Saturday, July 19, 2025

Easy Fish Piccata And Bruschetta, Chicken Parmesan With Italian Corn

Easy Fish Piccata

I had some Pacific Cod filets in the freezer and decided to turn them into a Piccata dish using the recipe for Easy Fish Piccata from “The Mediterranean Dish” as we love lemon, caper sauce.





It tasted very good, but unlike halibut, it needs to be cooked pretty done, which I didn’t do. 

Bruschetta Then Chicken Parmesan With Italian Corn

We began this meal with bruschetta at happy hour which I made with Cherokee Purple tomatoes and it was delicious but even though I used a slotted spoon, it still made the toast soggy – deseeded Paste tomatoes are a must to prevent this.

Bev wanted chicken parm for supper and we had some fresh corn to go with it.  I made the chicken using our normal grilled method.

For the corn, we used part of it to make our traditional fried corn with butter S&P with part of it and for the other part I made a half recipe of Cheesy Pecorino Corn With Italian Herbs from Roz on her “la bella Vita cucina” blog.  As expected, I enjoyed the Italian version but it was too different from the usual for Bev and Pat to eat more than a bite to try it.




Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/3 & 7/6/25 event dates

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Spaghetti and Meat, Italian Style And Eliza Swims

It’s been a while since we’ve had spaghetti and meatballs and when Eliza brought her family down it seemed like a good opportunity.  We had some homemade meatballs in the freezer but no Italian sausage so I used TPO (tomato, pepper, onion) from the Wurst Kitchen.  The menu included bread with EVOO & balsamic vinegar, then panzanella, then pasta and finally dessert.

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Easy Chicken Milanese alla Florentine & A Delicious Breakfast

I wasn’t trying to keep making Italian but just thought this dish looked delicious and would be perfect for our Friday get together.  The recipe for Easy Chicken Milanese alla Florentine came from the “Ask Chef Dennis” blog and I made several changes to it but the original can be found by clicking on the above link.  Chef Dennis Littley’s comment on the dish – “Chicken MIlanese alla Florentine is a delicious restaurant style dish that is made with a crispy chicken cutlet topped with steamed spinach and sauteed mushrooms, topped with Swiss cheese and served with a creamy white sauce. It's easy to make and oh so delicious.”

Thursday, July 10, 2025

Italian Pan fried Halibut with Creamy Lemon Caper Sauce Then Greek Sausage

I had some halibut in the freezer that I wanted to use and after searching my blog, I found a recipe that we had made previously but I didn’t have the sauce ingredients so I adapted my normal lemon, butter sauce for this dish.

Monday, July 7, 2025

Pasta al Pomodoro Crudo Replay And Pinot Grigio Taste Test

Since returning from Italy, we have been having Bruschetta regularly for happy hour and during a recent trip to the Mennonite Market, I bought a bag of Roma tomatoes to use for the tomato mixture so it wouldn’t be as watery – I removed the seeds from the Roma's.  I had six Roma's left and was thinking about another use for them when Bev reminded me of the pasta with fresh tomatoes we had made in the past.  So I did a blog search and found the recipe for Pasta al Pomodoro Crudo and recalled that I had a half box of small shells pasta in the pantry so a meal was born.  I’m posting this dish again to document the recipe using the Roma tomatoes.

Friday, July 4, 2025

Pork Chops On The Griddle, Cucumber Salad, & Another Red Wine Taste Test

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA

Bev wanted fried pork chops like we both grew up eating and I wanted to cook them on the grill griddle so a plan was born using the following recipe.  For sides, Bev wanted cucumber salad using the recipe below and well done broccoli then tossed in butter like she got at the cafeteria she used to lunch at.


Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Crack Chicken Casserole - Very Good

I try to make cooking for Friday cards pretty simple so one-pot meals and casseroles are usually high on my list.  I saw this recipe for Crack Chicken Casserole on the “Ask Chef Dennis” blog and it seemed to fit the bill.  Dennis says that “Crack Chicken Casserole is creamy, cheesy, and packed with crispy bacon, ranch flavor, and pasta. Pure comfort food baked to perfection.”  I followed the recipe as written.

Crack Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:

2 cups rotisserie chicken - shredded

8 oz cream cheese - softened

1 packet ranch dressing mix

10.5 oz cream of chicken soup condensed

1 cup sour cream - full fat

1 cup half and half or whole milk

1½ cups sharp cheddar cheese - shredded

6 slices bacon cooked and crumbled 

8 ounces shell pasta - cooked aldente

2 cups crushed Ritz Townhouse crackers  

4 ounces unsalted butter - melted (1 stick)

½ cup green onions - sliced for garnish

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Cook the shells per the instructions on the package for aldente.

Butter a 9×13-inch baking dish. Set aside until needed.

Add the softened cream cheese, ranch seasoning mix, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and half and half to a medium bowl. Whisk until smooth and creamy.