How come nobody told me about turkey breast cutlets?

I've had a break through in the flavor department: turkey breast cutlets. As best I can tell, its basically just turkey breast that's cut off the bone and then in half to make equal size pieces. Regardless of how it becomes at cutlet, after cooking it the other day I'm a little upset that no one suggested it to me before! I happen to come across them at Food Lion and thought I'd try Turkey Parmesan (totally winging it, no recipe or anything!).

I started out by whacking them a little to make them more consistent in size, I see them do this on the food network a lot I think so that they cook consistently but also because it's kind of fun. Then all I did was coat them with Italian style breadcrumbs (that have been sitting in the pantry since the cooking disaster that was my salmon 'cakes'), heat some olive oil in a pan and cook them up. It took about 5 minutes per side to get them done and a little browned, I think next time I may cook them a little longer (and quit compulsively moving them around) so the get more of a crust on the outside. I made spaghetti to go on the side, used a little of the sauce on top of the turkey and sprinkled it all with parmesan. Oh, and keeping with the healthy theme I steamed a single serving pack of Brussels sprouts and ta da:

The Verdict: Turkey has WAY more flavor than chicken! Seriously, if you can find these cutlets (I don't think all stores carry them since this is the first time I'd seen them), stock up. I'm going to try them as substitutes in a few other chicken based recipes in the future and see what happens.

My First Attempt at Bread

Back in September I was chatting with a few people at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Richmond Affiliate's Survivor Celebration at the Jefferson Hotel (now those people know how to cook...) and some how the subject of cooking came up. I told them I was in the process of learning how to cook and the big thing I'd really never attempted, but wanted to, was making my own bread. The woman next to me, Polly Stephens, turned over the event program and jotted down a recipe for no-knead bread. It looked fairly simple, she made it sound simple, but it did involve yeast which I've learned from Alton Brown (and his handy sock puppets) can be tricky to work with. I was cleaning out my kitchen yesterday and I came across a silicone bread pan (given to me at a past Christmas when I was planning to learn to cook and never did) and a really nice bread knife my friend Paulette gave me (Hi Paulette :) she's one of the few people I know actually reads this). It got me inspired and to my surprise I actually remembered where I'd put Polly's recipe. A few minutes later I'd assembled my army:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. yeast

1 5/8 cups warm water

The instructions were simple: mix it all together in a 2.5 quart tupperware, let it sit 6 hours or so, squish it down, let it sit another 2 hours then bake it at 450 for 50 minutes.

I did all of the above, except when I went to squish it down at hour 6, it looked exactly the same. I was assuming some sort of growth was supposed to have happened given the instruction to squish it 'down' - this was my first hmmm moment. I figured, I've already mixed it up and sat around in anticipation (actually we were watching Lost but I was still excited about the prospect of conquering bread) so I figured what the heck, mush it around some, let it sit the last 2 hours and lets see what happens.

2 hours later I popped it in the oven and 50 minutes after that I got this:

I also got a good laugh because not only did it feel hard as a brick, it was also the exact same size as a brick.

The Verdict: Technically speaking, I made bread. I believe my first loaf of bread is very similar to what the ancient Egyptians or early Colonists probably made before they discovered yeast. It actually tastes pretty good but obviously something in the rising process (or lack thereof) went wrong. I was not discouraged though, once my fancy bread knife made it through the touch (or shall we say crusty) exterior, I sliced it up, added a little butter and jelly and it was good! Not something I'd make a sandwich with, but overall not too bad, good for a snack or to dip in olive oil. Crusty on the outside and a little doughy on the inside. I have to admit that the yeast I used has been hanging around for a few years, I assumed dry yeast didn't go bad but hey, I gotta blame something.

I'm not giving up on making my own bread, Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar has an Alton Brown-ish approach to making homemade bread that I'm going to try next time. Since I'm off this week I may try it tomorrow :)