The High Schooler

See Amanda, I'm blogging every day right? Almost.

Tuesday night I went to Danny's open house. I have been a little apprehensive about him entering high school. All the other ninth graders attend the freshman campus but his CI (cognitive impaired) classes are at the high school. Well, most of my fears have been put to rest. I was rather impressed with all of his teachers and I feel like he'll have a great year. His computer and Life Skills teacher is also his case worker who will be involved in his IEP's. So he has her for three hours as Life Skills is a two hour block. I really like her and felt like she really enjoys Danny. She said, "Danny loves to visit and I love visiting with Danny. He has so many interesting things to talk about." I feel pretty confident that his education will continue to be as positive as it has been in the past. I'm very thankful for that!

Chicken Parmigiana (Pioneer Woman)

I've been thinking I really have to start eating healthier and maybe shed a few pounds so what do I do? I go on Pioneer Woman's site and just printed some "low fat" recipes like, "Muffins That Taste Like Donuts" and "Creme Brulee". I did make the following recipe from her site last week. It was very good and the leftovers even better. I think next time I will cut the chicken in bite size pieces before I flour and brown them.

Chicken Parmigiana

Ingredients

• 4 whole (up To 6) Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Trimmed And Pounded Flat
• ½ cups All-purpose Flour
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• ½ cups Olive Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic, Minced
• ¾ cups Wine (white Or Red Is Fine)(I used chicken broth)
  
• 3 cans (14.5 Oz.) Crushed Tomatoes
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• ¼ cubes Chopped Fresh Parsley
• 1 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 pound Thin Linguine

Preparation Instructions

Mix flour, salt, and pepper together on a large plate.
Dredge flattened chicken breasts in flour mixture. Set aside.

At this time, you can start a pot of water for your pasta. Cook linguine until al dente.

Heat olive oil and butter together in a large skillet over medium heat. When butter is melted and oil/butter mixture is hot, fry chicken breasts until nice and golden brown on each side, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Remove chicken breasts from the skillet and keep warm.

Without cleaning skillet, add onions and garlic and gently stir for 2 minutes. Pour in wine and scrape the bottom of the pan, getting all the flavorful bits off the bottom. Allow wine to cook down until reduced by half, about 2 minutes.
Pour in crushed tomatoes and stir to combine. Add sugar and more salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cook for 30 minutes. Toward the end of cooking time, add chopped parsley and give sauce a final stir.

Carefully lay chicken breasts on top of the sauce and completely cover them in grated Parmesan. Place lid on skillet and reduce heat to low. Allow to simmer until cheese is melted and chicken is thoroughly heated. Add more cheese to taste.

Place cooked noodles on a plate and cover with sauce. Place chicken breast on top and sprinkle with more parsley. Serve immediately.

Raspberry Jam and Nisu

Whew, got step one done on my bedroom. Still need to go through and organize my knitting bins, wash windows and go through the drawers but that will be step two another day.

I did get Nisu made yesterday. Trying to find something the kids will eat before heading out to school. They did eat Nisu today so at least they got their sugar and carbs for the morning! Every time I make Nisu I think of Pam. She was the BEST nisu maker ever. And because of her, I now make the cinnamon swirl loaves instead of braids. She also passed on the tip to leave the dough a little sticky so you don't have dry bread. That, along with my Mom's tip of raising and punching the dough down in the bowl twice, makes the softest nisu! (that is, let the dough raise, punch it down and then let it rise again, punch it down then form into loaves and of course, let it raise again.)

I made raspberry jam this morning. Nobody much likes it in this house except Fred and I so I only made one batch. I love Ritz crackers with homemade raspberry jam. Yum!

Okay, Amanda, I'm trying to post every day too. Hopefully boring is better than nothing.

September

I never did get pictures for August. The raspberries are doing great and the pears are exceptionally sweet this year. Even though I never did get the jugs hanging to kill the worms last spring, they have very few worm holes.

The Zoo

Went to the Zoo Sunday after church. Made a stop at Star Deli for the world's best corned beef sandwiches. It was a beautiful day and the place was packed.

First Day of School

Today was Jeanie's first day of middle school and Dan's first day of high school. Jean was up well before she needed to be. Danny had a hard time getting up. He said he was too tired and wanted to stay home. Oh boy, I hope that's not going to be a problem. He's been so excited and nervous about high school. He was pretty sober this morning, even for the pictures. I finally got him to show how he's been acting the last few days. Hopefully his high school experience will be as good as the middle and elementary was. I have yet to meet any of his teachers. Hard to believe Molly Jane is a junior already! It feels pretty good to have all the kids out to school by 7:00, now I'm off for my walk.