Chicky-Chicky Parm-Parm

Food Network Star January comes to a close with one of the best dinner recipes we've cooked here on MIHM. This week we made Tyler Florence's Chicken Parmesan and it was awesome. If you'd like to try this dish at home, here's the recipe we used from FoodNetwork.com. 

To tackle to two part recipe, I cooked the chicken while my mom made the sauce. Making an assembly line, I prepped the chicken by dipping each chicken breast in flour, then egg wash, then plain bread crumbs. Once the raw chicken was coated, I fried the chicken for 4 minutes on each side.

Assembly line.

Coating the chicken in flour.

Breaded and ready to fry. 

Frying the chicken in olive oil.

While I was handling the chicken, my mom was working on the sauce. It's always great to split the tasks because the prep time usually takes half as long as the recipe says.

Kalamata olives added a unique flavor to the tomato sauce.

Onion, garlic, basil, kalamata olives, tomatoes and bay leaves.

Once the chicken was fried and the sauce was finished, we added the chicken to a baking dish and covered it with sauce and grated mozzarella cheese. We squished the chicken in tightly, making it a little hard to separate each piece when we served it, but otherwise all was well. The recipe recommends using an oven-proof skillet, but we didn't have one of those so the baking dish worked in its place. 

 Chicken breasts ready to bake for 15 minutes.

Sauce and mozzarrella layers.

Served over fresh spaghetti pasta. 

Tyler Florence's Chicken Parmesan was amazing. The chicken was moist, the sauce was so flavorful, and because we used fresh pasta, the spaghetti was perfectly tender. The trifecta! The kalamata olives were a great change of pace from the traditional tomato sauce used for Chicken Parm. My mom, dad and I all really enjoyed this meal and we'll definitely be having it again.

To close out our month of cooking and cocktails, we celebrated Monday night with the sweet Spanish drink Tinto de Verano. Throughout my trip to Spain last spring I enjoyed MANY Tinto de Veranos and wanted to share them with my parents. We used this recipe which was quick and easy. They were a little too sweet to drink with our Chicken Parmesan but we all agreed that on a hot summer night, this would be the perfect refreshment. 

7up, seltzer water, red wine and a lemon for garnish.

Tres Tinto de Veranos ;-)

And lastly, for those of you who watch Parks and Rec, I hope this post's title made you chuckle as much as I did while typing it. See you guys in February!

Barefoot Contessa - Lunch Edition!

Yesterday was such a great day. Between having the day off from work, watching the Inauguration celebrations, and squeezing in a Downton Abbey Season 2 marathon, the Girls Team really enjoyed ourselves. With the afternoon free, we weren't limited to dinner recipes and had a lot of fun cooking a delicious lunch courtesy of Ina Garten, another one of our Food Network Favorites. We bring you MIHM - Lunch Edition! 

"Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics" by Ina Garten

Cheese is my favorite snack, ingredient, meal, dessert, etc., etc. You get the point: I LOVE CHEESE. So when I saw the recipe for Warm Goat Cheese in Phyllo in my new cookbook (thanks Santa!) I knew I had to make this ASAP. I gathered the ingredients and sped over to my mom's, ready to get lunch going! 

Phyllo dough, goat cheese, butter, breadcrumbs.

Dijon mustard, olive oil, garlic, white wine vinegar, pepper, kosher salt.

If you're following the recipe linked above, there are two substitutes you should note. We used white wine vinegar instead of champagne vinegar, because we couldn't find that at the store. The recipe also calls for goat cheese discs. We just bought a goat cheese log and cut it into discs because the store didn't have the brand recommended by Ina. Neither substitution seemed to be a big deal in the end.

Working with the phyllo dough was a little stressful because it can quickly dry out. Trying not to feel rushed, we layered melted butter and bread crumbs in between four sheets of phyllo dough. We cut 6 discs of the goat cheese and placed them in the center of the dough. 

Brushing melted butter on the phyllo dough.

Bread crumbs, sprinkled over butter layer. 

1/2 sheet of dough with cheese placed in the center. 

Working in circles as if wrapping a gift, we wrapped the cheese with the four layers of phyllo dough. Make sure to twist the extra dough at the top once it's fully wrapped. 

Harder than it looks!

Cheese and dough on parchment paper.

The cheese and dough will bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees. While in the oven, we prepped a side salad with homemade vinaigrette. The vinaigrette was really easy to make. Just mince the garlic and then whisk all of the ingredients together. Once ready, combine in a bowl with salad greens.

Adding olive oil to dressing.

Mixed greens.

As we were making the dough, we weren't sure how flavorful the finished product would be. Once lunch was ready, we dug into the cheese which was warm, gooey and delicious. The baked phyllo dough added a subtle crunch. The tangy mustard flavor in the dressing really stood out against the rich flavor of the cheese. Any hesitations we had about flavor were quickly forgotten! 

Lunch is served! 

Preparation time for the cheese and dough took about 20 minutes and baking took 20 minutes. In under 45 minutes the Girls Team enjoyed a gourmet lunch. We'll definitely be making these again! We're also thinking this recipe without the salad would be a great party appetizer. You can only be so creative when you pack a lunch to bring to work every day so it was nice to spend some time cooking a unique lunch meal. I loved watching the Inaugural Parade with my mom and enjoying this lunch treat! 

Food Flops, Delicious Drinks

YOU GUYS. The Girls Team had our first official MIHM food flop this week. Ugh. It was a bummer so let's just dive right in...

In the spirit of our January theme of cooking Food Network Star meals, we decided to make Chili Bean and Corn Bread Pie from Ellie Krieger's Comfort Food Fix. Ellie's schtick on Food Network is to put a healthier spin on traditional comfort foods.

"Comfort Food Fix" by Ellie Krieger.

Some of the ingredients from the pantry.

 

I tried to find Ellie's recipe for this Chili Pie online to link it for you guys, but I had no such luck. This seems fitting, considering our disappointment with the meal. Anyway, I'm not even going to bother typing it out for you here, because it's not worth it! Basically you cook the chili portion while making the corn bread topping. Then, when those two parts are ready, layer them together in a baking dish.

Garlic, onions, beans, chili and spices on the stove.

Chili topped with corn bread mixture, ready for the oven. 

 

After 30 minutes in the oven, the chili and corn bread pie was ready to serve. We dished it out with excitement because the chili pie smelled really great.

Corn bread chili pie. 

 

The chili part of this dish was delicious. It was healthy, meatless, and the green chilis added just the right amount of kick. When we started MIHM, we promised to be honest when sharing our projects with our readers. So to come right out and say it, the corn bread was awful. It ruined the whole dish. Because the recipe called for whole wheat flour as a healthier alternative to traditional corn bread, the bread was dry and grainy. A few bites in, we both had instant heartburn! Honestly, there are just some things that don't work as a "healthier" alternative. What makes corn bread so delicious is the sweet taste and soft texture. This was dry. And hard. And bland. But, all was not wasted. We dumped the bread topping and got 3 leftover lunches out of the chili, which was excellent.

 

To ease the disappointment, and continue with our cooking and cocktails theme for this month, we quickly whipped up one of our favorite drinks - Irish Coffee. And yes, we always have all of the ingredients for this drink at the ready. :)

Heavy whipping cream, Jameson, cocktail shaker, coffee,

glasses with 2 sugar cubes.

 

As any proud Irish family would, we had multiple bottles of Jameson in our family White Elephant gift exchange this year. :) My Girls Team partner managed to end up with one bottle, traditional Irish Coffee glassware, and the instructions on how to make the perfect drink, courtesy of my cousin Tim who recently visited the Jameson factory in Ireland. Lucky guy!

 

We used Tim's recipe to make our Irish Coffees. Whipping the cream in the cocktail shaker and pouring it over the hot spoon are really the magic steps here. If you've ever had an Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista in San Francisco, but had trouble replicating it at home, this is your answer!

 

1. Add two teaspoons of sugar to the glass.

2. Add a generous shot of Jameson.

3. Top with fresh, hot coffee.

4. Stir well.

5. Whip heavy cream well for 15 seconds in a cocktail shaker.

6. Pour cream into glass over the back of a hot spoon. (Cream should float.)

 

Pouring the cream over a hot spoon.

Enjoying the warm Irish Coffee on the couch.

Well guys, you can't win them all. But, after a year of making it happen on Mondays, it is impressive that we've just now run across our first inedible meal. And of course, there is nothing so terrible that an Irish Coffee can't fix! Until next week...

Cooking and Cocktails

Happy New Year MIHM readers! The Girls Team is back in full force and ready for a new year of Monday night fun.

For Christmas, we both received a number of cookbooks, many of which belong to great Food Network Stars - Giada, Ina, Alton, you know the gang. These gifts have inspired the Girls Team to start attempting different dishes from various Food Network Stars on MIHM. 

Tonight, we started with Giada de Laurentiis and her recipe for Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms.

"Everyday Italian" by Giada de Laurentiis.

Here's the link to the recipe online, although it varies a bit from the recipe we used out of the cookbook. The cookbook says to use Italian-style turkey sausages which added a nice flavor.

Sea salt, pepper, olive oil, frozen peas, Italian-style turkey sausage, and cremini mushrooms.

And of course, Giada's Farfalle from Target! 

While the pasta was boiling in a large pot, the turkey sausage cooked in a big pan. Once the sausage was browned, we sauteed the mushrooms for about 8 minutes. Then we added the peas to saute for an additional 2 minutes. 

Sauteed cremini mushrooms.

Peas and mushrooms, with the browned sausage waiting on the side.

 After draining the pasta, we mixed all of the cooked ingredients with the pasta and then it was ready to serve.

Mixing with the pasta. 

Freshly grated parmesan to sprinkle on top of the pasta.

It took about 25 minutes from the time we started cooking until we plated the finished pasta. This is a great week night dinner because it is an easy recipe to follow and isn't too labor intensive or time consuming. It also made a ton of leftovers which are great for lunches at work for the rest of the week. Giada's recipe claimed to make 4 servings, but this made about 8 servings. I would definitely make this recipe again because it includes some of my favorite foods in one dish: mushrooms, pasta and sausage. YUM!

Served with fresh french bread.

Also this week, in the spirit of the New Year, we added another level to our MIHM fun...creative cocktails! One thing we really haven't shared yet on MIHM is how much the Girls Team loves a good cocktail :) We've decided that each night we cook a Food Network Star's recipe, we'll come up with an accompanying cocktail to try. 

Tonight, we made a Blueberry Press. We've had a Raspberry Press before and loved it, so we thought we'd try a different flavor. We used this vodka press recipe, but used blueberry flavored vodka.

7up, tonic, blueberry vodka and fresh blueberries.

I tend to order beer or wine when I'm out, because I really don't like cocktails that have a strong alcohol flavor. The Blueberry Press is equal parts refreshing and alcoholic :) It's not overly sweet, but doesn't taste like straight vodka - always a plus. Even better, when you're done, you can eat the fresh blueberry garnish for some healthy antioxidants! 

Served in martini glasses for some girlie flare.

This week's dinner was quick and delicious, and the Blueberry Press was a fun new addition. Here's to more cooking and cocktails in our future!