Almond Crusted Chicken with Scallion Beurre Blanc

This is a recent find (Rachel Ray) that I was super nervous about because of the hoity toity name. It was actually super easy and the guys liked it despite the name.

ALMOND CRUSTED CHICKEN WITH SCALLION BEURRE BLANC

Chicken:

8 thin pieces chicken breast cutlets

1 large egg

2 tbsp heavy cream

1/2 cup sliced almonds (or walnuts)

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Salt and pepper

EVOO

Beat egg with 2 tbsp cream. Combine nuts, bread crumbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in the food process and process until finely ground. Dip chicken pieces in egg mixture then coat with bread crumb mixture. Heat skillet with 2 tbsp EVOO to medium heat and add chicken to skillet. Cook 3 minutes on each side and transfer to oven to keep warm. You will probably need 2 batches

Sauce:

2 scallions, whites and greens, very finely chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine

¼ cup heavy cream

1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces

Combine the whites of the scallions, white wine and cream in a saucepan over medium heat and reduce to 1/4 cup liquid, 5 to 6 minutes. Lower the heat on the sauce and whisk the butter into pot a few pieces at a time until it has incorporated. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper, to your taste.

Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

I've had some recipe requests lately so I'm posting a few more that we love. Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana is my absolute favorite soup in the world and I found this copycat recipe that actually tastes JUST like it. It is awesome!

Olive Garden Zuppa Tuscana Soup

1/2 lb spicy italian sausage, crumbled

1 tbsp canola oil

1 small onion diced

2 cloves minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

4 large potatoes with skins, halved and sliced

2 cups sliced kale (optional)

1/3 cup heavy cream

Remove skin from sausage, cook over medium-high heat until completely browned. Rinse thoroughly and set aside.

Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Saute onions until translucent; add garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in broth, red pepper, and potatoes. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes can be easily cut (I usually wait until the potatoes break up when I am stirring it).

When potatoes are cooked add sausage, cream, and kale. Simmer until heated through.

Blue paint

I feel overwhelmed by blue paint lately.  It is on every t-shirt I own (why can't I just wear the same shirt every time?!).  It is in crusty marks around all the sinks that I will have to clean when this is all done.  It is even in my hair and it won't come out.

That being said... I got bored (and motivated) yesterday and started Carson's bigger little boy room.  I took apart his crib (I didn't even shed a tear) and brought up his twin bed from the Man Cave.  My grandma bought Carson some airplane sheets when she visited a few weeks ago and we have some adorable antique planes from my baby shower (yeah, I told people he was going to have an airplane nursery and then changed my mind so the planes have been sitting in a closet ever since).

So yesterday I painted some BLUE on the walls (more blue paint, aaahhh!!) and today I'm going to paint some of the furniture/frames/lamps (I am in love with the idea of a red lamp).  Also there will be a thin white chair rail between the blue and brown eventually (just so you can picture this, I know you want to).  Here's what I have so far...

Carson in his big boy bed during his nap (before I hauled up the bed frame)

And ready for bed!  I LOVE the twin bed.  It is awesome to be able to lay next to him and read him books before bed.  And if he wants to play with his choo choo for hours (which he does daily) I can lay on the bed and watch him (or possibly drift off for a few minutes).

I think I owe the productiveness of this day to my friend Camille who went walking with me this morning!  I had so much energy all day.  So excited that our walks are going to become a regular activity!

Painting again.

We have been pathetically behind on home projects lately.  So when our neighbors had their house repainted last month we got the itch.  Today it started...

After one day of painting I can safely say that this project is going to take much longer than we anticipated.  Painting a house is much different in Florida because most houses are one story and because stucco is much easier to paint than siding is.  Wish us luck!

Oh, and I'm posting this because I don't think I've ever posted a picture of our pathetically small back yard.

And here's an update on the landscaping (for a before click HERE).  I figured I should post this before our house is BLUE!