When a friend of mine suggested that we all had dinner together this weekend, I pictured my roommates and I slaving over the stove for a few hours and serving a delicious meal to the four boys that were planning on coming over on Friday night. You can imagine my shock when it was the boys who said THEY would be doing the cooking for the evening. My first thought was, you guys can cook?? Since when?? My roommates and I were a bit apprehensive (was it safe to eat whatever they planned on making??), but our curiosity of how their meal would turn out got the best of us, and we welcomed them into our kitchen, a little unsure of what to expect. The boy chose to make chicken parmigiana over pasta with a side of garlic bread: a bit challenging, and one of my all-time favorite meals.
We were told that the only thing we were responsible for was the wine (check out this article for some great affordable wine choices), and sure enough, the four of them showed up with bags of groceries ready to get their chef on at 7:45 Friday night. The only thing we did all evening was sit back and get started on the wine, occasionally checking on what was happening in the pots and pans on our stovetop and making ooos and ahhs over the delicious aromas.
About 40 minutes later we were feasting, and believe it or not, the meal turned out GREAT! The boys did fabulously, and unfortunately for them, we’ve discovered their hidden talents and I have a feeling they won’t get out of making this a regular occasion. The only downside to letting people, in particular a bunch of boys, cook for you? You got it… clean up duty. But that part aside, cooking with friends can be a really fun activity. To spare them their reputation, no pictures were taken of the boys in action. But I did manage to get a picture of the finished product, and below is the recipe the boys used to make the meal. I’ve also included a few links to other good chicken parm recipes, as well as my favorite recipes for garlic bread.
Bon appetit! And more importantly, HAVE FUN!
Great chicken parmigiana recipes:
Easy chicken parm from About.com
Food Network’s Tyler Florence’s chicken parmesan
A simple chicken parm recipe from ReluctantGourmet.com
More of a visual learner? I’m a big Guy Fieri fan, and here’s a great video about how to make a quick, yet delicious chicken parm:
It’s pretty hard to screw up garlic bread; and when in doubt, you can always buy it at the grocery store. But where’s the fun in that? The nice thing about garlic bread is that there are actually a ton of variations you can try. Here are some scrumptious recipes:
A great recipe from a fellow cooking blogger
Food Network’s Paula Deen shares her recipe (Who drool over everything she makes on her show?)
Conquer the College Kitchen 