tomato sauce with Penzey's Italian herb mix. Top with fresh mozzarella and grated mild and sharp cheddar cheeses.


Add garlic mushroom bacon toppings. Put pizza on your pizza stone in a preheated 450-475 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

When it looks like this in the oven, it is done. Take it out and let it rest for a couple of minutes before cutting.

Ready to cut and serve with a nice salad.

and a nice Chianti...no fava beens...tonight.

Wines labeled Cabernet Savignon or Merlot, for example, are named for the grape. European wines are often named for the region in which the grapes are grown. Champagne refers to wine from the region of the same name. Chianti is a wine from an area called "Chianti," which is inside of a region of Italy called Tuscany. Within Chianti is a smaller area called "Chianti Classico." The "Riserva" label applies to Chianti aged for at least two years and is generally the most expensive Chianti.

"Chianti" always, in accordance with Italian wine law, contains at least 80% of the native grape Sangiovese. This grape produces a wine that has a distinctive cherry character, high acidity, and medium to substantial tannins -- all elements that lead to a food-friendly wine. particularly well paired with pasta.

D'Amico Chianti 2007 has a light nose of fresh, ripe black cherries. Still young, bright flavors of black and red cherry greet the palate, smoothed together with ample acidity and medium tannins. The finish is sour cherry , with mouthwatering acidity and almost no trace of alcohol. The tart acidity and almost mild tannins make it a perfect match for pizza or any pasta with marinara sauce. The D'Amico label, noticeably absent from the bottle, would leave us wondering. Had we not spoken to the vintner, we would not have known to give this young bottle a little extra time to breathe. The similarly labeled D'Amico pasta sauce, with a fresh, bright tomato and basil presence, paired with this easygoing Chianti perfectly.

Mussels

Mussels in a Spicy Vinaigrette

6 lbs live mussels in the shell

¼ cup EVOO

¼ cup Pomegranate Champagne Vinegar (or other high quality red wine vinegar)

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp hot paprika

1 lemon sliced and quartered

2 cloves garlic, minced Small Farms garlic is best.

2 T rough chopped fresh parsley

salt

Clean mussels under cold water and remove beards. Discard beards, broken and open unresponsive mussels. Shellfish begin to decompose very rapidly when they expire. If they have expired prior to cooking, they should be discarded. When mussels expire during cooking they open. Mussels that do not open during the cooking process should be discarded.

Add all ingredients except the mussels to a lidded pan or stockpot and bring to a boil uncovered. Simmer for a minute, add mussels and cover to cook for 4-5 minutes until mussels open. Discard unopened mussels.

The original recipe for this dish in the Williams Sonoma Kitchen Library series Hors d’Oeuvres & Appetizers calls for cooling to room temperature and then refrigerating for 2-4 hours before serving.

Brooke says that they are better served warm, immediately after steaming. Brooke is correct. Hot or chilled, a squeeze of a fresh lemon wedge just before serving enhances the flavor of the fresh shellfish.

Taco Taco

Tacos are always better with a nice guac. Well we have finally found one you don't have to make. Wholly Guacamole is on the shelf (in the produce section) at the grocery store.

Delicious. Made with Haas avocados and not a shred of the vile weed.

Happy Birthday Sophie!

A special day of swimming pool fun, pizza, limbo dancing, a tiny bit of light rain, and of course - cake and ice cream made for a wonderful celebration of day one of Sophie's tenth year.

cake model credit: Teddy