Second time cooking, Chicken Parmesan

For the second time in one month, I decide to do the cooking. Most of my friends know that I am a master chef, I could cook two really delightful dishes, being omelet and boiled eggs :D. But for this time I decided to try something new, thanks to Google I found a recipe for Chicken Parmesan, you know, that dish you find at Johnny Carino’s and most italian restaurants.

So, I got the recipe, it was step by step, with a quoted preparation time of 30 mins and cooking time of another 30 mins. Fairly easy, or is it…

First step in any recipe is getting the ingredients. Yeah right, easier said than done.

P.S. If you’re viewing this on facebook, please click “View Original Post” below to see the original, it looks better!

Ingredients

1. 2 eggs, beaten (easy enough).
2. 1 cup grated (مبشورة) parmesan cheese (thought I’d find that pre-packed like mozzarella or emmental, but no sir, there aren’t readily available, I had to buy a big chunk and grate it myself).
3. Boneless chicken breasts (the ones you use for chicken pane’)
4. Tomato pasta sauce (I guess normal tomato sauce would still work, but the Heinz pasta sauce is good and seasoned well)
5. Mozzarella cheese.
   Ready for the fun part??
6. Italian breadcrumbs (بقسمات).
   Now I thought to myself, what the heck are italian breadcrumbs?!! Couldn't find it anywhere, not metro, not Carrefour, no where. Solution? Asked my best advisor (AKA Google), that’s easy enough to make at home, will show how after the jump.
7. Italian seasonings.
   Again had no idea what those were, and could not find them anywhere either… Yup, you guessed it, thanks again Google, they are easy enough to make.
8. Olive oil.

Now you might notice that I didn't specify exact amounts, well, I just add whatever it is the ingredient till I feel its good enough. Some people disagree, but these are not the ones who tried the food!

How to make italian seasoning at home

You’ll need the following, this time I kinda stuck to the instructions, but not entirely, as I didn't have some of the ingredients and I didn't like others, so here’s what I used, YMMV:

1. 3 tablespoons dried basil (ريحان).
2. 1 tablespoon coriander (Cilantro, كزبرة).
3. 1 teaspoon dried thyme (زعتر).
4. 1 tablespoon garlic powder.
5. 1 teaspoon dried rosemary.
6. “Some” black pepper.
7. “Some” red chili flakes.

Put them all in a deep bowl and mix, the scent will tell whether you got it right.

How to make italian breadcrumbs at home

Now that those italian seasonings are done, its time to put them to good use. What you’ll need is:

1. Some bread, not fresh but not rotten either, it needs to be dry.
2. Some italian seasonings.
3. Some grated parmesan.
4. A blender (خلاط).

Note: If the bread isn't dry enough, like that I used, put it in the oven on low heat for 10 mins or so, then take it out and leave it 10-20 mins in the air to dry out. Then cut it into small pieces as pictured above.

Now you have some ingredients and a blender, what do you think you will do??

Exactly, blend them all :D

Start with a few bread pieces, then add the seasoning and blend a little more, then add parmesan and blend some more. Keep adding bread till you have enough, if the crumbs don’t get dark enough, you don't have enough seasoning!

Now all the ingredients are set, lets start…

Cooking Time!

You need the breasts to be about 1 cm thick, if they are thicker, either pound them with a hammer (not from your toolbox, a food hammer :P)

Now, put the breadcrumbs on a shallow plate, and beat the 2 eggs and put them on a similar plate. If you have any experience with frying, we are going to fry the breasts first using the italian breadcrumbs.

1. Dip the chicken into the eggs.
   
2. Coat it from the breadcrumbs.
   
3. Fry it in olive oil till it turns golden (if you don't know when is a piece fried, then you shouldn't be reading this anyway :P)
4. Now get an oven baking dish, line it with the tomato sauce (I added a layer or parmesan on top of that too).
5. Put the fried chicken on the plate, cover it with more tomato sauce, then more parmesan and mozzarella.
   
6. Put it in the oven till the cheese melts and enjoy :D

Those black markings are traces of burnt sauce, don't leave any traces of sauce before putting the plate in the oven and you wont have those!

Final note, never believe these devious quoted times in recipes, it said 30 mins + 30 mins, totaling 1 hour. I took me 4 hours to make this. But then again, I am a master chef :D

لية مفيش انتماء؟

ناس كتير بتتسائل, لية الشباب المصري مبقاش عنده انتماء؟ تلاقي الواحد مش طايق البلد و عايز يهج في أقرب فرصه.

اللي حصل و بيحصل النهاردة اكبر اجابه على الناس دي. يعني لما المصري جوه بلده بيتعسف و يتهان. و كمان بره بلده بياخد على أفاه, و العلوق بتوعنا ساكتين (كالعاده طبعا) لأ واللي يغيظ أكتر, ان الاجانب ( السعوديين مثلا, ومشكورين طبعا) هما اللي بيساعدونا. يعني المصريين بيضِّربوا في السودان, وعندنا كله تمام, و ملك السعودية بيبعت مساعدات. بالذمه مش عيب؟ بس نعمل ايه, ماحنا عندنا شويه علوق

و بعد كل ده, ييجي يقولك ما بتحبش مصر ليه؟ ولا اللي يقولك “لو لم أكن مصرياً…” يا شيخ إتنيل

A Price to Pay…

Any idea what being "forced" to stay up till 4 am would do to you? (Question excludes GUCians) Read on and tell me what you think.
“The best things in life are free”... I really cannot think of any phrase that is more misleading than this one. How come the best things are free?! It’s true that "some" things are free, but they are not “always & forever” free. Consider them like a trial version of the real thing.
All creatures do what they do because they are searching for a certain personal benefit (the price they get). For instance; Sunflowers follow the sun, not because they like how it looks, but because they need its light to blossom (it pays them).
Now there are many forms of personal benefit, they range from pure love (more on that later) to pure selfish motives (actually all motives are selfish, but more on that later too).
One might be tempted to suggest that not everything is done for personal benefit... Sorry to burst your bubble, but THAT IS SO NOT TRUE! Well, maybe partially true, not everything, or better say, everyone does this or that for his/her personal benefit alone. Which brings me to some categorization of people; In this context, I’d categorize people into:
1. Good people.
2. Bad people.
3. Naive people.
These are the relevant 3 categories of people. Why? How? Read on…
For interacting with people, you need to make decisions; “Should I go out with X or not?”, “Should I call Y or not?”, “Should I close this deal or that one?”, etc… Now that brings me to what I think are the four types of decisions, There are:
1. Win-Win decisions.
2. Win-Lose decisions.
3. Lose- Win decisions.
4. Lose-Lose Decisions.
Are you following me here? If you really are, you might’ve already made the connection between these 4 and the 3 categories of people earlier. If you haven’t, don’t worry. I’ll tell you how they fit together.
How do you classify someone as a good person? They look good, right?! WRONG! A good person is someone who interacts with people using Win-Win decisions. For example; 2 really good friends are hanging out together. Now stay with me here, this is where it all comes together. First, the issue of personal benefit one may be tempted to think that since they are really good friends they are not together for personal benefit! One might also be tempted to thing that if they are together for personal benefit, they CANNOT be good friends. Well, WRONG and WRONG!
Remember when I said that good people interact on Win-Win basis?! Well, if there’s winning involved, there’s some kind of personal benefit, right?! So what is it there to win?
Its simple unconditional friendship, they say good friends are priceless, guess that’s a pretty good win. Don’t you think?!
They both win because each of them is receiving what he/she signed up for, while giving the other what he/she wants too! They both win! They both benefit! That’s why they are good friends. The elusive obvious! (that’s not my term BTW :D)
Another example where the obvious is even more elusive is when 2 people are in love (no kinky 3 way love here :P) I’m talking about natural, healthy, un-gay love between 2 people. This is where many people think no selfishness can manifest. If its true love that is!
In fact, I think love is the most selfish of human emotions! Here also, many would disagree, saying things like, for example, “I love her/him unconditionally and I don’t want anything in return”!
Hmmm, is that so?! Well then if you really don’t want anything in return, why is it that you are feel jealous when the one you love is “having fun” with someone else?! Not to mention actually being in love with someone else! If you really want nothing in return, then you wouldn’t mind, would you?! I didn’t think so ;)
Back to topic, after someone of hinting about how 2 people in love are both seeking personal benefit, you should’ve figured it out by now. If not, then keep on reading… (Well, keep on reading anyway :P)
Now when 2 “good” people are in love, what personal benefit do they gain?! Its pretty obvious actually; It’s the benefit of love, support, enjoying emotional “chemistry”. Isn’t is worth it? I’d say it’s a pretty good bargain!
By now you should be able to tell why (and how) some people are bad, selfish in a bad way, etc… These are the people who work according to Win-Lose decisions. They don’t care if the other person(s) wins or not (half good). Worse than that, they might even HATE it if the other person(s) wins (no good). Now these are the people you need avoid!
If you (More like; "When you") like my scribblings, let me know so that I may continue publishing. If you dont let me know so that I can "take care" of you!

What and why?!

A question that pops into my head a lot... what does a country, my country, your country mean??
is it just a place that we grew up in and that's why we're kinda attached to it? or is it the people of that country to whom we developed a liking and feel comfortable around or is it something else?!

Why do we have to be loyal to our countries? is it because of one of these reasons or for some other reason? not that I'm saying we shouldn't, I just wanna know why we should!!