the SmockLady

I hate it when my children ask me what’s for dinner. I despise it. Why? Because no one pays attention to the answer, only to the fact that some one asked a question that had the word dinner in it. So each little brain tunes in to that one single word and they wage a war against me each asking me one at a time only minutes apart, “What’s for dinner?” UGH! Why do they do this? I think it is to wear me down. Break me so they can tie me up and put on their Indian costumes and dance around me with tomahawks and yip and hoot like the Lost Boys and Indians in Peter Pan. When I get that question I often answer with something like, “Food”. They especially love it when I say something like “pickled pigs feet” or “hog jaws”. So when I am prepared (read organized) I love it when I have something in the kitchen for all of them to do - at least then they won’t be dancing around under my feet just getting in the way. That’s worse than the repetitive questioning.

So tonight we all made Chicken Parmesan. One of SmockDaddy’s favorite meals. There is a bit of history behind Chicken Parmesan in our house. One day not so long ago a long, long time ago SmockDaddy wanted to make me supper. This was before SmockDaddy was SmockDaddy, but he was already Smock’s Married Man. He wanted to make me a meal that I would never forget. Revision: A meal my taste buds would never forget. OH, and, of course he wanted me to always remember that he could make something as fancy as Chicken Parmesan. I stayed out of the kitchen and let him show off his mad cooking skilz cook. When he was finished and we sat down to eat the kitchen was DE. STROYED. A SmockDaddy tornado had blown through my kitchen and left it unrecognizable. Alright. I am not being fair. But seriously, how can I let him live it down. It would only be unfair of me if I did not also redeem him by also saying that he did clean it up. AND. He does lots of things around here, even in the kitchen and it includes help with cleaning the kitchen. I just wish I had a photo of that mess. It would make this story so much easier to tell. Because I know how terribly interested you all must be.

In all honesty though, that mess was so big that I did not want Chicken Parmesan ever again unless it was in a restaurant where I did not have to clean the kitchen. See, I had never had Chicken Parmesan before that night SmockDaddy made it for me. It was quite good, but the other impression kind of won out over the tasting, eating, and enjoying part. I know, that is so bad of me, but I couldn’t help it. It was a mess. Now, remember, he cleaned it up and helps out all the time.

One day we got this really awesome, fantabulous greatamous digital programmable pressure cooker. We love it. So what’s the first thing we cooked in it? You guessed it! Chicken Parmesan. The recipe was truly a great recipe and other than chopping was not mess at all. So my love for chicken Parmesan became a reality. (By the way, SmockDaddy has redeemed that mess many times over, but how can I let him forget that?)

Tonight we made yet another version of that beloved dish. SmockDaddy has been on a diet the past few months and sometimes we (the children and I) eat a regular meal while he eats something else - like tree bark with some seasonings. His diet is not that bad, but it has not convinced me to join him. This morning I saw a recipe on TV that I really wanted to try. It was Chicken Parmesan - low fat style.

I thought about doing a cooking blog post like Pioneer Woman at her cooking blog, but I decided not to for many reasons. And I just know you are dying to know those reasons (if you are still around):

• the lighting in my kitchen is nasty - everything in this house comes out yellowed, no matter what I do to the white balance on my camera settings. I blame it on the lovely loose, coming unglued, formica counter tops that try so desperately to look like wood.
• and then there is the yellow affect - thanks to the lovely, pretending so failingly to be wood paneling on these rented walls.
• and I would not want to forget to list the yellowing of all things photographed - thanks to the lovely, peeling and pretending to be wood flooring.
• and then there is the fact that so many bloggers are copying her style of cooking blog. I love it but I’ve got my own kitchen link that I’ll stick with for now.
• but most importantly, this meal contains NO BUTTER! Shh, please don’t tell her, she would be ashamed of me (and I only lurk over there, so that would make it worse that she would be so ashamed of someone she does not even know). I love butter as much as Ree, actually more. I have a confession to make: I am a butter snob. I only like real butter. UNSALTED real butter. Fresh butter. European butter. Take not substitutes!

Joy’s Healthy Chicken Parmesan with Baked Broccoli. Of course I made it a bit differently because, well, I usually cook by adding this and that and some of this smells good too.

I did take some pictures that I must share. I mean if you have been here this long, then you totally deserve looking at my yellowed photos - I am not going to upload any edited photos other than size editing (because the camera was set to 8 megapixels). You seriously can not appreciate all the fake wood in this house without being in it, but I give you yellow anyway. I wish I had used my good camera because I could have made them a bit better with the white balance, but I’m still playing with my new mom camera. So here is the set with a few of them uploaded (some photos taken by Mog); and I’ll upload some edited ones because food just does not look appetizing without its proper color.

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