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Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well and staying comfortable and cool dealing with the heatwave we are having.

I knew today was going to be extremely hot so I got up early and decided to cook dinner while the kitchen was still cool. Tonight’s dinner is a favorite of my son and it is Chicken Marsala. Nice and easy and so flavorful and fairly quick to make. I am looking for all shortcuts during the heatwave.

Bob and I have been going out to dinner the past few nights dealing with the heat and not wanting to cook but I am getting tired of eating out and needed a home-cooked meal.

I wanted to share this recipe with you (serves 4) if you needed a new idea for dinner. I am serving this with one of my favorite Summer salads that I have previously posted which is tomatoes, peaches, burrata, and fresh basil with a light lemon/olive oil vinaigrette.

Have a great day and stay cool.

Chicken Marsala

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, (approx. 1 ½ lb. pkg – pounded thin- 1/4 inch)
• ½ cup AP flour
• 8 oz of baby Bella mushrooms (or assorted mixed mushrooms)
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup dry Marsala wine
• 1 ½ cups chicken stock
• 1 yellow onion sliced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
• 3 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.

Season both sides of the chicken breast with salt and pepper and dredge in the AP flour (shake off excess)

Add the chicken to the pan and sear on each side for 3-5 minutes, turning once until golden brown, remove to a plate.

If needed, add a little more oil and butter to the pan if it is dry. Add the onions and the mushrooms and a dash of salt to draw out the liquid and sauté until the onions are caramelized and the mushrooms are soft (approx. 10 minutes). ADD the garlic and saute for 1 more minute. Season with salt and pepper.

ADD the Marsala wine to the pan and let it reduce to half scraping up all the bits on the bottom of the pan.

ADD the chicken stock and the sauteed chicken with any juices that have accumulated on the plate, bring to a boil, and then reduce to medium and cook for another 10 minutes to cook the chicken through and thicken the sauce.

Remove the chicken to your serving platter and add 1 tbsp of butter that has been dredged in flour to the sauce, cook for a few minutes to thicken, and ADD the chopped parsley. Check for seasoning and serve this sauce over the chicken. Enjoy!

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Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Please ask your family and friends to “follow”, “like” “share” and JOIN  DishingwithDiane.com 

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Hi everyone,

Welcome Summer 2022!

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I wanted to share with you the special dinner I made Bob for Father’s Day this past weekend.

I hope all the dads, grandpa’s, godfathers, dad’s to be and pet dads had a wonderful day!

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I knew restaurants would be crowded for Father’s Day and we would be staying home, so I was thinking about a meal that I could make for Bob that would be a surprise. Something I could make at home that wasn’t on the usual dinner rotation, and then the lightbulb went off.

A few years ago, before my heart transplant and Covid arrived, Bob and I spent many days and nights in NYC visiting restaurants, museums, Broadway plays, and yes, even tourist sights. We love NYC.

One afternoon we stopped in a restaurant near Chelsea Market that was a real old-fashioned Mom and Pop red sauce Italian restaurant (sorry I can’t remember the name) and we ordered their special of the day which was chicken parmigiana but in the style of a pizza. Ground chicken with mozzarella, red sauce, and basil- plain, simple and delicious.

Recently, I have asked around on Facebook and with friends to see if anyone knew of a restaurant closer to my home that made this dish and no one could give me an answer. So, I decided for this Father’s Day I would try and make it myself.

So I did a little research on the best way to fry the chicken in a disc and gathered my ingredients and put it all together. Bob was quite surprised and enjoyed the chicken parmigiana “pizza” style as we remembered the little restaurant where we first tasted it.

It came out great but the only thing I would change next time is the size of the pizza. I only had an 8″ cake pan and a 10″ high-sided skillet and the chicken crust came out a little thicker than I would have liked so I would prepare this again using a 10″ cake pan and fry it in a 12″ high-sided skillet next time. But we were very happy with the results and I wanted to share this recipe with you…..

Chicken Parmigiana – “Pizza Style”

Ingredients:

1 lb. of ground chicken

3-4 cups of Breadcrumbs (I made my own from Italian bread and seasoned them myself) but you could use packaged Italian seasoned breadcrumbs or panko or a combination of both breadcrumbs styles- your choice. —– Season the breadcrumbs with dried parsley and some grated cheese for extra flavor.

6 large eggs, beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper

2 cups flour, seasoned

Shredded mozzarella cheese or thin-sliced mozzarella

Additional grated cheese for serving- I use Locatelli cheese

1 cup red sauce – I used homemade sauce but you could use jarred sauce or canned pizza sauce.

6 leaves of fresh basil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp poultry seasoning

1/2 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tbsp oregano

dried parsley

3 cups peanut oil (I use that to fry) but you could use canola or a light olive oil

COOKS NOTE: any leftover eggs and seasoned breadcrumbs can be combined and fried. My grandmother called these “egg cutlets” and they are crispy and delicious. Give them a try…

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Materials needed:

I prefer a 10” round cake pan (I used an 8 ” cake pan for this pizza)

12” deep-sided round skillet or saute pan

2 large metal spatulas

Wire rack

3 aluminum half-size steam table trays (for easy clean-up for the breading station).

Pizza stone or cookie sheet

Directions:

Let’s get ready to prep… this meal takes two days

In a bowl, season your ground chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and poultry seasoning

Make the crust– use a cake pan lined with plastic wrap and add the seasoned ground chicken. Mold the chicken into a thin circular disc. Then wrap in the plastic wrap and place in the freezer overnight.

The next day, prepare your breading station. I used 3 aluminum half-size trays for flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs

Take the chicken out of the freezer and do not thaw

(Food saver gloves can come in handy now)

Dredge the chicken in the seasoned flour until fully coated then shake off the excess.

Next drop the chicken disc into the eggs, coat fully, and shake off excess

Then into the breadcrumbs. Pat the breadcrumbs into the chicken but be gentle not to break the chicken disc. Fill all the areas on both sides until there is no more egg or chicken visible. The disc has to be fully coated in breadcrumbs.

Then wrap the disc and put it back in the freezer for another hour to firm up.

Once the hour is over, remove the chicken from the freezer and work quickly before it starts to thaw.

Heat the oil on medium in a high-sided skillet or sauté pan (approx. 1 inch of oil in the pan). When the oil is hot ADD the frozen chicken disc, it should sizzle immediately.

COOKS NOTE: you can tell when the oil is hot enough by placing a wooden spoon in the oil- when bubbles appear, the oil is hot enough to fry…

When the edges of the chicken start to look golden, with the two metal spatulas, gently lift the chicken from the skillet onto a plate. Place another plate over it and gently flip the chicken.

Now gently slide the chicken back into the oil and fry the 2^nd side until fully brown.

Remove the chicken and let it dry on a wire rack.

At this point, preheat the broiler to high

Place the chicken on a pizza stone or cookie sheet pan and assemble the chicken like a pizza……. Add sauce, then grated cheese, and then shredded mozzarella.

Place under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. Garnish with fresh torn basil.

Cut and serve as a pizza. Side dishes to complement the pizza can be salad or sauteed broccoli rabe. Enjoy!

I hope you try this recipe and enjoy every bite!

To finish our Father’s Day celebration, I bought Bob a chocolate mousse cheesecake with a thick ganache topping to complete the celebration.

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Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Please ask your family and friends to “follow”, “like” “share” and JOIN  DishingwithDiane.com 

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Also, continue to send me your comments, I love hearing from you.

Hi Everyone,

Hope all is well. Happy to say that my healing is complete with my eye surgery and I am back in business and can see clearly now to write my entry to the blog.

We had a little celebration here last night and it was our “Dating Anniversary”.

This year we celebrated the 37th year of our first date or as Bob likes to refer to it, our 13,513 days together!

My husband is the biggest romantic and very, very thoughtful and since we started dating, Bob has always celebrated and bought me a little gift for every anniversary of our first date, engagement date, and wedding date. The months have blossomed into years and he has never missed an anniversary.

Yesterday he bought flowers and an occasion cake (carrot cake, one of our favorites) and I made dinner at home this year and made Chicken Francese meatballs and served it over tri-color spaghetti.

This is the recipe I want to share with you today. So, let’s get started

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Chicken Francese Meatballs

Serves 4- approx. 6 meatballs a serving

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2- 3 cloves of garlic -minced
• 1 large egg – lightly beaten
• ½ cup breadcrumbs – seasoned or panko, your choice
• ½ cup grated cheese – I use Locatelli
• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
• ½ tsp dried basil
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp Calabrian chili peppers in a jar OR crushed red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for Lemon Wine Sauce:

• 1 shallot- diced small
• 2 cloves of garlic- minced
• Salt to taste
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup white wine
• 2 cups no-salt chicken broth
• 1 large lemon cut into round slices
• ½ lemon zested and juiced
• 2 tbsp parsley

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat, set aside

Prepare a pot of water for boiling the pasta and follow the pasta package directions

In a medium-sized bowl add the ground chicken, garlic, egg, breadcrumbs, grated cheese, oregano, basil, parsley, garlic powder, crushed Calabrian chili peppers OR red pepper flakes, salt & pepper.

Mix well with your hands but DON’T OVERMIX, just combine

Shape the meatballs into balls no bigger than 1 inch – aim for 24 meatballs

Place the meatballs on the prepared baking sheet

Cook the meatballs for about 20 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165 degrees….. once cooked, remove from the oven and set aside

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Once the meatballs are in the oven, make the pan sauce

In a large 12-inch skillet, add butter, shallots, and garlic with a touch of salt

Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the white wine

Let it simmer for 2 minutes. Add in the lemon zest, lemon juice, sliced lemons, and the chicken stock

Simmer until the mixture has cooked down slightly, 5 minutes

Add the cooked meatballs and additional parsley and mix to combine. Simmer for 5 minutes

Add the cooked pasta, mix well and simmer for 2-3 minutes to combine the flavors and reduce the sauce a bit.

The final dish…

Cooks Note: if you don’t want the meatballs over pasta, you could serve them in sandwiches, over rice, or over a vegetable.

Cooks Note: these are the crushed Calabrian Chili Peppers

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Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Please ask your family and friends to “follow”, “like” “share” and JOIN  DishingwithDiane.com 

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Also, continue to send me your comments, I love hearing from you.

Hi Everyone,

Good morning … I recently made Chicken Marsala and posted it to my personal Facebook page and received a lot of requests for the recipe so I decided to share the recipe on my blog as well. I hope you try it and enjoy it.

This recipe can be made with chicken breast cutlets or turkey cutlets and also a variety of mushrooms. Mix and match the mushrooms and make the perfect combination for you.

I usually serve this meal with a baked potato, sweet potato, brown rice or roasted brussels sprouts.

I find if you pound the chicken cutlets ahead of time up until the dredging in flour step (don’t dredge before you are ready for the oil or the flour and cutlet will get gummy and too moist), dinner comes together rather quickly. Enjoy!

Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Please ask your family and friends to “follow”, “like” and “share” DishingwithDiane.com 

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Ingredients:

2 packages turkey or chicken cutlets or scallopini (sliced thin)

½ cup all purpose flour (I used Wondra or 00 flour)

¼ cup shallots, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 ½ tsp kosher salt

½ tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tsp thyme

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2- (8 oz packages) of white button mushrooms-sliced OR-1 package white button, 1 pkg cremini and 2 portobello caps sliced

1-cup sweet marsala wine

2 cups low sodium chicken stock

3 tbsp sour cream (NOT reduced fat, it will make watery sauce w/reduced fat)

2 tbsp snipped fresh chives or 3 tbsp dried

• Sprinkle a small amount of water on a large sheet of plastic wrap. Place 2-4 cutlets on top of the plastic and sprinkle again with water (not too much).
• Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap or waxed paper and pound with a rolling pin or meat pounder until ¼ inch thick. Repeat with the remaining cutlets.
• Mix the flour, thyme, salt and pepper in a shallow pie plate
• Heat half the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until almost smoking
• Working in batches, place the cutlets in the flour mixture and turn to coat on all sides. Shake off the excess flour and add to the skillet
• Cook 2-3 minutes on each side. Repeat with the remaining oil and cutlets
• Transfer to a plate or platter and cover loosely with foil until you have prepared all the cutlets
• Add the cold butter to the skillet and heat until melted and foamy.
• Add the shallots and garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes
• Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until almost all of the liquid that the mushrooms give off has evaporated and the mushrooms are a nice golden color about 5 minutes
• Pour in the marsala, increase the heat to high, and cook stirring, until almost all of the liquid has evaporated
• Add the chicken stock and simmer on medium high for 3 minutes.
• Return the cutlets to the skillet and simmer, turning often until the cutlet is warmed through and the sauce has thickened, about 2 minutes (If it is easier for you, do this step-in batches)
• Transfer the cutlets to a warm serving platter
• Stir the sour cream and chives into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper and spoon over the cutlets*

*If the sauce is too thin for your liking adding 1 tbsp of cornstarch to thicken it up

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Hi Everyone, 

I hope you are all well.

I am back. I had a little bit of a setback in my heart transplant healing with a very strong virus and I ended up spending 12 days in the hospital. The virus is under control but I had to come home with a PICC line in my arm so I can continue IV medication at home.

I have been home for a week and needless to say, there hasn’t been much cooking going on here. When I first got home Bob and I were eating the meals that I had frozen from previous dinners.

It seems that it is still “a blessing” that after seven years that my son hasn’t lived home, I still can’t cook for two people and I use my mother’s recipes that serve 4-6. This allows us to package individual meals and use the food saver to freeze meals for a later date and they came in handy this week. I usually use the frozen dinners for days I am too tired to cook or have a full day of doctor appointments.

The other day I had a bit more energy and I was in the mood for Mom’s Chicken Cacciatore over egg noodles. I made the dish and posted it to some of my Facebook food groups and were asked by so many for the recipe that I thought I would post it to the blog to share with all my members.

I hope you give it a try and enjoy it.

Chicken Cacciatore aka Hunter’s Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, bone-in, skin-on and each breast cut in half for smaller pieces….(I use thighs and drumsticks, but use whatever pieces you like)
• 10 oz. mushrooms, (I use a combo of white button and cremini)
• 1 onion, diced medium
• 1 small yellow and 1 small red pepper, diced medium
• 4 small carrots, peeled and sliced
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled and shaved
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
• 2-3 diced Roma tomatoes (I use 1 pint of grape tomatoes –cut in half.)
• Assorted herbs, parsley, basil, oregano and thyme to taste
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Optional: pitted kalamata olives, a large handful

Instructions:

1. Season chicken with salt, pepper, and sprinkled oregano.
2. Heat a heavy cast-iron skillet, drizzled with olive oil.
3. Place chicken skin side down and do not move it until it reaches a deep golden brown and it’s easy to turn, brown the other side for a few minutes. Remove chicken and set aside.
4. Add vegetables, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste, a few sprigs of thyme (tie the thyme with kitchen cooking twine to make it easier to pull the stems out), sauté for 5 minutes.
5. Add wine and let it reduce.
6. Add chicken broth and tomatoes.
7. Toss in 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper and chopped fresh basil.
8. Place the chicken back into the pan and sink into the juices.
9. Simmer on LOW uncovered on the stovetop, for a couple of hours or until chicken falls off the bone.
10. Garnish with fresh parsley and remove thyme stems.
11. Serve with cooked pasta, egg noodles, polenta or warm crusty bread

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Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Thank you for visiting my blog.

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Hi Everyone, 

Hope this post finds you well.

I promised more recipes during my recovery and I have another recipe to share that I posted a few weeks back on Facebook. I think you will like this one. Ciao!

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I am getting around a little bit more, so Bob and I have been taking it slow and cleaning the garage and preparing donation boxes. When I get tired, Bob continues on his own. You could say I am a little late on my Spring cleaning….

Bob was cleaning the garage mezzanine and came in the house with a box and said, “Look what I found?” These four words always get me excited because I have collected so much stuff over 31 years of marriage, that I never know what I might stumble upon and most definitely I forgot about it tucked away in the attic or basement or garage. 

Well, this was the case with the mystery box. I peaked inside and a flood of memories came back to me.

It was a waffle boat maker.

I know that doesn’t sound that memorable, but when my son was little we would eat ice cream in waffle boats with sprinkles and whipped cream on the patio after soccer practice and just talk about anything and everything.

It was a great one on one time with my son.

Bob asked if we should keep the waffle maker or donate it and then the bell in my head went off with an idea.

One of my favorite meals to order at brunch is “Chicken and Waffles”.  

What if I prepared fried chicken wings in waffle boats? And at that moment, I knew what we were having for dinner. Bob went out to Whole Foods to buy waffle mix and a few packages of chicken wings and when he got back, I got to work.

My favorite recipe for fried chicken is a recipe from Ina Garten for oven fried chicken – easy preparation and it starts off in the frying pan for three minutes and finishes baking in the oven. Of course I had to tweak the recipe a bit– see cooks notes.

Very easy, and the chicken is always crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Her recipe calls for marinating the chicken overnight in buttermilk, but in this case I only marinated the chicken for two hours because I couldn’t wait.

Cooks Note: To the buttermilk, I added  1- 1/2 tsps. of dried tarragon and a splash of sriracha sauce.

(I will share the recipe at the end of the post).

Now, what to serve with this and the first request Bob had was French fries so that was an easy decision. Cole slaw or mashed potatoes with gravy would be nice also.

I am serving the chicken with three condiments- maple syrup, honey and hot sauce. (I love Mike’s Hot Honey on chicken- unfortunately for me, I can no longer have raw honey so I have to settle for the pasteurized “honey in the plastic bear bottle”. 

Making the waffle boats were a snap with the mix and dinner was ready in no time. For the full experience with this meal, Bob and I had ice cream for dessert.

BTW– this is the waffle boat maker that I used. I have had it so long it is considered a “collectible” online. How is that for making someone feel old? A collectible appliance.

It can be found on Amazon from various sellers- price varies from $147 to $300.

VillaWare 2007 UNO Series Waffle Boat Maker

It was a great dinner with lots of memories and one I am sure any child (that is children of all ages) would love to have fried chicken wings in a waffle boat. 

Oven- Fried Chicken

recipe courtesy of Ina Garten and Food Network

Ingredients:

• 2 chickens (3 pounds each), cut in eight serving pieces
• 1 quart buttermilk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• Vegetable oil or vegetable shortening

COOKS NOTES:

FOR  MY ADD ON… tarragon & hot sauce

Adjust the buttermilk amount according to chicken quantity…

Directions:

Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl and pour the buttermilk over them. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Take the chicken out of the buttermilk and coat each piece thoroughly with the flour mixture. Pour the oil into a large heavy-bottomed stockpot to a depth of 1 inch and heat to 360 degrees on a thermometer.

Working in batches, carefully place several pieces of chicken in the oil and fry for about 3 minutes on each side until the coating is a light golden brown (it will continue to brown in the oven). Don’t crowd the pieces. Remove the chicken from the oil and place each piece on a metal baking rack set on a sheet pan. Allow the oil to return to 360 degrees before frying the next batch. When all the chicken is fried, bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink inside. Serve hot.

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I hope you have a chance to try this recipe.

Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Ask your family and friends to share, like, comment and join DishingwithDiane.com and become part of the family!

Once you become a member, you’ll never miss a post.

Also, continue to send me your comments and emails, I Love hearing from you.