Friday Friend Recipe #140 - Chicken Parmesan

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook: I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county). At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 18 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions, exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts, had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday.

AND, we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

I was looking at the cookbook the other night and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog."
The Handyman--who knows me better than I know myself (this happened to be a question on the Friday Friend forum once---does your spouse/partner know you better than you know yourself?)--said,  "you'll never, EVER do that."
WELL---maybe I'll show him!  Maybe I will.

Which brings me to this... recipe #140

Adria's

Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Parmesan is an Italian classic!

I always forget how good it is-- but it's really good.

Really good.

I know I didn't pound the chicken breasts thin like I should have--I was in a hurry.  Don't be in a hurry.  You can take the time to make it a bit more traditional (thinner, which is best) or just use the chicken breast as is. 

Either way, it's a winner.

A little bit crunchy and then tender inside, covered in a seasoned tomato sauce.

Yum!

I'm hungry now.

And now....let's meet my Friday Friend, Adria Webber!

YES, even now, at recipe 140, you are meeting new people. (there are a couple more....)

Adria was my neighbor when we lived in California, our boys who were nine at the time (now 32) were best friends, in the same class, cub scouts together, on swim team, and all around neighborhood ---  I was going to say hooligans, but a hooligan is a violent troublemaker, and they were not that --  free spirits?  No matter, you get the idea.

Once her son Michael ran away from home.  He came to our house and lived in my son Mark's closet--until dinner time, when his mom came to bring him back home.

I tend to (now) not really know my neighbors as well as I should, I mean, I KNOW them of course, but I don't visit them as often as the Handyman.  He knows the cars they drive, the people they have over and where they work, their hopes, their dreams... I pretty much want to be left alone and read a book.  EXCEPT when I have a dinner party, which I love to do, I love to entertain, and then everyone is invited!

But I was kind of lonely when we first moved to California, so I made banana bread and took loaves to a few of my neighbors and told them I was available for coffee anytime if they'd like to stop by for a visit.

My next door neighbor, opened the door a bit, took my banana bread and said "no thank you, I don't do that" in answer to my coffee invitation, and shut the door.

But not so Adria!  She invited me in and the rest is history.  We had coffee (or a coke in the afternoon) a couple days a week and have been friends ever since.

Here is a photo of Adria and a pelican.

Adria's on the left.

(I crack myself up!)

And that my friends is recipe #140!

154 to go!