What do you want for dinner?

What do you want for dinner?? 

A question that gets asked at our house everyday, as almost a joke.  We can never quite decide what we want for dinner.  Why not?  Because we eat amazingly well.  And there's never a lack of meals, or types of food in our house!  Take this past week for instance.  We had everything from breaded pork cutlets to BBQ steak tenderloin to grilled pork tenderloin to chicken curry.  Now my husband always claims it's because of me and my picky eating habits.  Which I don't think I have, but I just like good tasting food.  And good tasting food to me isn't hamburger or hot dogs or dry roasts.  It's food full of flavor, and spices and butter!  Food that goes amazing with a lovely bottle glass of red wine!  You don't have a grilled cheese for dinner and think "Mmm, this would go good with a lovely Merlot!"....well, if you had grilled cheese the way I make it, with layers of different ooey gooey foreign sounding cheeses and grated Parmesan crusting the outer layer of the sandwich...a sandwich recipe stolen from our friend Laurie who made them for us after the bar one night at 2 or 3am in our kitchen while we giggled and tried not to wake up the kids.....ANYWAYS, my original point is I like soul food.  Food that has reason, meaning and flavor!  Now my husband, he's more of a meat and potato kind of guy.  Don't take this to mean he's a boring food eater, or doesn't like anything fancy because he will eat ANYTHING.  Honest.  Even as he's exclaiming that he doesn't like it, he will eat it.  He's just not that concerned with food the way I am.  I mean, I get the lip smacking "mmmmmmmm"s out of him because he can appreciate a lovely meal, but if it wasn't lovely, he'd still eat every drop.  He likes to joke that he was 185lbs when he first met me, and now, well, he's a few more lbs since then.  That's love honey!  You hear me?  It's cause I love you through my cooking!  He knows.  So back to my husband.....if I ask him "what do you want for dinner?" on any given day/time/hour he is 99% likely to reply "chicken scallopine".

Let's try it now actually...I'm going to text him "What do you want for dinner?" Okay...let's see what he says.

While we're waiting, let me also share that he loves my chicken scallopine recipe so much he named Sundays "Scallopine Sunday" and we are to eat scallopini every Sunday. EVEN if he's talked me into making it for him on Friday for example...by Sunday, he'll be asking for it again. It is a really good recipe.  And super easy too!  Which is great because we usually start cooking after we get home from work, which means we usually eat supper around 7 or 7:30 or 8pm even.  Plus, it's easy to pull out a portion for the kids before it's finished and full of "strange" ingredients (ie green things).....anyone with kids know how picky they can be!  And just because they like something one day, doesn't mean they'll like it the next!

OH!  He texts back "chicken".  He knows I'm testing him...he's a smart guy really.  Can't fool him.  All though, I did ask him 2 days ago and he said scallopine, and that was also his answer 4 days ago so I guess maybe he can want something else.

So the famous scallopine!!  I have to say....I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman.  She's got amazing food!!!!!  I've made a few things now from her and everything is a smash hit!!  Especially if you enjoy butter and cream and fat and delicious.  Then you would love her!! Actually, that's pretty much the best description of me...butter and cream and fat and delicious!  And peppy.  I think I'm kind of peppy.

The Pioneer Womans Chicken Scallopini that makes my husband fall in love with me (or it) every time I make it.....
(PS - I've tweaked it a smidge....and this is how I make it, but you can tweak it also!)

-Schmooosh some boneless, skinless chicken thighs with a rolling pin between 2 sheets of wax paper (or you can use breasts) till they are pretty thin and will cook quick and even.

-chuck them in a bag of flour, salt and pepper and shake them all around

-heat a pan (big enough to make sauce in after) and put in some butter (lots) and some olive oil

-brown your chicken and cook till just done, put aside (or put in the oven on warm on a plate like I do! I like to use a plate with a bit of sides so that it catches all the yummy juices from the chicken to add later.)

-take your yummy pan with chicken bits all browned in it and add a bit more oil if needed, then chuck in some sliced mushrooms and stir them all around

-add 1 cup white wine (or chicken broth or both!  I usually use the 1 cup wine and throw in maybe 1/2 cup chicken broth too)....now squeeze the juice of half a lemon, or a whole lemon depending on how lemony you enjoy stuff!  I like both halves in there!

-heat up and scrape off all the yummy browned bits from the pan....let bubble good and hard for a few mins.

-now add a heaping tsp (or 4) of capers!  I try not to get too too much caper juice in there but a bit is ok!

-okay so here's the good part....turn down your pan so it's just just simmering.  Now add 1/2 cup whipping cream (or if you're like me, add 3/4-1 cup whipping cream cause I'm delicious like that!)

-throw in some fresh parsley (or that amazing freeze dried crap), stir it all up and taste it....MMM.....this is where you can add more salt or pepper as needed...I usually add a dash of worchesterschire sauce and sometimes 1/2 a packet of chicken bouillon but lots of times it's perfect as is!

How to serve....

Cook up some of your favorite linguine or fettuccine and put this in the bottom of a big platter.  Place your chicken pieces on top and then pour whatever juices have collected in the bottom of the chicken plate.  Top with AMAZING sauce (don't waste a drop!!) and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese!

DIG IN!  Have some crusty bread and a glass of wine to go with it all!  Also, a treadmill because you are going to want to eat alot of this...all the time.....and your skinny jeans are going to HATE you.  You're welcome!