Chicken Parmigiana, anyone?

I have been having so much fun trying out some recipes of the foods that we love to eat. Last night, it was Chicken Parmigiana served on spaghetti. No kidding, it almost tasted like Mamma Theresa's (our favourite Italian resto here in Ottawa) hahaha.

And to multiply the fun, I'm sharing this sumptuous find. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

* 1 egg, beaten
* 2 ounces dry bread crumbs
* 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
* 3/4 (16 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
* 2 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
* 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking sheet.
2. Pour egg into a small shallow bowl. Place bread crumbs in a separate shallow bowl. Dip chicken into egg, then into the bread crumbs. Place coated chicken on the prepared baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until no longer pink and juices run clear.
3. Pour 1/2 of the spaghetti sauce into a 7x11 inch baking dish. Place chicken over sauce, and cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses on top and return to the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Source: Chicken Parmigiana

Again, I slightly modified the recipe:

•  I marinated the chicken with pepper and garlic powder before I coated them with eggs and breadcrumbs;
• I put some Italian seasoning on the breadcrumbs. If you have some Italian breadcrumbs in your pantry, then I guess you don't need to add the seasoning;
• Get the best sauce you can find. I used ready-made marinara sauce from a favourite brand;
• I used Kraft shredded mozzarella cheese and put dashes of Parmesan cheese before I served them.

MDH and MDK devoured them. I got another BIG hug. And the best thing, I was excused to do the clean-up of the kitchen after dinner.

And if you'll excuse me, gotta go and have the leftovers for tonight's dinner. I made a huge batch.

Our Favourite Art Pieces

Our favourite art pieces, up close

We have decided to put a console table in the main hallway, close to the mudroom. This is more of a necessity rather than for aesthetic reason. But because I don’t like to plunk in something anywhere in the house without making sure it is visually nice (for me and for my boys at least), we have carefully picked the area to put it and how to ‘display’ it.

It took awhile to find the console that we like. We wanted something simple that can go with the rest of the décor in the house. Nothing curvy, nothing fancy. Just simple, straight lines.

Minimal decor is what we are going for, just like what we have in the Family Room. Minimal decor means less clutter and easy on the pocket :).

Our family room which is still a work in progress

So after scouring at my favourite stores (there aren’t that many here btw), going back and forth hoping that it would finally show up, we finally saw “the one”. Of all places, we found it in Costco.

Finding it in Costco isn’t really unexpected. If you haven’t visited any of their stores and their online store and decide to check them out, you’d be amazed at the stuff they sell there. Free delivery (it used to be “white-glove” delivery too) for online purchases and if you don’t like your purchased item, you can return it to any of their warehouses. No questions asked.

In the hallway close to the mudroom entrance is where it is. And going in the house by the main entry, you can see it. We initially considered putting a mirror but finally decided to put our favourite artworks instead. We used to display them on the wall by the staircase in our previous home.

They’re inexpensive art pieces, each one is special. Most of them are from Australia and the Philippines.

I got all the Australian aboriginal art pieces back when I was in Sydney for a “short” business stint. Short means 7 months. They were sold at Paddy's market which was one of my favourite places to go to when I was there. I lived by myself in a one bedroom, fully furnished apartment/condo. During weekends, if I wasn’t spending some time with our very good friends or socializing with my colleagues, I was on my own doing the touristy things.

Every time I gaze at these Australian art pieces, it reminds me of our time in Oz. I say ‘our’ because MDK and MDH stayed with me there for over a month. We managed to visit other parts of Australia while they were there. Our favourite was our trip to Cairns. It was where I did the bravest thing I’ve ever done hahaha – we went snorkeling amidst the Coral Sea, on over 30 ft deep water and I didn’t even know how to swim. The wet suit kinda helped.

The other art pieces are from the Philippines. Two of the pieces are from a huge piece of Tinalak fabric we have. I cut portions of the fabric and framed them. For the curious, Tinalak is a hand-woven cloth made from the abaca plant.


And speaking of art pieces, remember this post? Well, we finally had the pics printed, framed and hung on the wall. Here they are:

View of our Family Room from our loft in the second floor

They couldn't be any more special than these. I took the pics and framed them, MDH hung them on the wall.

Autumn is finally here

My poncho on my ghost chair

There is no stopping it. Autumn is finally here and I am quite excited about it.

Today, we started to bring out the stuff that we need for the coming cold weather, including my poncho :). Pretty soon, it will be thanksgiving, then Halloween. And before we know it, we'll be very busy preparing for the Christmas Holidays.

One thing very good about Autumn is the colder weather. Summer brought fun things but weather wasn't one of them :(.

I peeked outside this morning (just peek 'cause we're busy doing stuff inside the house) and I saw the leaves starting to change colours. Another God's masterpiece is about to show. So beautiful.

Photo taken 2 years ago at Andrew Haydon Park here in Ottawa

As sweet as sticky cinnamon rolls

I’ve always wanted to learn to make cinnamon rolls. It is one of MDK’s favourite baked goods and one of MDH and my small indulgences. I say ‘indulgence’ because we are trying to cut down our sugar intake and wolfing down these sticky breads doesn’t exactly help in the cutting-down-the-sugar endeavour.

I stumbled upon the recipe on the internet which after reading some of the encouraging reviews, convinced me to give it a try.

It’s an easy recipe and anyone who is equipped with a breadmaker in their kitchen can do it with the least amount of work. And if you don’t have a breadmaker at home, despair not. You can still make the dough the old-fashioned way.

My dependable sidekick in the kitchen

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
3. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.
Source: Clone of a Cinnabon Recipe

If you have some time, read the comment/review section. It's a treasure trove of ideas.

I followed almost everything in the recipe, made some slight modifications.

(Steps 2, 3 ) For the filling, I mixed all 3 ingredients (butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar) and spread the mixture on the flattened dough instead of spreading the butter first and sprinkling cinnamon and sugar next. Not too messy plus it helps to spread the filling as evenly as possible.

Step 3) I used glass baking pans and lined them with the more gooey version of the butter-cinnamon-sugar mixture. I added more butter. I didn’t measure.

(Steps 1, 4) I used a convection oven so the oven setting was 350F and I baked them for less than 15 minutes.

Cinnamon Roll version 1

Overall, I am quite happy with how they turned out. I got a big hug from MDK and his very encouraging “I’m proud of you, Mama. Are you proud of yourself for learning something new today?” And the kicker –

MDK: “Hmm this is way better than Cinn-- (our favourite brand)”

Mama-not-the-Martha-Stewart-wannabe: “And what makes it better than Cinn--?”

MDK: “You made it.”

Next step, as MDH suggested – find a good cinnamon powder I can use for the next batch. And I will have to modify the filling a bit to make it a bit moist. That will be for version 2.

Sep 20, 2010 @ 21:13

My Corner

Here's another one of my fave corners in the new home.

Chef I am not. But because I am the luckiest gal in our household, I get to call the chef's desk "my corner."

Taken at night. That's my favourite lens beside my computer. I make sure it's accessible when I'm in the kitchen.

When we considered renovating the kitchen in our previous home, I made a list of things I'd want to have in our kitchen. Other than having a bigger island/breakfast counter, I wanted a chef's desk. Unfortunately, the real estate of the previous home wouldn't allow a desk. I had to use the dining room as my work area which was a bit inconvenient and not a pretty sight whenever we passed by the room. So when we decided to look for a new house, I made a mental note to include it in my nice-to-haves.

So here it is in the new home, located close to the breakfast nook, and quite accessible when you're in the kitchen.

This is where I do some fun work amidst the wafting smell of garlic, onions, baked bread, cookies and cakes. And if it's a better day, I also get to listen to DH playing the piano and sing his favourite worship songs while I tap my keyboard. Yes, today is another better day.
This is mostly my work area. And hopefully where I will work on the projects I'm planning to do in the very near future. I have finally decided to challenge myself a bit more on my photography.

Sep 15, 2010 @ 23:51

The Family Room

So this is how our family room looks like now. There are still things to be done but overall, it's close to how I'd like it to be - no unsightly wires and no things on the floor :).

My boys listening to MDK's favourite album while talking about stuff a teenager likes to talk about. I live for moments like this.

View of the Family Room from the Loft on the second floor

The family room is the second most used place in our home, the kitchen being the first. Just like the previous home we had, the family room is adjacent to the kitchen. It's a very convenient layout because the family room is also an entertainment room so once in awhile, we can watch our favourite shows like Michael Smith's Chef at Home while our in-house chef a.k.a. MDH and his sous chefs a.k.a. MDK and moi whip up something in the kitchen. Yes, we do love to cook as a family. I think the family that labours together, savours together. I made that up hahaha.

Okay, I digressed. Let's go back to the family room.

One of the things we love to do as a family is to watch movies together, not in theatres but at home. Personally, I prefer to watch at home because I can pause it, replay it, fast forward it anytime I like. Not to mention, I can watch in my pajamas.

There are still quite a few things I'd like done in the FR like adding some architectural photos atop the TV. I think they will fill up the big space above it. Time for me to dig my photo archives. We still have to put up the drapes on the windows. And lamps. And then that LOLA sectional from EQ3 will be a nice replacement for the 5 year old seats we have. I know, the list goes on and on and on we'll never see the end of it

Sep 13, 2010 @ 0:16

Doubting Thomas, this one's for you

I've been working on these pics today just so I'd be able to show DH how the framed pics would look like once they're hung on the wall. Well, I know I will like it and I do have an idea on how they'd look like. But I am trying to convince a doubting Thomas in the household. So here it is -

I took the pics btw in case y'all are wondering.

Life Happens

It’s been a very busy week. No, make that weeks! I have been meaning to post updates but life happens. I’ll post pictures for now and do more of the yadda-yadda later with more pics of course.

Summertime and the living is easy

We got to enjoy, as a family, the very limited one week vacation we have this summer. It was quite a nice break from all the brouhaha of trying to put things in order in the new house ASAP. I know, that last statement there is contradictory – go through a series of brouhaha to put things in order hahaha.

Well, for this summer, we decided to visit the maritimes – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and PEI. And on our way home, we drove through Maine and New Hampshire, where one can go loco shopping (zero sales tax, is why).

Grilling

I’m sharing here a sample pic of what my boys whipped up. It’s a typical summer dinner – grilled fish and roasted vegetables. Veggies are drizzled with olive oil with dashes of pepper and salt.

We’re cutting down on meat. But we do have a steak monster in our household and he only prefers his Dad’s steak. I remember when he finally decided not to order steak to avoid disappointments whenever we eat out as most of the steaks he’s had outside our kitchen don’t come close to Dad’s steak. That’s one loyal customer, isn’t it?

The never-ending list

The settling in and decorating of the new home is still on-going. Of the 58 items I have on my to-do list, 36 have been done. And that's just my to-do list, not counting DH's.

Here are the things we've done so far:

• No more visible sink holes in the bathrooms. All 4 bathrooms look pretty decent - sinks and faucets have been replaced (we didn't like the ones installed by the builder and decided to replace all of the faucets, sinks, and countertops in all bathrooms and kitchen). And the best thing is, DH managed to install all the faucets by himself. And no leaks so far. We've used Moen faucets except the one in the guest bath. I will recommend a Moen faucet to friends in a heart beat. They look great and fairly easy to install. Remember their motto - buy it for looks, buy it for life? It's mine too hahaha. For most things in the house, I go for looks. And function too. But it has to pass the "looks" criteria first :)

• DH and DK's toys are now tucked in their proper spot in the family room. We decided to use Ikea's Besta furniture mostly because it is easy to mix and match their pieces to get the configuration we need. We need at least 8 ft wide and most of the electronics require some McGyver-type maneuvers because of their sizes. Sure we could have it custom-made but that will also mean we'd have to wait for weeks and would cost more. ANd if you knew me, you'd know I'm not keen on waiting. I love the end result. I will of course take pics once all the things I want in the family room are done, including these pics below which I will frame and display on the wall.

A collection of orchid pics which I plan to frame individually and display in the family room

• I've repainted the fireplace in the family room with white (Benjamin Moore's Chantily Lace). It was a tad difficult to convince DH to have it painted with white. It's wood and as most of you know, men don't like their wood painted. The original stain was the same stain used in the loft banister but I think having a dark (huge) entertainment centre in the family room, there will be too much of dark colours in there if the dark stain in the fireplace stays. In the end, I was allowed to paint it white and I am glad that everyone's happy with how it turned out.

work in progress in the family room

• And the one big thing - the ginormous chandelier is finally up. It was quite a relief seeing the 125 lb thing dangling on the ceiling and not using up a big space in the family room floor. Most importantly, it doesn't feel like being in a cave in the family room when we hang out in there at night.