Monday, August 10, 2009

My Three Hundreth Post

I'm hitting the 300 post mark today and I can scarcely recognize myself from when I began.

A new job that is basically a new career.

Two sassy seeds that are growing before my eyes.

One thing remains the same, the love of my husband. Always there beside me, encouraging me, giving me those little pep talks disguised as chit-chat.

My blog started out very green. I have diverged somewhat from that topic, although greening has never left my consciousness.

My readership has waxed and waned, and that's okay. I have lost some readers. Gained some new ones. My interests have run the gamet and so do my bloggy friends.

Welcome to my 300th post and thanks for stopping by.

***

Who am I? Making an omelette yesterday and then today, I hardly know myself anymore!, scurrying off to Whole Foods to pick up some free range chicken breasts (yes, I know the chicken ends up the same (read: dead), but I've read a few articles on "conventional" chicken and it's not pretty). Why you ask? To make Parmesan Chicken from this cookbook. I mean, what the...?

So I buy the chicken breasts (not on sale) that are thin(ner) cut (more expensive) because frankly those big breasts (oh the google searches that will end up here now) scared me and I needed breasts that were a bit closer to the 1/4 inch thickness required. I also buy a nice chunk of parmesan cheese (not from that green shaker thingie) and miraculously the rest of the ingredients were lurking in my pantry (lo! Kosher salt!).

At 4:30 I bring the children in from the slip-n-slide (heat index: 105 degrees) and plop them uncerimonously in front of the television. I Cannot Be Disturbed, as I am making Parmesan Chicken a al Ina Garten and I am scared.

I mis en place (I think) all of my ingredients, pound the chicken to within a 1/4 inch of its life, drink a quarter of a bottle of wine and ignore that fact that "dredge" and "dip" are not really vocabulary with which I am familiar, but nevermind.

Using a cast iron skillet that allows me to cook one breast at a time ("Never apologize!"), I solider on wondering what exactly "medium-low" means and trying to ignore the voices in my head that are whispering "Shake and Bake! Shake and Bake! Why aren't you just using Shake and Bake?", I manage, one and one half hour later to produce delicious Parmesan Chicken (so says Green Husband) with some fancy French green beans and some Near East grain product.

All's well that ends well.

Providing that I interpreted "Until Cooked Through" correctly. Stay tuned.

7 comments:

Aliceson said...

Congrats on 300!

I have started buying free range chickens and eggs from a farmer up the road and I'm loving it! I actually just bought a pig that will be freezer ready next week. I can't wait for fresh bacon!

That chicken recipe sounds divine. I love The Barefoot Contessa!

Cupcake Mama said...

Happy 300th!

Unknown said...

All of Ina's recipes work out well. She is a favorite of our family. Happy blogging!

Carrie said...

Wow! 300 is amazing! Congrats to you.

joanie said...

Happy 300! I'll be breaking for a while too as we're moving on Sat. The phone company are rubbish and we'll be offline for at least 2 weeks. This post made me howl as usual. It is humorous to see how we change. Have a good break.
BTW, my breasts are free-range too. Jamie Oliver did a huge TV program here telling us why they should be, interesting indeed.

Maxine from Texas said...

ACK! I can't believe I missed this post, how did that happen? I hope you're still reading comments even if you're on a BlogBreak.
Congrats on your 300th! And way-to-go trying out some Ina Garten, I've never gotten the courage. Her stuff looks so yummy and complicated.

I refuse to buy conventional chicken for my cooking, the thought of all those chickens cooped up like that(hehe, cooped up) makes me feel yucky. We've got a few local sources for free-range, pasture, organic, whatever-you'd-like-to-label-them butchered chickens so we're pretty lucky in that regard. It's much cheaper than going to Whole Foods.

Mary Beth said...

Glad you enjoyed your lovely meal. It does take a long time, doesn't it? There's no getting around it, but it still frustrates me at times. I love Ina too.

And congratulations on 300 posts. My readership has waxed and waned as well. I totally get that though, as I rarely comment anymore myself. It's a time issue, not a lack of interest . . . sending good vibes, though.