Chicken Parm

I know many of you think of chicken parmigiana as the quintessential Italian meal composing of a breaded chicken cutlet, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce and possibly served over spaghetti. But once you step out of the world of all you-can-eat salad and bread sticks at Olive Garden and into one of the kitchens (upstairs or downstairs) of real Italians, you will see a totally different culinary experience.

Though parmigiana means literally, "from Parma" (a town in Italy), the name derives from parmiggiana, a Sicilian recipe made with fried eggplant, tomato sauce and mozzarella. Believe it or not, in my two trips to the mother-land, I did not see chicken parm on the menu once. And to be completely honest, it was a rare day if we ever had it for dinner growing up in the Ribods house or any Italian household (even Bananas' house).

Tonight's dinner with Sunday's gravy. Breaded chicken cutlet, gravy, fresh mozzarella cheese and fresh basil with a side of pasta (freshly grated pecorino romano).

In order to have chicken parm for dinner, the following had to occur:
- Mama Ribods would have to fillet, bread, and fry about 8-10 pounds of chicken breasts for dinner. No Italian actually fillets, breads, fries and then makes the parm all in one night. Not worth all those pans.
- There would have to be left over cutlets after we all got through them. On a typical night about 15 cutlets might be remaining. Generous estimate.
- My mother would cut 2-3 cutlets for me into squares for lunch until I graduated high school. Joe Ribods would eat one for breakfast on the way to school. When we got home from school, we would snack on more cutlets. At this point, there would be no more left.
- On the very rare occasion that Joe Ribods didn't take 20+ cutlets to the face in 48 hours and Mama Ribods didn't feel like cooking, she would make some chicken parm with the leftover cutlets. On any given day you will find a bowl of Sunday gravy and a ball of fresh mozzarella cheese in the fridge downstairs. In the upstairs kitchen you will find the frozen reserve gravy. She would throw the cutlets on a pan, spoon some gravy on the chicken, put some cheese and basil on top....then bake for 20 minutes.

Please be aware that Joe Ribods stops by the house from work to take some cutlets "to go."

Afternoon Wine

Carol & Ashlee (aka: Smashlee)

Even though we got about 6 inches of snow yesterday, last weekend marked the first slightly warm, nice weekend. I spent the morning at Saturday Morning Math Academy with students and the math department at school. It was quite fun. Later on that day we all went to Flavia's baby shower on the East side. Ashlee, Iz and I had time to kill, so we went to Republic for a glass of wine in Union Square.

Iz, Kara, Ribods and Carol all on the sauce.

Once we got to the restaurant where the shower was being held, we laughed, we drank, and we ate. My three favorite things to do. I realized that one of my new favorite things to do is drink white wine in the middle of the day. We were seated at a table close to the door and this gave us more reason to have more fun. We were completely removed from the rest of the guests. We took advantage of our table real estate and had the Saturday afternoon of our lives. Below is a picture of Iz and Cat.

Back in the Swing of Things

So a week ago this time I was just leaving the beach and heading back to my room to get ready for dinner with mom and dad Ribods on St. John in the Caribbean. I see that a few of you have been checking everyday probably waiting for my posting on this "magical" trip (as Bananas would say). Since being in St. John, I have returned back to the quick-witted city of New York, wearing closed-toe shoes, and wondering where my parents are going next. For one reason or another, I have not posted. On the other hand, I feel I need to though.

beach view

So here are the highlights of this trip:

- To start the trip off, I was on the maiden voyage to St. Thomas, non-stop, on Delta from JFK. This meant something special (a free neck pillow)...a plane full of kids, 2 meals, tears and snot form the kids, and an hour delay on the tarmac. At least it wasn't as bad as the Titanic's maiden voyage.
- If you ever get a chance to stay at a Westin, do it. I cannot actually describe just how great of a hotel they are, but I will say their Heavenly Bed is wonderful. The resort itself was more geared toward families with little kids and iguanas, but at times I felt like a little kid in a candy store. There were two trampolines in the water, a glacier to climb, floats, canoes, waterfalls, etc. Chairs on the beach and around the pool had little red flags to put up when you wanted service. There were workers specifically positioned to just look for flags popping up.

view from our balcony of the pool scene

- 70% of the island is a national park and The Westin likes to carry on that tradition. So they breed iguanas on site. Everyday around 2:00pm, the entire pool area would be filled with these 3 foot creatures and this was their feeding time. Apparently they did not have a flag to raise when they were hungry. In addition, the entire resort was almost like a rain forest with gorgeous vegetation.

resident iguana

- The weather was amazing (85-90 and sunny each day). At times I felt like I was lying directly on the equator, even at 9:00am, but it was still amazing to be sitting in a bathing suit when I knew everyone back home was freezing their butt off.
- The Dive In Movie- this was impressive. At night, they set up this 15-20 ft blowup television by the pool and they show a children's movie and serve popcorn while the kids are in the pool. I watched Shrek 2 one night and I must say, the kids were so behaved.

out to dinner with mom and dad with their vacation attire on

I really do not have any funny stories or craziness to report about. It was really just a relaxing vacation with the parents. I read two books, read the paper everyday and just enjoyed life. In bed by 10pm every night and up at 6am to walk around the grounds. I am sad that I do not have any trips booked at the moment. Perhaps Greece in the summer of '07, South America fall '07 or maybe some shuffle board is Siesta Key. Who knows....I'm sure I will be going somewhere soon!