Who Says Commercials Are Lying?

Mayonnaise Schnitzel 

The story of this supper is rather roundabout. It started when my wonderful neighbor saw this commercial for mayonnaise. While she knows that the commercial was obviously trying to sell Hellmann's mayonnaise, the chicken in the commercial looked so good she had to try it. So she made her regular schnitzel recipe using mayonnaise instead of eggs. 

Just like in the commercial, the chicken came out crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. As she told me about her experiment, my mouth began to water, so for supper last week, I tried it out. 

The Attempt

1/2 lb chicken cutlets 

1 cup light mayonnaise

2 cups cornflake crumbs

1 Tbs taco seasoning + Salt, pepper, garlic powder and caynne pepper to taste

Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Place mayonnaise and cornflake crumbs into two different shallow plates. Mix the spices into the cornflake crumbs and adjust  seasoning to desired spiciness. Dip chicken into mayonnaise and using a knife or a spoon, spread in a think layer over the cutlet. Dip cutlet in crumb mixture until fully coated with crumbs (no mayonnaise should be showing.) Place on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining cutlets. 

Bake on 375 for half an hour to 45 minutes or until cutlets are no longer pink inside. 

Notes:

1. I didn't really monitor the cooking time. I just kept on checking until I felt like the cutlets were done. It was somewhere between 30-45 minutes, though, if I estimate correctly. 
2. I used taco seasoning because that was what I had on hand, but feel free to use any spice mixture that strikes your fancy. 
3. I feel like panko or regular breadcrumbs or a mixture of the two would work just as well, but I liked the crunchiness of the cornflakes. 

The Verdict

Um, wow. It was hands-down the best breaded cutlet I have tasted. Ever. There was not one cutlet left over for lunch the next day. I loved it. Charming loved it. Basically, a winner all around. 

We had it in a sandwich with the works (lettuce, ketchup, tomatoes, bbq sauce ext) but it would taste equally great by itself with a side of rice, potatoes, or orzo. 

I don't think I'll ever be making another schnitzel recipe again. 

Mama Mia!! It's a Meat Pizza!!

Chicken "Facon" Pizza

My name is Esti and I am a pizza-holic. I don't mean I am addicted to eating pizza, though I do like it. What I mean is that I am addicted to making pizza, or to be more exact, using fresh or frozen pizza dough in recipes. With pizza dough I make italian breadsticks, garlic knots, and these awesome meat pockets that we call pizza pockets just to confuse everyone else on the planet. It got me to wondering,  'why can't I use pizza dough to make pizza?"

Good question. Of course I can't make regular cheese pizza because our oven is strictly meat-only and my tiny toaster oven that I use for dairy isn't quite big enough to accommodate a pizza. There is also the minor fact that my dear Prince Charming doesn't consider pizza an adequately filling dinner, so the next logical conclusion was to make a meat pizza. But without the fake cheese, because, well, let's just say I'm not a huge fan of it. (I think it tastes nasty...)

My first attempt at meat pizza involved chopped meat that I browned with some spices (don't ask me which, I don't remember.) I put some pasta sauce on, threw on the meat, added some veggies and voila! meat pizza...

It was ok. But the recipe needed improvement. That's when I found a recipe for chicken bacon pizza in one of my cookbooks that are devoted exclusively to chicken. "I can kosherize that," thought I. So I set  about doing so.

The Attempt

1 ball of frozen pizza dough (about 1 lb)(defrosted)

Jar of salsa (as intense as you desire it)

Approxiately 2 cups of chopped onions and peppers

1/2 lb of grilled chicken shredded

1/2 lb of pastrami shredded

Using your hands spread out the pizza dough into a circle or square, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Pour the salsa on the dough and spread using a pastry brush or your fingers, your choice. Sprinkle shredded chicken, pastrami and vegetables on the pizza. 

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes (or until crust is golden-brown/looks done)

The Verdict

I would give it a B-. For some reason the recipe just didn't gel together, both in the literal and figurative sense. Without cheese to hold it together, the toppings just kind of fell off. Also, for some reason the flavors of the salsa, chicken, pastrami, and veggies felt weird together. 

Guess this one isn't a repeat. Back to the drawing board!! 

Meat Lasagna On The Fly

Easy Meat Lasagna

Originally I was planning on making stuffed peppers for supper, but when I realized I didn't really have a pan big enough to bake them in, I decided to amend my original plan and make a meat lasagna. I vaguely remembered my mother making it, but I didn't have a recipe.

How hard could it really be? 

The Attempt:

 1/2 lb chopped meat

1+   cup mixed peppers

1/2  an onion, chopped

Jar of marinara sauce

A couple of shakes of: Onion powder, garlic powder, basil, salt, pepper

2 Tbs oil

uncooked lasagna noodles

Filling:

Heat oil in large skillet. Sauté onions and peppers until soft. Add meat, brown. Add around half a jar of marinara sauce and spices.  Heat through. 

To assemble lasagna: 

Cover bottom of pan with a layer of marinara sauce. Add a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. (Because I was using a smaller pan than the typical 9x13 I had to break the lasagna pieces into smaller pieces.) Place a layer of the filling on top.  Add another layer of lasagna noodles, then another layer of filling. Add another layer of lasagna noodles over filling. Top the noodles with more marinara sauce. 

Makes 3 servings.

The Verdict:

A+.  This was really good. Definitely a repeat. A couple of things to note. 

• All my servings are small. I make just enough for me and Prince Charming, plus a little extra. If you are making this for more people, double the recipe.

• Since it was a small recipe, I didn't make it in a 9 x 13 pan, but rather a 1 1/2 qt. pyrex dish. Because of that, I had to break up the lasagna pieces. It didn't look pretty and it wasn't even, but once the dish had cooked you couldn't tell the difference. 

• I felt like it needed more spice, maybe more salt. Prince Charming didn't think it was missing too much but then again he's in middle of finals and wasn't paying much attention. Next time I make it, I'll experiment with adding a few more shakes of the spices. 

• The top was too crunchy to eat, I think it needs to be completely covered with marinara sauce in order for the noodles to cook, so the next time I will add more sauce. 

• I made this dish in the morning, went to a midday vort (engagement party) in Lakewood, NJ, sat in mucho traffic, and when I was an hour away from home asked Prince Charming to pop it into the oven. I'm not sure, but it is possible that the time the lasagna spent chilling out in my refrigerator might have contributed to the lasagna noodles getting softer- because they were sitting in the meat sauce. The next time I make it I'm going to have to put it in the oven right away to see what happens. 

Applesauce Adventures

The Cranberry Chronicles, Part 1

Ever walk by the flavored applesauces in the grocery store and wonder:
"How can I make that myself?"

Probably not. But I have. Maybe it's because I grew up with my Bobby making the most wonderful cinnamon applesauce every year for Pesach (Passover), but for some reason store bought applesauce is not as awesome as homemade applesauce. So after spending a few months of my marriage buying applesauce, I decided enough is enough! I have to make it.

And at first I was happy just putting apples, water,  and sugar into a pot. But then came the cookbook: Fresh and Easy Kosher Cooking by Leah Shapira had a recipe for strawberry applesauce. Which I just had to try. It was eye opening. Then came the pears. Prince Charming has pears for breakfast most mornings, but there were some that were too squishy to eat, and in leu of throwing them away, I decided to make applesauce with them.

Into the pot went the pears and the apples (and all the other ingredients) and voila! Something amazing was born. And I was inspired.

What else can I put into a pot of apples?

So, I've been sitting on this idea for a few weeks now. We need to maintain the applesauce consistency, but add things that change the flavor and color and make it exiting.  This week cranberries were majorly on sale in the grocery store and with the myriad of canberry-apple crisp and crumble and whatnot recipes out there, it occurred to me that the cranberry-applesauce might be really really good.

The Attempt:

1 apple

A bunch of Cranberries

Cover with water

Sugar to your heart's desire

Vanilla sugar

Capful of lemon juice

Cook, covered on medium flame until soft. Squish a bit with a spoon. 

Eat. 

The Verdict:

It needs tweaking. It's really good, and really tart. I think it needs more sugar, or perhaps no lemon juice because the cranberries are tart enough as it is. 

We'll be looking back at this one over the next few weeks (i.e.: So long as cranberries are on sale.) Once we get the proportions right, I think we might also need to experiment with different apple varieties. 

Hmmm. I'm getting really exited about this!