Grandma's Chicken

If you ever had the chance to meet my Grandma Kleber, you will never forget her.  She was all of 5 feet (on a good day) and one of the most loving, caring & doting women.  Her parents migrated from Syria to Detroit before she was born & they struggled to survive - 10 kids in a 2 bedroom apartment.  They have an amazing story.  But one of the things that defined my grandmother was that she LOVED to cook.  It was her love language - she cooked for you because she loved you.  As much as she tried to cook American food, it always had a little Syrian flavor to it.  I don't believe she ever made a single recipe that did not include olive oil, garlic & lemon.  Last week we had my parents over to our house for my dad's birthday.  He requested "Grandma's Chicken" for dinner.  Here is the recipe.  Its pretty simple, but very delicious. 

INGREDIENTS:
+ 2 lbs thin cut chicken breast (or pound out thick breast)
+ 2 eggs
+ 3 cups breadcrumbs (Italian or plain)
+ 3 medium cloves of garlic
+1 whole lemon
+ olive oil (for cooking)
+ 1 red bell pepper
+ 1 green bell pepper
+ 1/2 package mushrooms (any kind you like - I prefer the baby portabella)
+ 1/2 yellow onion

Ok, let's do our cooking dance.  Now you're ready. 

1. Beat the 2 eggs in a bowl.  On a separate plate, pour the 3 cups of breadcrumbs. 
2. Coat each piece of chicken in the egg (let the excess drip off).  Dredge each piece of chicken in the breadcrumbs.  Do this for all of the chicken & set aside.
3. Roughly chop the garlic cloves.  Slice the onion & peppers in 1/2 inch strips.  Slice the mushrooms.
4.  Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a large frying pan or griddle.  Add the garlic, onions, peppers, & mushrooms to the olive oil.  Cook for about 3 minutes
5.  Add a little more olive oil if necessary & then add the chicken breast to the frying pan/griddle.
6.  Cut a lemon in half & squeeze 1/2 of the lemon all over the chicken & veggies.
7. Cook the chicken until brown on one side.  Flip to the other side & squeeze other 1/2 of lemon all over the chicken & veggies.  (Make sure you continue to move the veggies around so they don't burn.
8.  Add more olive oil if the pan becomes "dry."  Cook chicken until no longer pink in the center.

Enjoy! 
                                                                                                       

Ready!

During....

Moving On Up!

From the end of January through March is the busiest time of year for me.  I'm a literally at swim meets every other weekend, and often the meets are 3 1/2 days long & out of town (I think when I counted I was coaching on the weekends 6 out of 8 weekends during that time).  In the midst of all that craziness, Michael & I moved to a duplex only 5 minutes away from our first apartment.  So that is my exuse for not putting up these pictures 2 months ago when we actually made the move. 

We love our new plance.  It is bigger than our apartment, has a 2nd bedroom, hardwoods throughout, a working fireplace & a big screened in porch (my favorite part of the house).  To top it off, it is in the exact location we were looking for & $200/mo cheaper than our apartment, which is a testiment of God's provision for us.  Michael & I had been looking for months for a new place and were getting very frustrated with the process.  We went for a run one Sunday afternoon & literally stumbled on this place. 

Here are a few pics of the place before we moved in.  Once I get started working on some of my projects this summer I can show how its all coming together.  Its really a great space (minus the teeeeeeny tiiiiiny kitchen with only 2 ft. of useable counter space).

Kitchen (like I said...) 

 Front Entry & Living Room

 Fireplace



Corner of dining room 

 Our very large master bedroom

The porch!!

Crying Laughing

Ever laugh so hard you cry?  Its the best kind.  Thank you Jenn Romanski for this - I was laughing so hard Michael had to pause whatever he was watching on the DVR & let me finish.  Side Note: I wish my students were this funny.
http://www.losteyeball.com/index.php/2007/06/19/56-worstbest-analogies-of-high-school-students/

Getting Organized

Last weekend (April 9-10) was the first time I cleaned our house since we moved in at the end of February.  Yikes! I can honestly say I was happy to be cleaning.  There are still a lot of things that need to get done & quite a few projects I have in mind.  But with our crazy schedule, there is only so much I can do during the school year when I leave the house at 7am & don't return until 8pm.  Here are 2 small projects I finally completed last weekend

#1 - Hanging up the chalkboard clip boards in our entryway.  I can't take credit for this idea - I've seen it all over blog land.  However, its super cute, easy & cheap (just spray paint some clipboards).  Its also a great way to organize all those random papers, mail, etc that you have no place for (or to leave your sweetie a little note - if you know what I'm sayin' ;)

#2 - Hanging & organizing my jewelry.  Let's just say if I had a before picture, its caption would be "hot mess."  I bought this birdcage jewelry organizer from Urban Outfitters (it was pretty cheap too).  The only problem I have is with the walls in our house - there is steel or concrete or something in them that does not allow the nails to go all the way into the wall - my hammer just bounces off the nails.... and maybe I should be concerned that every time I put a nail in the wall I hear something crubmling on the inside of the wall? 



Maybe one of these days I'll get to how Michael surprised me with a trip to NYC for our one year anniversary... I think that's pretty blog worthy :)