May 6, 2006: Gathering in the Kitchen

Randy cooked up a fabulous supper of chicken piccata with pasta and mushroom sauce, broccoli, and garlic bread for supper tonight. I love when he cooks. I love Saturday nights at home. Tonight it was just our family, but I love when we can have friends over to eat with us. Whenever friends come to eat, the kitchen becomes the automatic social center. Why is it that no one ever sits in the living room? Why do we all pull chairs into the kitchen?

So while he’s cooking, Randy imparts fatherly advice to Jesse that goes something like this:
“You need to learn how to cook. Chicks dig guys who can cook.”
He is soooooo right! And I am so glad that this is just one kind of fatherly advice that my children are blessed to receive.

Randy’s Chicken Piccata

3-4 chicken breasts, pounded flat
3 T flour
4 T butter
1/2 lb. Sliced mushrooms (fresh)
1/2 lemon
1/2 cup dry white wine
Lemon slices

Cut breasts into serving pieces, then coat each piece with flour. Heat butter until it sizzles. Add chicken and cook over high heat until lightly browned on both sides. Add sliced mushrooms and sauté until brown. Squeeze lemon over chicken in pan, then add wine. Swoosh everything around in pan and cook 1 minute more. Arrange chicken on serving platter. (Serve the mushroom sauce on the side if your kids are appalled by mushrooms.) Garnish with lemon slices. Serve with linguine with oil, garlic, and parmesan.