Mother's Day Cooking

A couple of days ago, I promised to share recipes if my cooking on Mother's Day did not cause any fatalities. I figure if anyone was going to die, they probably would have already, so these recipes should be OK.

There's nothing ground-breaking or terribly difficult in here, or I couldn't have done it.

Chicken Piccata

2 lbs chicken breast, sliced or pounded thin (scallopine style)
flour to dredge
4 T Olive oil
12 T butter
a few cloves of minced garlic
1/2 c dry white wine
juice of one lemon
1 c chicken broth

heat oil and 4T butter in skillet on high heat
dredge chicken and fry until brown - remove chicken to serving platter
reduce heat to med-high
add remaining butter
saute garlic
add wine and reduce
add lemon juice and chicken broth and reduce some more
spoon sauce over meat
garnish with parsley and/or thinly sliced lemon.

Fettuccine Alfredo

1 lb fettuccine
1 pint heavy cream
1 stick (8T) unsalted butter
a few cloves of minced garlic
1 c parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated

cook pasta in well-salted water
melt butter in saucepan and saute garlic
add cream and heat to boil
stir in cheese
toss sauce with pasta
garnish with more cheese and/or parsley

Not too tough, eh? I also made a ceasar salad, including the dressing with the raw egg, and still, nobody died.

I also tried to make bananas foster, but I had a lot of problems.

The first problem was trying to use an electric skillet, which just didn't heat consistently enough to dissolve the brown sugar in the butter.

Even using a regular skillet, I had problems because there just isn't enough liquid to dissolve the brown sugar until you actually try to foster some bananas.

Then, I had problems setting the alcohol on fire. No, the Fire Department wasn't called. I couldn't get it to ignite. I used more liquor the second time and it lit, but had a very strong rum flavor. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Eventually, I ended up with something edible, but I'm not sure you could call it bananas foster.

At least we didn't end up at the Kwik 'n' Krappy's.