Chicken Piccata

I know what you are thinking... "BORING." But wait! Did you know a contestant got kicked off of Top Chef for not knowing how to make Chicken Piccata?!?? Don't let that happen to you!

Jana typed up a recipe book for me as a wedding gift and this Chicken Piccata is a McClenagan favorite. A repeat offender, if you will. Minus the offense. It's good. Quick. Easy to make. And healthy (minus a wee bit o' butter).

Ingredients

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup flour

2/3 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup dry white wine (or chicken stock)

1/3 cup lemon juice

Butter

1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400

2. Put chicken between parchment paper or in a ziplock bag and use meat pounder to get the chicken to 1/4 inch.

3. Beat egg with 1/2 tsp of water in a shallow bowl. On a plate, mix flour, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. On another plate, place bread crumbs.

4. Place the chicken in the flour, shake off excess. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, and then place the chicken in the bread crumbs, covering the chicken.

5. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a medium pan and cook the breaded chicken on each side for 2 minutes.

6. Place the chicken on a baking sheet and cook for 5-10 minutes.

7. While the chicken is baking, melt 1 tbsp of butter. Then add lemon juice, wine, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper and cook on HIGH until sauce has reduced in half, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, you can melt a little more butter into the sauce if you'd like.

8. Plate chicken and pour sauce over and VOILA! YOU ARE AMERICA'S NEXT TOP CHEF!!!!

Pairs particularly well with mashed potatoes. Or any sort of starch will help compliment the zesty tangy goodness of this chicken.

Costa Rican Cabbage Salad

We had this everyday in Costa Rica. They would use cabbage over lettuce because of the climate cabbage would last much longer than other types of lettuce. I loved the dressing! A lot of the ingredients are optional. I usually just had cabbage + carrots for the salad and the dressing was vinegar, olive oil, lime juice, salt & peppa to taste. It was quite delicious.

((Recipe credit here))

INGREDIENTS:
• ½ head of green cabbage, sliced in very thin strips (much like coleslaw – try using a wide blade grater)
• 2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
• snow peas, stems removed, chopped in 1” pieces
• 2 tomatoes, thinly sliced into rings
• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced into oval rings
• 1 or 2 green onions, sliced into thin rings (use white and green part)

DRESSING:
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• ½ cup olive oil
• juice of lime
• 2 Tablespoons Honey
• 2 Tablespoons cilantro
• ½ jalapeño (seeded)• garlic salt, salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
In a large salad bowl, simply toss all the salad ingredients and in a separate bowl, whisk together the salad dressing ingredients. Pour dressing over salad and let sit up to an hour before serving to let the flavors blend and the cabbage soften.

BONUS SECTION! Claire and I kickin' it at the Yoga Horizon Infinity Pool.

Simple Spaghetti

Well it's the elephant in the room. It's no secret that RD and I aren't "top chef material". We aren't "serious contenders" in any Burrows cooking competition. We "struggle" to make a "dish" that is "impressive".

None the less, we are contributing to the "blog". Here is our "simple" spaghetti recipe. Maybe Atticus can make it for the family at the reunion.

Ingredients

Pasta

Tomato Sauce

Onions

Spices

Ground Turkey

Directions

Make pasta.

Sauté onions, brown ground turkey, add tomato sauce, add spices, simmer.

Put together.

Enjoy.