Prepare peppers by removing the white pit from the center and slice into ¼ inch strips. Prepare the onion by cutting it in half lengthways from bulb end to tip. Remove papery outer skin. Place onion cut side down on chopping board. Using the tip of the knife, cut onion lengthways into even slices, or, at a slight angle, into even wedges until thin strips are left.
Wash mushrooms under cold running water and slice 1/8 to ¼ inch thick.
Heat oil and butter in a large sauté pan. Add peppers and onion and sauté over medium high heat for 2 minutes until pepper just begin to soften. Add mushrooms and cook until peppers and onion are tender but not mushy.
NOTES: Perfect with a steak or chicken as a side dish.
4 boneless and skinless chicken breasts (8 thin cutlets)
3 eggs
½ cup flavored bread crumbs
¼ cup vegetable oil or peanut oil
DIRECTIONS:
Slice thick chicken breasts in half so they are thin. Pound all chicken using meat tenderizer/mallet to ½ inch thick. I use parchment t paper or handy wrap on top so the chicken isn’t all over the mallet. Beat three eggs in medium size bowl. Heat large frying pan and oil over medium to medium high heat. Dip one chicken beast at a time into egg mixture. Then, coat with breadcrumbs by pouring ½ a cup of breadcrumbs into a clean dish. Place chicken on top of bread crumbs and cover with more breadcrumbs. Press then bread crumbs firmly onto the chicken using fork or your hand. Flip the chicken over and press chicken into breadcrumbs again. Lightly shake off excess bread crumbs. There should be no egg showing. Place chicken breast onto a plate. Now you can move those chicken breasts into a frying pan. Add the tail end of the chicken into the pan facing away from you so if the oil splashes it splashes AWAY from you and not on you! Cook the chicken until the bread crumbs brown on both sides. Drain cooked chicken on paper towels before serving. You can test the chicken with an instant read thermometer to see if the chicken is done. Chicken is cooked through at 160 degrees. They cook a little more while standing too so be careful not to over cook them. You can place them in a 350 degree oven to finish cooking if your worried and even leave the paper towels underneath or you can place them in the oven to keep warm until they are all done.
Pro Tip: If you find your bread crumbs fall off the chicken, make sure your pressing those bread crumbs into the egg on the chicken during the coating process. I also “stage” newly coated chicken breasts on a separate plate because I can usually coat them in bread crumbs faster then they cook. You may want to bread the entire batch of chicken first. Then cook them afterwards so you can watch them closely and so you don’t burn them while being detracted. I add extra bread crumbs on top between the the layers so they don’t stick together on the plate before they are all cooked! Remember too that you should adjust the heat under the pan as you cook. Just like when we were making pancakes you don’t want to burn the outside of them and have raw chicken in the middle. That means the heats up too high. If they are not browning fast enough then the heat is too low and they will be greasy when done from sitting in the oil too long. Science and this cooking $%#@ isn’t always so easy.
Practice makes perfect and there are lots of recipes to come using chicken cutlets in the future! So cook and practice, cook and practice, cook and eat or drink!
For extra crispy cutlets, use a flour dredged prior to the breadcrumbs.
EXTRA CRISPY CUTLETS:
INGREDIENTS:
4 boneless and skinless chicken breasts (8 thin cutlets)
3 eggs
½ cup flavored bread crumbs
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup flour
DIRECTIONS: Slice thick chicken breasts in half so they are thin. Pound all chicken using meat tenderizer/mallet to ½ inch thick. Beat eggs in medium size bowl. Heat large frying pan and oil over medium high heat. Dip one chicken beast at a time into egg mixture. Then onto a plate with the flour. Coat boat sides. Return floured chicken to egg mixture. Don’t worry as some flour will come off into the egg. Then coat with breadcrumbs by pouring ½ a cup of breadcrumbs into a clean dish. Place chicken onto on top of bread crumbs and press firmly using fork. Flip chicken oven and press chicken into breadcrumbs. Lightly shake off excess bread crumbs. Place chicken breast in frying pan and cook until bread crumbs brown on both sides. Drain cooked chicken on paper towels before serving.
On Friday night, I went to the Rockin’ Fish restaurant in Northport with eight extended family members to celebrate the life of my wonderful Brother-in-law, Tom, after his funeral earlier in the day. I found it almost ironic to be going to a funeral ON Memorial Day weekend for such a terrific, fun loving man, but alas here I am.
We were all gathered around the table exchanging family stories when the waitress approached looking to take our drink order. It was water all around and one lager beer on tap. The beer surprisingly was not for me. I had to drive home and it was going to be a long day so I refrained from any alcohol that evening.
I think we were seated at their biggest table, so I would suggest not going there with any more than eight people, unless it’s a beautiful night to eat outside. Needless to say (but I’m still saying it), it was a rainy Friday night.
The water came to the table in chilled bottles as we all conversed. We all pondered our dinner orders comparing notes of who would order what off the menu. Debbie, my amazing sister in-law, could not decide between the fish sandwich or the “Stupid Chicken Sandwich”. No kidding, that’s what it’s called. I offered to help my sister in-law, much to my wife’s dismay, by suggesting we order both and split them between us. I was delighted when she accepted, but that meant Jennifer had to choose her own meal. Her choice was the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, sans tomato and blue cheese as she is allergic to the former and despises the taste of the latter on anything.
We all ordered our respective meals: one medium rare hamburger was the old standby for my mother in-law. Sam ordered their fabulous fish tacos, Adam the fish and chips, Adam’s friend Will’s choice was the Pasta Bolognese. Ben ordered the Pasta Bolognese as well, along with the wedge salad.
I always wondered why restaurants charge so much for wedge salads. I remember the first wedge salad I had was as a child; it was served to me in a seafood restaurant called the Schooner. The restaurant was located on the Nautical mile in Freeport, New York. This was my mom’s favorite place to eat, right until it closed in the late seventies. I think back to those days in the seventies when the wedge salad came “free” with the meal. The Schooner’s version of the salad was a quarter head of iceberg lettuce with your choice of salad dressing. They only offered four choices and did not even have a premade vinaigrette dressing, so my brother always had to order oil and vinegar. I myself always chose the Thousand Island dressing as a kid and I loved it. To this day, I still compare EVERY Thousand Island dressing to that one. My whole point to this salad diversion is I have a wedge salad recipe slated for this book. I will be bringing it to work in the very near future so I can post here for everyone to enjoy. It also costs less than $10 to make. I should bring enough for the whole office, huh?
Well, the weekend is over and it’s time to go back to the old grind. I would just like to close today’s post with a prayer for a truly excellent brother in-law and all those who knew him. We will all miss his laughter, sense of humor, generosity, and kindness very much.
Tom, it was a pleasure to know you, and I will think of you always with a smile on my face, as I continue to live my own life with an exuberance for gardening and things you loved that you have inspired in me.
Thank you.
Until next time, I wish everyone to be well, healthy, and happy.
The post I write today is in tribute to all the brave Men and Women who have given the ultimate sacrifice so that we as Americas and all the free nations of the world can celebrate such things as: Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, and Freedom to Worship as depicted in Norman Rockwell’s four famous paintings.
Today is a solemn event so as we thank are veterans for their service, remember that today is about our soldiers who didn’t make it home. I hope everyone who reads this has a good a day, a fun day filled with family and friends, sunshine and laughter.
I hope that this country provides for you the opportunities you have dreamed of and strive to fulfill in your right to pursue happiness. You have the ability to choose hope for a better tomorrow and that this hope for a brighter future brings comfort for those who are grieving today.
I know only how much I appreciate all the sacrifices my own family members have made over the years to try and make our world a safer and better place to live with these four freedoms in mind. It is my hope that one day we can all learn somehow to stop hurting each other and learn to get along in peace.
Today, I would like to introduce and thank Julianna (AKA Jules) for joining the staff here at THE MAGIC OF A PERFECT PAIRING magazine. Julianna currently holds our new position of chief copy editor.
Julianna is far more than my new copy editor, she makes sure that all the stories in our little magazine read well, flow logically, and are grammatically correct, while also fixing all my incredibly bad spelling errors along the way.
She has a tough job as my copy editor in combating all my dangling modifiers, errant commas, and all other common grammatical mistakes. She is far more than just our magazine proofreader, she is a family friend and I hope she can come to visit my kitchen soon for some taste testing events.
She is very detail-oriented and skilled as a writer in her own right. I hope to be able to get some stories written by her for your reading pleasure. Her input will help to improve the quality, content and style of this magazine. I am now constantly on the lookout for more writers, reporters, and correspondents to join us here at THE MAGIC OF A PERFECT PAIRING so we can provide the best content possible to make your cooking and dining experiences even better!
Please join me if giving Jules a warm welcome and let’s encourage her to write an article or two herself!
Here is a BONUS recipe I enjoyed last weekend. You may what to try it this weekend!
GADGETS:
Cutting board
Paring knife
Chef knife (optional)
Shrimp Deveiner (optional)
INGREDIENTS:
Two pounds of Raw Extra Jumbo Shrimp
1 lime
3 cloves garlic
1 or 2 Tablespoons Franks Red Hot Sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika
DIRECTIONS:
Clean and devein two pound of 16–20 size shrimp. Rinse toughly under cold water and place into a zip top bag. Wash and cut lime in half around the middle, not stem to stern. Squeeze both halves, juicing it over the shrimp in the bag. Toss both halves in the bag now with the shrimp. Slice three cloves of garlic and add into the bag with shrimp and limes. Add 2 tbsp. hot sauce, 2 tbsp. of olive oil, and 1 tsp. paprika. Close bag and turn over a few times, mixing ingredients together. Open the zip top bag smidge and squeeze all the air out of bag. Then reseal it and place in refrigerator to marinate one hour. Turn bag over after thirty minutes. Grill on a grilling mat or skew those suckers up so the shrimp don’t fall through the BBQ grate. It’s almost heartbreaking to lose a beautiful shrimp to the fire goddess, but sometimes sacrifices must be made.
SERVE with steak or on a spinach salad, or BOTH! Just remember, red wine for the steaks and a white wine for the Shrimp. The salad needs a dressing…Hmm
It’s party time and backyard BBQ season is upon us! When I think party, I think of wings! Summer is a good time for BBQed wings or BBQed chicken legs. Both of these I think go great with my version of a honey barbeque buffalo sauce.
Prepare the chicken wings; chicken wings may have to be prepped before they can be cooked depending on where you get them. Sometimes the wings come whole and you have to separate the “drumett”, from the “winngett” and discard the wing tip. I do this by carefully working my chef knife between the joints of the chicken wing and cut through the cartilage separating them. Chicken wings can be a lot of work, but just as Mussels are difficult to clean, they are well worth all the effort in the end.
Once prepped I toss my wings in a bit of vegetable oil and spices before grilling them.
INGREDIENTS:
Whole Purdue Chicken wings cut into wings and drumetts
(Frozen wings can be substituted for fresh)
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
½ cup Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
Half stick butter
¼ cup Sweet Baby Ray’s honey barbeque sauce
½ cup Marie’s Blue Cheese salad dressing
1 tablespoon Cholula Hot Sauce
Baby Carrots and Celery sticks
Spices:
Paprika
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat gas grill for 10 minutes or until the charcoal briquettes are gray. In a large bowl, place in the wings and coat with oil. Sprinkle with spices and toss with oil until the wings are evenly coated. Place the wings on the grill in a single layer and cook over medium to medium high heat, turning often, until golden brown and crispy. While the wings are on the grill, keeping warm on low, make the sauce. Melt butter in a small saucepan on your side burner. Add Frank’s red-hot sauce, Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbeque sauce, and Cholula to the melted butter and heat on low until warm. Do not boil. Pour the sauce over the wings to cover in a large bowl and toss until coated.
Serve with baby carrots, carrot sticks, celery sticks, Marie’s blue cheese dressing or ranch dressing.
NOTES: do not use oil with frozen wings. I like this method (bbq) of cooking the wings because the whole house does not smell like grease and fried food because it’s done on the barbeque.
You can replace the wings with chicken legs or thighs. They just take longer to cook!
Wings before the sauce
Sauce
1 cup Frank’s red-hot sauce
½ stick salted butter
2 – 4 tablespoons Sweet Baby Ray’s original BBQ sauce
1 tablespoon original Cholula hot sauce
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
In a small pot add: Frank’s red-hot sauce, butter, BBQ sauce, Cholula sauce, and honey. Heat buffalo wing sauce until all the butter is melted and sauce just begins to simmer. Don’t over heat the sauce.
Serve wings with: Marie’s blue cheese dressing, celery sticks and carrot sticks.
Match with: Sam Adams – Larger, Oktoberfest or Porch Rocker
1 pound elbow macaroni 1 ½ cups mayonnaise ½ small red onion, minced 1 celery rib, chopped fine ¼ cup minced fresh parsley leaves 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder 1 pinch white pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot. Stir 1 tablespoon salt and the pasta into the boiling water and cook, stirring often, until nearly tender, about 5 minutes. Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water until cool, then drain shake and drain again. Transfer to a large bowl.
Stir in the onion, celery, parsley, mustard, garlic powder, and pepper and let sit until the flavors are absorbed, about 2 minutes. Add the mayonnaise and let sit until the salad is no longer watery, 5 to 10 minutes.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook peeled potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool overnight in refrigerator.
In a large bowl, mix together thinly sliced potatoes, mayo, vinegar, sugar, mustard, parsley, salt, and pepper. Chill in the fridge overnight. The next day taste and adjust seasoning (add mayo, salt, etc.).
NOTES my mother at times would only go to one deli to buy salads like potato, macaroni, and cold slaw then somewhere else for the cold cuts and then it was off to the bakery for the rolls and rye bread. I guess we are a picky bunch when it comes to food. P.S., Even the pickles came from a special pickle store!
Suggestions: heat 1 cup water, 1 cup white vinegar, ½ cup sugar in a small sauce pan. Pour warm over potatoes and marinate overnight. Drain and make salad.
Use a waxy white skinned potato type as they tend to hold together better then russets.
1 cup Mayonnaise ¼ cup Water 1 tbsp. Cider Vinegar ¼ cup Powdered Sugar Salt White pepper 1 tsp. Celery salt 1 head of shredded cabbage
DIRECTIONS:
Trim off outer leaves. Cut cabbage into quarters, but cut out the core of the cabbage. Shred on mandolin, or with a chef’s knife.
In an extra large Tupperware like bowl, add shredded cabbage and the rest of the ingredients. Mix until well blended. Cover with lid and refrigerate overnight before serving. Cold slaw will keep for five days.
The Magic of a Perfect Pairing 