Closer to a New Year!

First of all, I have to apologize that I have zero photos of tonight's wonderful dinner with my parents at our house.  Please bare with me as I am beyond a rookie in the food blogging world.  I wanted to have my parents over for dinner since I felt like we all have not really touched base in a few months. And I wanted to get together before January. Just because. It was a great night.  I made us a delicious Chicken Parm dinner, accompanied by angel hair pasta,  and a canned tomato sauce. ( I do frown at this, but I did not have time to make my mom's sauce).  However, the sauce really was tasty!  And finally, yummy Italian bread.  I nixed the salad.  We don't need the salad.  Too much food...or is there such a thing?

For dessert, I made scrumptious Peanut Butter Frosted Brownies.  I got this recipe from Betty Crocker.  SO GOOD!  The brownies are so very chocolaty and moist and fudgy, but with the help of the creamy peanut butter frosting on top of them, it actually cuts through the sweetness and gives a nice sweet and salty finish.  I had half of one.  Three hours later, I had a whole entire square.  Just couldn't help it.  I did workout today so I think that's a great excuse!. It was a scrumptious night all together and I couldn't be more thankful for such great parents and that I can spend these nice kind of times with them.  It also didn't hurt that my over-the-top sweet mother kept commenting on our house and "how cute it is" and that our "Christmas decorations are just adorable".  Thanks mom!

It's been a long week for sure!  Please check out these recipes and I hope you had a wonderful night as well!

Peanut Butter Frosted Brownies
Courtesy of Betty Crocker:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/peanut-butter-brownies/22368acb-41f7-4fd3-8dd1-77a64cf2fb0b?WT.mc_id=Paid_Search_TDCore_BC&WT.srch=1&esrc=11151

Pictured are my version. ( certainly not as pretty as Betty's...but I love that homemade look).   FYI- I did not use crunchy peanut butter.  For the first go-around with these, I wanted to keep everything smooth.  Next time I will try crunchy. I think the texture would be nice.  Still way delish with the smooth kind!

Chicken Parm

5-9 thin cut chicken cutlets
Italian Bread Crumbs (about 3/4 cup)
2 large eggs
Flour (about 3/4 cup)
1 tsp. salt
1tsp. black pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large bag of Sargento Mozzarella shredded cheese; part-skim
Parmesan Cheese (a few good handfuls)
1-2 26 oz. jars of spaghetti sauce ( or homemade sauce...which I prefer.  if you don't have the time, I like Prego Traditional Sauce)


1.Heat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Add the salt and pepper to flour and combine with fork.  Dredge cutlets in flour mixture. Then dredge in the whisked eggs and then breadcrumbs. Place gently in hot oil over medium-high heat (about 3 at a time ) in large skillet.  Cook until the cutlets are almost golden brown.  Place on a plate lined with paper towels. Continue this process until desired amount of cutlets are all cooked.

3.In a 13-inch baking dish, ladle some of the sauce on the bottom of the dish. place a line of cutlets on top of the sauce.  Spread the mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese over the chicken.  cover with the rest of the sauce, and the rest of the cutlets and top with remaining cheeses.  Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

4.Serve with your favorite pasta/ the rest of the sauce.  I find with this dish, the best pasta is the kind you can twirl with your fork.  Also serve yummy garlic bread, french bread or a nice Italian loaf.  You can certainly add in salad if you'd like. The is a fast and delish dish! Enjoy!