Anne Halpenny, August, New Recipe

I have come to the realization that as the year passes, the goals may still get accomplished, but my blog posts get shorter. July is now posted; please read because I make a request in it! My July and August goals were so similar, I did them at the same time (however, it happened to be in August) so here they get posted the same day.

I don't cook. I don't like cooking, I don't do it for fun, relaxation, or scientific curiosity. I do it to not starve. For this reason, I tend to eat a lot of meals from frozen foods, boxes, and raw fruits & vegetables. This month, I decided to branch out and practice a few things.

I fed the missionaries this month too. I set the bar low so the fact nobody died means my meal was successful! Although that elder did go home right after... Nah.

Double-cooked Breaded Chicken
It's regular breading (bread crumbs, seasoning, S&P, egg & milk mixture). With defrosted chicken, coat the chicken, pan fry both sides for about 1 minutes, coat the chicken again and bake in baking dish @ 350 degrees until chicken is done (20-30 minutes). The genius here was for my gluten-free friend; instead of bread crumbs, I ground up almonds. It tasted better!

Mashed Potatoes
These are soooo decadent! Yukon gold potatoes, boiled until soft enough for mashing. While mashing, add equal parts whipping cream and a grated hard cheese (parmesan, parmesan mix, etc.). Mine came out a little sticky because I didn't add enough cream/cheese. Add until creamy!

Lemon Broccoli
I got compliments on these! Cut the broccoli florettes off, the stalk doesn't really work for this recipe. And this might seem a little overkill (and it might be if you know a better method but) hand oil the broccoli... Yup, by hand, get oil on your fingers and wipe each piece of broccoli. It's gross but it prevents the broccoli from getting too wet. Add seasoning, S&P and roast in oven on a regular cookie sheet about 20 minutes. When they're done, sprinkle lemon zest and lemon juice (2 uses for 1 lemon!).

All done! So good! One missionary said it reminded him of Sunday dinners at home. The guy I was trying to impress complimented the broccoli as "actually like it." And the gluten-free friend had no issues!

Dessert was nothing special; literally what I had laying around. Ice cream was vanilla and over a month old. White peach was amazing! but unplanned. Chocolate I got at church that day. Still good! Now, it does get to be over 100 degrees here most days in the summer so ice cream anything is always appreciated.

This was the third time making this meal and it still took me over an hour to prepare. Fortunately, there's quite a few steps you can do before cooking begins.

Success! And I have a "fancy" dinner in my backpocket!