Viva Italian!

My house is a mess right now because we are kind of in a transition in our decorating.  The dining room got dumped on literally so we had to eat our Sunday dinner at the kitchen table and that was just  OK.  It doesn't matter if you have a grandiose dining room, fancy china and crystal, and the finest silver place settings.  What matters is that you are gathering together as a family around the dinner table to create memories, become closer and eat some fabulous food!  We had a great Sunday dinner menu today which included one of Stephen's favorites, Chicken Parmesan.

Parmesan Chicken (recipe below)

Buttered Noodles

Fresh Garden Salad

Warm rolls

Dessert: Strawberry Freeze (recipe below)

Chicken Parmesan

This recipe came from.....ME!  I just made it up because Chicken Parmesan sounded really good one day.  It was a hit and we've been eating it ever since in our home.  This is one of Stephen's favorites and he usually will request this on his birthdays and other special occasions.

You will need 3 chicken breasts cut into filets.

Combine and pour into flat dish:

1 cup cornflake crumbs (You can sometimes buy it at the grocery store but I usually just grind it in my blender and it works perfectly.)

1/4 grated Parmesan cheese (The kind that comes in the green shaker style container)

1/8 tsp garlic powder

In a separate dish beat 1 egg.

Pour olive oil in heated frying pan.  Dip chicken into beaten egg and then into cornflake crumbs.  Make sure chicken is completely coated.  Place in frying pan and cook on both sides until nicely browned.

Remove chicken from frying pan and place on cookie sheet.  Pour spaghetti sauce of your choice (I use Prego Mushroom) on each filet.  Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of sauce (You can use grated) and pop it under the broiler until melted and bubbly.

Buttered Noodles

This is a pretty darn easy dish to prepare.  I use the homemade noodles that come in a cellophane bag in the pasta section.  It boils for three minutes and then it's done!  That's it!  So fast and easy.  I melt butter and add it to the drained noodles and sprinkle with a little parsley for color.

Fresh Garden Salad

I love making fresh garden salads to accompany my main dish.  This salad needed to be tossed with a savory Italian dressing to compliment the Chicken Parmesan....nothing sweet needed this time.  For this salad I combined romaine lettuce and spinach, tomatoes from my garden (woohoo), cucumbers, pepperoni slices, cornbread croutons (I love those way better than the basic seasoned bread crumbs), and some shredded Parmesan cheese.  My favorite Italian dressing is Ken's Three Cheese Italian, but I haven't been able to find it lately so it's probably been discontinued...just my luck!

Strawberry Freeze

This has to be one of my all time favorite desserts.  My mother made this for us when I was little and it was seriously always my requested birthday "cake".  We didn't like cake in my family so we just always did birthday desserts!  My daughter, Ashton always picked this as her brithday cake too!  I still love this frozen treat to this day.  I have to say that this dessert got rave reviews from my father-in-law today.  He said it was the best dessert he's ever had and he helped himself to a second serving.  That never happens so we know it must be good!  It's a great dessert for Sunday dinner because you can prepare it the night before, leaving more time for you to get dinner ready on Sunday.

Don't you just love my cute little typed recipe card that I made when I probably 13 as I started gleaning recipes from my Mother to add to my collection.

Of course I have tweaked the recipe just a little throughout the years but it's basically the same.

Combine in a bowl:

1 Cup flour

1/4 Cup brown sugar

1/2 Cup chopped walnuts ( I use pecans)

1/2 Cup butter, melted

Pour in a flat pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Let cool.  Pour 2/3 of crumbs in bottom of 13x9.  Reserve the rest.

Blend together:

2 egg whites
1 Cup sugar*
2 Cup sliced strawberries*
2 TBSP lemon juice

*I used a 16 ounce container of frozen, sliced strawberries (thawed) and cut the sugar to 1/2 Cup

In a separate bowl beat 1 Cup whipping cream until thickened.

Gently fold whipped cream into strawberry mixture.  Pour over crumbs in the 13x9 pan.

Place reserved crumbs on top of strawberry mixture.  Place in freezer overnight.

Time for Dinner!

Drum roll please……I’m here to introduce my new blog, “Sunday Dinner Diva”!  I've been thinking about doing this for awhile now.  Let me explain…..Sundays have always been an important part of my life.  I grew up going to church every Sunday morning with my parents and brothers and sister.  Now that I’m grown, I still go to church with my husband and children to be uplifted and edified spiritually and to learn how to be more Christ like.  It’s a very integral part of who I am and what makes me tick.  When our Sunday meetings are over each week the family jumps in the car and we head home.  Invariably the question is asked, “What’s for Sunday dinner?”

Sunday dinner is the constant in our home that brings our family together.  We rest on Sundays from the cares of the week and spend quality, uninterrupted time together bonding as a family.  Growing up in my family mother always prepared an amazing Sunday dinner and placed it on an elegantly set table with candles, a centerpiece, china, silver serving dishes, and a perfectly pressed linen tablecloth for us to enjoy the gourmet feast.  She treated Sunday as a special day, a day different than any other day of the week.  We ate in the dining room on the dining room table that was reserved only for special occasions.  What better occasion than observing the Sabbath?  When “Time to Eat” was hollered we would all graciously come to the table with the anticipation of eating a most delicious meal, a meal different than our normal weekday fare.  We still had our church clothes on which was an unwritten requirement for participation in Sunday Dinner.  We practiced using good manners while we ate and had impromptu lessons during dinner from Mother about various sophisticated eating standards like which fork in our place setting was the right one to use or what the little plate placed above the fork was to be used for.  The food that was lovingly prepared was always delicious. The menu was well-balanced and carefully planned to not only taste wonderful but to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye as well.  We learned from my mother that “presentation is everything”.  The presentation of the food always looked as good as it tasted.

Because of the weekly Sunday dinners I had while growing up, I continued the tradition with my family, following my mother’s example.  I wouldn't say every meal I create is as exquisite as my Mom’s but I do my best.  And I must be doing pretty well because my children still ask each Sunday with anticipation, “What’s for Sunday dinner?”  This Sunday dinner thing is a constant in our lives that brings us closer as a family.  Now that I have grown children, the numbers at our Sunday dinner table are dwindling and I sometimes have to recruit guests so that we have less “empty chairs” in the dining room but it’s still important for me to continue this tradition.  In order to help pass on this legacy to my children and to continue to feel motivated to cook phenomenal meals even though I have less people to cook for, I thought that a blog would be a good forum to showcase Sunday dinner menus and recipes so that future generations of family had access to them.  Many of our family favorites have come from family and friends over the years and I am happy to share them.  I have a tendency to tweak my recipes a little to make them my own.  My daughter, Ashton always calls me in frustration wanting to know what I did to change an old recipe.  She knows that she can never just follow a recipe of mine because I never cook it quite the way it is written on the cute, little stained recipe card.  

Just a little disclaimer….I’m not a professional food blogger or professional food photographer.  As you browse through my Sunday dinner menus and family recipes I hope you will be inspired to create some Sunday memories around your dinner table with your family.  There's a lot a laughter and story telling to be shared in your home......So here’s your official invitation to join us for Sunday dinner!