A Family Friendly Dinner?

Let’s be honest, most of the recipes this month don’t really appeal to the younger set, but determined not to have to cook separate meals for my kids every night, I cobbled together three recipes from the February issue that I thought might appeal to everyone—Chicken Milanese p. 60 http://www.marthastewart.com/891284/milanese-101, Maple Roasted Vegetables p. 74 http://www.wholeliving.com/155109/maple-roasted-brussels-sprouts-and-rutabaga-hazelnuts, and Potato Scones p. 24 http://www.marthastewart.com/874311/potato-scones.  My thinking behind these choices was that my kids already liked the basics of each—chicken cutlets, maple syrup, and mashed potatoes—so how could I go wrong?

I did well with the Chicken Milanese.  Despite my inclination to be lazy and use store bought bread crumbs, I followed Martha’s advice and made my own.  I have to admit I was skeptical when I saw how huge the crumbs were clinging to my chicken, but the result was a very nice crunch with a soft juicy inside, just like Martha said. 

I don’t eat poultry or beef, so I relied on my husband for reviews.  He really liked it, especially the crunch, but said he thought my normal chicken cutlets had more flavor.  I usually use Italian seasoned bread crumbs, so I think just adding some Italian spices would be an easy adjustment to add some flavor and maintain the crunch of the homemade crumbs.  The kids liked the Milanese as well, but, as it turns out, this was the only thing they ate.

I still don’t understand the resistance to the potato scones.  They were really fantastic and surprisingly easy to make.  I had visions of them being difficult to work and sticking to the pan, but none of that materialized.  My husband and I loved them and agreed with Martha’s suggestion that they would be good with breakfast.  A rich replacement for hash browns to accompany eggs—yum!   Unfortunately, my kids were not convinced.  My protests that “you like mashed potatoes and these are just like fried mashed potatoes,” fell on deaf ears.  Sigh… 

I had no better luck with the vegetables.  I replaced the rutabaga (which wasn’t available at my grocery store) with baby carrots and parsnips, both of which I’ve used successfully in a variety of roasted vegetables previously and I thought would be a better sell to the kids than rutabaga.  Although my husband and I aren’t really Brussels sprouts fans, this whole Deconstructing Martha project is about trying new things, so those remained.  The view and smell from the oven left me optimistic.  Pretty, no?  

 I gave my kids only the baby carrots and parsnips since they already like carrots and I passed off the parsnips as “white carrots.”  My 7-year old turned up his nose the second the plate arrived in front of him.  Him: “Mom, you’ve made carrots with stuff on them before and you know I don’t like it.”  Me: "But, it has maple syrup on it, you love maple syrup.  Just try it.”  I think he managed a lick before he redeclared of his hatred of carrots with “stuff.”  My 2-year old never even tried it.  She ate her chicken and announced that she was ready for candy. Double sigh …
- Jacqui