Two Sundays ago, my newlywed brother, Chuck, volunteered to cook Sunday dinner for the family. In tandem with his wife, Anna, and the supervision of our amazing chef of a mom, he was able to cook pesto — his favorite kind of pasta — from scratch.
This gave our mom a bright idea. Since she's always wanted to see any of us take over kitchen duties (unlike the rest of us who never really expressed an interest in cooking, she was cooking and baking as a child; she even put up a cookie business for about 10 years when we were kids and still continues to accept orders for her cookies, her one-of-a-kind apple pie, turkey, and more), she challenged us to take turns preparing Sunday dinner.
Chuck and Anna had already done their part. So the following Sunday, which was yesterday, my sister, Cooky, and yours truly were on deck.
Initially, I wanted to do another kind of pasta as well as chicken parmigiana. But both recipes were tomato-based. Mom suggested to make a pasta salad instead, and a rice meal to complement the chicken parmigiana.
So yesterday afternoon, after coming home from church, my sister and I immediately got to work on prepping the salad since it needed to be chilled. This was the recipe we followed.
We threw in a combination of sliced and diced cucumbers, olives, pepperoni, and red bell peppers. Eventually we added some celery (not in picture), but opted not to add fresh greens.
After it had cooked, we mixed everything together and drizzled it with olive oil, just to make it look shiny. Then we left it in the refrigerator for a few hours to chill.
We then decided to work on making the crumbs for the chicken parmigiana before taking a nap. (We do love our Sunday siestas; it's tradition.) This recipe, we pretty much stuck to all throughout.
This shot was taken after combining the crumbs with paprika, salt, pepper, oregano, and onion powder (we didn't have garlic powder, so I figured that this would be a good substitute).
Then we took a nap. Seriously!
About two hours later, we trooped back to the kitchen and got to work on the rice pilaf (recipe from here). We guessed that while the rice would be cooking, we could then get to work on the chicken parmigiana.
Anyway, this was taken when we had thrown everything in. The yellow blobs that you see were the tablespoons of butter.
(Side note: we had to basically make double portions of all dishes since the recipes were for four; we did servings for eight instead since there were seven of us who would be eating.)
While the rice was cooking, we then went back to the chicken parmigiana.
According to our mom, we had to assemble a factory-like line-up of dry-wet-dry. It would be more efficient that way. So while Cooky did the pounding of the chicken breasts, I made the egg mixture, readied the all-purpose flour, and brought out the crumbs mixture we had prepped earlier.
This was how we ended up pounding the chicken: by gently squishing it with a rolling pin. It was a bicep workout, needless to say, given that we were cooking for eight. Here's Cooky in action.
Then we gathered around like a factory line-up and coated the chicken breasts in all-purpose flour, the egg mixture, and the crumbs mixture respectively.
Next, we worked on the sauce. The recipe called for a jar of marinara sauce, but Mom challenged us to make it from scratch instead. (Currently, she makes pasta from scratch as well, and we've helped her make that, but we haven't gotten to the level of figuring out how to make spiral pasta just yet. Teehee.)
Here I am sautéing the onions and garlic. Achievement unlocked!
It smelled heavenly when the tomato and bay leaves mixture was added.
It was fun to figure out how to balance out the flavor with salt (my sister went overboard since she prefers saltier dishes) and sugar 'til it had just the right kick of acidity.
When that was done, it was time to bring out the salad and serve it. At this point, we had already drizzled it with an Italian salad dressing.
The rice pilaf was also done and it smelled great!
We decided to plate the chicken parmigiana onto each of the plates, instead of serving them on a platter. This was how it looked like. (On hindsight, I wish that we had melted some cheese on top, instead of regular grated parmesan.)
Mom giving us her seal of approval. One small step to finally making use of the culinary genes she passed on to us! Thanks for mentoring us and encouraging us, Momma!
Buon appetito, famiglia!
Realizations after yesterday's cooking experiment:
- The kitchen may be scary and intimidating at first, but it's something that anyone can overcome.
- You may (most likely will) make mistakes, but keep at it.
- Keep tasting all throughout the cooking process; that way, your palate gets developed.
- Clean as you go.
- Just have fun!
I can now safely say that I'm looking forward to learning, trying out new recipes, and challenging myself.
If you have suggestions that I can try (go easy on me, though; I'm just starting!), please feel free to comment below. I'm back on deck for Sunday dinner in three weeks!
Thanks for reading!
P.S. Special thanks to Cooky for sharing some of her photos with me, which were used in this blog.
Oh, um.. those looked gorgeous! Love them Basmati Rice Pilaf! I know how if feels to have a mom is super passionate about cooking and baking. Love this new blog btw. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteI love rice meals, too. Technically, you don't need to add anything else (if you don't want to) as they're a complete meal all on their own.
DeleteThanks for dropping by! :)
You inspire me! Haha. Now my sister wants us to cook something from scratch as well. We love experimenting with certain dishes kasi but we've never prepared a full meal yet. Did you cook the pilaf through rice cooker? :)
ReplyDeleteAww, thank you! :) This made my day!
DeleteYes, I did. Surprisingly, the rice cooker didn't blow up. Hahaha!
Let me know how your kitchen experiment with your sister goes. I'm sure you'll not only have a blast, but everything will taste good. :D