I used one of my Christmas gift cards to order a 12" carbon steel frying pan. I have a cast iron one but it is very heavy. I don't need it often, but when I do I'm always worried I'm going to drop it when it's full of hot food and I have to transfer it from stove top to oven or broiler, or vice versa. So we'll see how the carbon steel pan goes. I love the one I have for crepes, but it is much smaller and flatter.
It was top of mind this weekend because I decided to make this
skillet chicken parm, but I was able to use my 10" (enameled) cast iron pan for it, which is more manageable, since I only had 2 chicken breasts. And it was pretty good! I made the Marcella Hazan simple tomato sauce for it and it worked out well. It's definitely easier than breading and frying a bunch of cutlets, and it gives a decent approximation of the best bits, which are the breading and cheese and sauce all melding together.
Then today I made this
slow cooker creamy lemon chicken and it was okay - needed more lemon, imo, and also after reading the comments, I was prepared and added more cornstarch when the sauce didn't thicken much. I also thought it was weird that they want you to brown the chicken in butter first, but not saute the shallot and garlic. I didn't bother with searing the chicken, since generally I don't bother when I'm using the slow cooker, but I did saute the shallot and garlic first and added the dried herbs and let them sizzle for about 30 seconds before removing the pot from the stove and fitting it into the Instant Pot.
So it's been nice and cozy in here while the weather has been stupidly cold. Sadly, I have to go to a conference on Tuesday, when the high is supposed to be like 20°F. The agenda sounds interesting but I already told my boss if it was snowing I was staying home, but I don't think I can bail if it's just super cold but clear and dry. Who runs a conference in New York in January!? This is the time of year to be someplace warm. (Not that they would pay for me to go to a conference someplace warm! We're not even paying for this one - the tickets are comped because our head of HR is moderating a panel.)
I'm just glad I don't have to go out tomorrow, when it will be messy.
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chomiji
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