Veal Parmiagiana

There is nothing my husband loves more than an Italian meal so his Father's Day gift is a delightful menu...veal parm, pasta and brownies.

VEAL PARMIGIANA

2 lbs. of fresh veal cutlets

Two or three fresh eggs at room temperature

Italian flavored breadcrumbs

All purpose flour

Parmiagiana Regiano cheese

extra virgin olive oil

Your favorite tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 350F

Rub a good baking dish with butter flavored Crisco.  Set aside.

Put three pie plates on your counter.  Put breadcrumbs in one; put flour in one; mix the eggs and a little cream in the third.  Add salt, pepper and garlic powder to the egg mixture.

Dredge cutlets first in flour, then in the egg mixture and then dredge them in the breadcrumbs.  On stovetop, have a deep fry pan filled with extra virgin olive oil.  Fry each cutlet for two minutes on each side.  Set on brown paper on a baking rack until assembly time.

In the baking dish, put a spoonful of tomato sauce, then two cutlets, then sprinkle a little cheese.  Repeat each layer until finished.  Top with a generous amount of cheese.  Bake for twenty minutes.  

Perfect Pie Crust

There are two key components to making perfect pie crust:  shortening and resting.  To make a perfect pie crust, you must choose the right shortening for the crust and allow the dough to rest for a minimum of thirty minutes before rolling it out.  For a savory pie crust, you need a combination of lard and butter (or butter flavored Crisco) that works well with meat pies, poultry pies, etc.  For a sweet pie crust, you simply add a tiny bit of sugar to enhance the flavor of the filling.  My perfect combination for a crust is butter flavored Crisco and lard straight from the fridge (it is very cold).  Always use ice water.  You can do a decent pie crust by hand but I prefer to use my Kitchenaide with the dough hook.  Have a bowl set aside for the dough to rest (in the fridge).

Tips for rolling out dough:  if you have a granite or granite-type countertop, that's the surface you want.  A granite rolling pin is a plus.  If you have neither, put a linen on your countertop and roll out your pie dough on that.  Have your pie plate ready too.

Pie Crust
3 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tbl. of lard
3 tbl. of butter flavored Crisco
ice water (1/2 to 1 cup)
pinch of salt

Sift flour into mixing bowl.  Using dough hook, add lard and salt, pulsing until the dough is crumbly.  Add ice water by pouring into top of machine until the dough no longer sticks to the side of the mixing bowl.  Stop pulsing as soon as it reaches that stage.  Put the dough into the resting bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to chill for at least thirty minutes.  Cut the dough in half to roll out and put the rest back in the fridge.

Knead the dough with your hands for about a minute (the heat from your hands will make the gluten in the dough develop nicely).  Roll out and put on the pie plate.  If making a savory pie, put in your meat or poultry filling, dot with butter and roll out and cover the pie.  Most meat pies bake at around 400F for 30 to 45 minutes.  If making a dessert pie, roll out your dough, fill it, roll out second crust and cover.  Sprinkle the top of the pie with granulated sugar before baking.  Most dessert pies bake at around 375F (unless using apples or a firm fruit).  for 30 to 45 minutes.  Remember to vent the top of your crust by poking with a fork or a knife before cooking.  Most chefs brush the top of the pie crust before baking with either a mixture of egg (white or yolk) and water; cream or half and half, etc.  Be creative!!!

If you have time to make your own, here's the recipe for cherry filling...

Cherry Filling
4 to 5 cups of fresh cherries, pitted
1 cup of turbinado sugar (bar sugar)
2 tbl. of cornstarch
1/2 tsp. of extract (your choice:  raspberry; vanilla; almond, etc.)

Put cherries and sugar in a small saucepan and simmer over lowest possible heat until liquid develops.  Take some of the hot liquid and mix in a bowl with the cornstarch until you get a smooth paste.  Put that back into the cherry filling with the extract and shut off heat after mixing well.  Allow your filling to get to room temperature before making your pie.  I usually run this filling through a strainer to remove any unwanted pits or peels.

Busy Day Parfait

When you have a busy day, it’s easy to put together a quick dessert if you have instant pudding, Cool Whip and frozen fruit.  Take out the Cool Whip and put in the fridge to thaw out while you are at work.  Take the frozen fruit (strawberries or raspberries in sauce) and put in the sink to thaw out while at work.  When you get home from work, you can make this dessert in five minutes, put it in the fridge and it will be ready when you are done making dinner.

Ingredients:

1 pkg. of instant chocolate fudge pudding

½ cup of milk

1 cup of Cool Whip

In a deep mixing bowl, beat the above ingredients with a hand mixer.  Set aside.  Get out four parfait glasses or upright glasses. 

Assembly:

Thawed strawberries, Cool Whip and pudding mixture

Alternate layers of pudding, cool whip and strawberries until glass is filled.  Refrigerate until serving time.

Filled and Frosted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 350F

Tools

Mini cupcake pan

Mixing bowls

Fork

Cake rack

spoon

2 pkg. of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough

Cheese Filling

1 small pkg. (3 oz.) of cream cheese

3 oz. of white chocolate

1 tbl. butter

Melt these three ingredients together.  Mix well.  Allow to cool.

In a cupcake pan, line bottom of cupcake holes with cookie dough.   Add a tiny bit of the cheese filling.  Cover with another piece of cookie dough.  Bake for 15 minutes or until cookies are golden brown on top.  Cool.

Put wax paper under a cake rack.  Put cooled cookies on top of cookie rack.

Glaze

2 oz. of white chocolate

2 tbl. of butter

2 oz. of cream cheese

Nuke one minute, stir vigorously with a fork until the frosting is well blended and you have no lumps (you may need to add a little additional time in microwave).  Or, do in a mixing bowl over simmering water.

Cover the cookies with the glaze and allow to cool.

Deviled Eggs

Egg Preparation:


Put six to eight eggs in a pan and cover with cold water.  Bring water to a boil and allow to boil for five minutes.  Shut heat off and cover the pan.  Allow eggs to sit in the water bath for fifteen minutes.
Remove cover and add two cups of ice cubes.  Allow to rest for fifteen minutes or longer.  Peel eggs and slice them in half.

Filling:


Egg yolks
Poppy seeds (about a tablespoon)
1 can of deviled ham
Mayonnaise
1/2 cup of diced chives
6 oz. of bacon bits

In a large bowl, put all ingredients except mayonnaise.  Using a fork, break up egg yolks and mix with other ingredients.  Add two tbl. of mayonnaise.  Mix with fork.  Taste...if necessary, add more mayonnaise.  Refrigerate until serving time.

Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate ganache sounds fancy but is ridiculously easy to make and is the most versatile chocolate ingredient you can produce in your home kitchen.  It is like the glue that binds chocolate desserts together, making any chocolate dessert that much better.  My way of doing it is foolproof and requires no double boiler.  The key here is equal amounts of ingredients.  Since this is a base sauce, I do not add sugar.  Only add sugar if you are using it as a cake topping.  Otherwise, make this ahead of time and store in fridge (good shelf life) for making chocolate truffles, chocolate fondue, etc.  I use European chocolate.

Chocolate Ganache

4 oz. of bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate

4 oz. of Nutella (Italian hazelnut spread, imported from Italy)

4 oz. of heavy cream, cold from fridge

Place the chocolate and Nutella in a deep glass bowl.  Nuke in increments of 30 seconds until chocolate is melted.  Add heavy cream and stir until you have a creamy chocolate sauce.  Use immediately to coat a cake or allow to cool and put it in a fridge container for future use.  Please note that occasionally I add two pats of butter depending upon what I’m using my ganache for and/or super fine sugar (no more than a tablespoon) or alternatively, corn syrup.

Apple Cobbler

Apple Cobbler

Preheat oven to 375F

8 x 8 baking dish    Take room temperature butter and grease the baking dish, then pour superfine sugar over the butter, coating the butter with sugar.  Excess sugar can be put in the apple mixture.

Apple filling:

6 to 8 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

½ cup of melted butter

1 tbl. of molasses

2 tbl. of sugar

½ tsp. of cinnamon

½ tsp. of nutmeg (I use freshly grated nutmeg)

Juice of one lemon

In a glass mixing bowl, put butter, molasses, sugar and lemon.  Microwave this mixture and allow to cool.  When cooled, add sliced apples.  Stir generously and allow the apples to macerate for at least thirty minutes.

Topping:

1 and ½ cups of self-rising flour

½ cup of butter (at room temperature)

½ tsp. of cinnamon

½ tsp. of nutmeg

Pinch of salt

¼ cup of sugar

1 egg, slightly beaten

In a separate mixing bowl, put flour and add dry ingredients.  Toss with a fork until well blended.  Add butter (not melted) and stir until you get a pebbly mixture.   Add egg and toss lightly.

Assembly:

Put apples in bottom of baking pan.  Dot with butter.  Add topping.  Bake for 30 to 45 minutes until topping is brown and you see the juices bubbling in the cobbler.