Shoulda Been V-Day

So, I was planning on making a romantic dinner at home on V-Day. As I mentioned in a previous post, we trade nights for dinner and V-day fell on my night. I had full intentions of creating a fabulous feast, but after starting my new job/project...I simply didn't have it in me to put the fab dinner I wanted to do together, so I ended up doing the tacos and heart-shaped cookies. Here's the dinner I intended to do...it shoulda been for V-day...

Dan and I love to go to Olive Garden for dinner. We love the salad...we love the breadsticks...we love the food...we love the dessert...I mean...what's not to like, really? Anywho, I always get the same thing: Chicken Parmesan and fettucini alfredo...I know the other entrees are fab, but I just love mine so much, I can't bear to switch. Anyone else have this problem? I've been trying to figure out how to make my version taste like theirs, but I just doesn't. Luckily, it still tastes mighty yummy. :)

For the fettucini, I use a Giada deLaurentis recipe, sans the lemon juice. I can't find the recipe online any more, it is available in her cookbook though, but the reviews said that the lemon juice was so strong, and lemons are $1 anywho, so I figured I'd save the $. It tastes fab w/o it. If you try this, do be sure to get fresh fettucini...they seem to sell fresh pasta in most grocery stores nowadays - near the cheese, usually.


Ahh...chicken parmesan...my fave. I've found a couple recipes that are pretty good for this. One from Food Network show "How to Boil Water", which I think they may have cancelled b/c I haven't seen it on TV for awhile. You may be able to find the recipe online still. Basically, I dipped scaloppine chicken in a lightly beaten egg mixture, then Italian bread crumbs, then I saute in olive oil and butter. Brown chicken on both sides, then place in a baking pan - I usually use a deep baking pan - preferably so they're not overlapping. I top each piece of chicken w/ a tablespoon or so of marinara sauce, then lots of mozzarella. You can also grate some freh parm over the mozz...you'll already have some on hand if you do the fetuccini alfredo. Then, bake until the cheese melts - about 15ish minutes.


Day-licious-O!