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Rainy Saturday Chicken Parmigiana

Chicken Parmigiana is one of those dishes that everyone loves and everyone makes.  We’re no different in Miss Maggs Love Kitchen.   Bruce has been wanting chicken parm for weeks and he is just home from a business trip.  We can hear thunder outside, so it’s a perfect day for a yummy supper.

Miss Maggs’ Rainy Saturday Chicken Parmigiana

6 boneless skinless chicken tenders

2 eggs, whisked

fine herb bread crumbs

24 oz. bottle basil and tomato sauce

1 8 oz. bag shredded mozzarella

Thin spaghetti

Two leaves of fresh basil, chopped

Parmigiano-reggiano, to taste

After washing the tenders, roll them first in the crumbs, then in the eggs, then back in the crumbs a second time.

Spread a 13 x 9 glass dish with olive oil.  Place each tender in the dish.  In the top of each tender, sprinkle your favorite spice blend.  I like Papa Charlie’s Greek Blend from John Henry.  http://johnhenrysfoodproducts.com/product/papa-charlies-greek-rub-12-oz/ (great stuff, I put it on everything.)  I sprinkle it on top of each tender, then turn the tender over so the loose blend sprinkles into the bottom of the dish, then flip it back over so that now some is on the bottom of the tender.  I drizzle a bit of olive oil over each tender to keep them moist.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.  At about 18 minutes, put salted water on for thin spaghetti.

At 20 minutes, I take the chicken out, pour one whole bottle of basil and tomato sauce over the chicken, and top it with the better part of an 8 oz bag of shredded mozzarella.  Sprinkle chopped basil on top.  Then back into the oven.

This is a hearty dish so I only use a little more than a quarter round of spaghetti, broken in half.  When the spaghetti is done cooking (about 8 minutes), take the chicken out and let it rest while you strain the spaghetti.

To finish:  a little sauce on the place, then the spaghetti, then two tenders each topped with the sauce and cheese, with a bit of shredded parmigiano-reggiano over top.  I save the rest of the tenders for mini sliders the next day.

Buon appetito!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Independence Day – Babygirl Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

Happy Independence Day Kiddos!  Today in Miss Maggs Love Kitchen it’s July 4, 2015.  Love Kitchen cooking was offered by Shannon Sylvie Maggs, aka Babygirl and she prepared her SCRUMPTIOUS Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes.  She starts with box pancake mix.  Honestly, you can make your own pancake mix, but why would you.  She adds two tbsp. ricotta to a cup of pancake mix (makes it so tasty and creamy), then two large handfuls of fresh blueberries.  Grilled in butter, they are delicious, and what a treat for Bruce and I to have Babygirl home with us and await with watering mouths the lovely breakfast prepared by this sweet girl.

Family traditions can be found everywhere and started anytime – from everyone snuggling on one sofa with soft cuddly throws to watch a ridiculous show (Say Yes to the Dress?  Drone Races?  Amy Schumer?)  to patriotic blueberry pancakes on red plates for Independence Day.  Family traditions give any holiday depth.

With love from our Love Kitchen to yours,

Miss Maggs

The Chicken Soup Blessing

I raised my daughter on chicken soup. I know many mothers do, but she literally ate it every single day of most of her life. On Sunday nights I would make a big pot of soup that would be breakfast for her for the week. The dogs loved Sunday nights because they also loved chicken soup and they got to finish whatever was left of last week’s pot. Each day of school I would warm up her soup in a big green mug that she would eat on the way to school. She was never much for breakfast foods but she would eat her own shoes if I put them in a green cup and called them soup. She was, and is, a hyper sort with a fast metabolism and she gets mean when she’s hungry, so I had to figure something out for breakfast and soup was the solution.

One day when my daughter in the middle of 12th grade, I had to car pool three other kids to school. I had Shannon in the front passenger seat, and three kids in the back row of my SUV. I got in, put my key in the ignition, and the three kids in the back said, “Hey where’s our green soup cup?” I realized my daughter had told all of her friends about her breakfast soup and had to go back into the house to get soup for everyone.

I, like so many mothers, think of chicken soup as a way to bless loved ones. Feel sick? Chicken Soup. Bad day? Chicken Soup. There’s something tender in the making of it. It’s definitely a stanchion of Miss Maggs’ Love Kitchen.

Green Cup Chicken Soup

One whole chicken, cleaned inside and out.
One 32 oz box chicken broth.
One bullion cube.
Four carrots halved.
Two celery stalks halved longways then chopped.
Everything into an 8 quart pot with enough water to completely cover the chicken.
Cook on medium high until just before it bubbles, then simmer covered for one hour.
After an hour, take the chicken out and let it cool enough to touch.
Skim the fat off the top of the soup with a spoon.
Remove the chicken from the carcass, chop it up and add back into the pot.
Remove the halved carrots and chop them up and add back to the pot.
Add:
1 teaspoon of salt
One large or two medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped small
Two rosemary sprigs chopped
Four thyme sprigs chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 bag of 16 oz baby peas
Juice of one lemon (you’ll love how lemon brightens soup)

Simmer one hour.

In a separate pot, boil per the instructions one small handful of fine egg noodles for each cup of soup you will be eating today. Add to each soup serving.

Mother’s Day

It’s Mother’s Day.   Today in Miss Maggs Love Kitchen, my lovely Bruce did the love cooking.  We had wonderful eggs benedict with an amazing lemony hollandaise sauce.  Yum.  3 egg yolks;  1 tbsp. lemon juice; 2 sticks of butter; 1 tbsp. cream, dash of cayenne, emulsified.   And as always in the Love Kitchen, the love is the most important ingredient.  In our home, we love everyone with our food.    Had a bad day?  You must need some risotto with wild mushrooms.   Dreary and rainy outside?   Sunny Butternut Squash soup.    Need a date night?   Rosemary lamb chops with bacon wrapped asparagus.   Love, love, love.

This Mother’s Day my beautiful girl is away from me, in Virginia working hard.   I’m sure there’s nowhere she would rather be today than with me.   My thoughts today, however, turn to other Mothers.   My dear friend who lost her young daughter last year; how heavy must her heart be today.

My daughter’s best friend, Tara, is a young mother at 25 of two boys, 4 and 2.   Through most of my life I have looked upon these young mothers with disdain.  Who can’t be responsible enough to avoid pregnancy at such a young age with no clear father figures in the children’s lives.  I have regarded these young mothers as foolish, and felt little sympathy for them.  Through these last 5 years with Tara though, I have begun to re-evaluate this narrow mindset.   Tara is an amazing mother to her 2 boys.  She breathes her young soul into them and pours motherly love into every corner as if it were melted butter.   There is a picture of  Tara, with Cris, 4 and Gabi, 2, buried in the sand under a pier.  She is beaming.  The boys are in varied poses of boyness; little Cris the older boy, hamming for the photograph, loving the sand on his skin.   Gabi, the rascally wild 2 year old, clearly talking and poking his brother, unaware that there even is a photograph being taken.  It is a radiant photograph of family, one that would please Tara’s grandmother deeply.

I have deep admiration for Tara.  Being 25, single with two children can be unrelentingly isolating.   She is a normal girl only to other single mothers her age.   I know that somewhere inside her is the young 25 Tara.  The one who goes dancing, goes to college, goes to the grocery store and buys only what she wants.  That Tara wants to travel and have a two seater car, and a boyfriend who doesn’t have to “understand” what it’s like to love someone with small children.  She wants to be loved by herself, only for what she is.  This, I think, is the cross of the young single mother.   When I see her without the children, laughing with people her own age, my heart aches for her youth.   This is not what Tara sees when she looks in the mirror, though.

Tara sees only the mother.   She sees the woman who would jump in front of a car to shield her boys.   The woman who will someday go into a school and fight the principal for her children’s education.    I think Tara is a beautiful girl, but what she sees when Tara looks in the mirror is much more beautiful.   She sees her purpose and her joy in mothering.  She sees the selfless Tara, the one who wants to give them everything.   I have changed my mind about young single mothers.   They, actually, are the real mothering warriors of us all.   They tackle societal bias, low income, and a system designed to fail them.   And they love, love, love in the purest sense.   Tara has always regarded me as the perfect mother.  But this Mother’s Day, it is my sweet Tara who is my hero.