A rave review for chicken recipe
We recently received a lovely note from Tammy Tanner, a column reader and desperate mom from Radisson, Saskatchewan. Here is a portion of her story. To read the entire letter, visit kitchenscoop.com.
“I'm sure you hear this ALL the time — but thank you! I literally stumbled on your book at a local store, and the title caught my attention — ‘Desperation Dinners.' How often did I feel desperate to get a good, healthy and appealing meal on the table — all before everyone had to rush out the door to the next series of activities? EVERY DAY!
“I just wish I had access to your book years ago! I had eight kids in 10 years, and those first years were pretty crazy, especially at dinnertime. There was always some kind of crisis right when I needed to start making dinner and that wasn't including the constant chaos I was in all day long so that it was always a strain to ‘know what to cook.'
“Your books have helped to take so much of that guesswork and stress out of my life because all of the recipes are so easy and most contain ingredients that normal people have on hand,” Tammy wrote.
“For years, I struggled to make up a monthly or even a weekly meal plan that would be workable, but because all I knew was spaghetti, lasagna, chili and taco salad, I couldn't put together enough recipes to get me through a week, let alone a whole month. My meal ‘plan' was always just so boring and old feeling. Sure, I'd try to throw in something different here and there, but when you have limited resources (knowledge of what to cook) and even less time, there was no room for exploration or inventiveness.
“The first time I made ‘Chicken Fingers Parmesan' (I changed things up a bit to suit our needs — meaning bigger pieces of chicken), and my family — all of them — raved about how wonderful the meal was and began asking when I was going to cook that again!”
To celebrate Tammy and her wonderfully large family, we are reprinting one of our favorite recipes, too — Chicken Fingers Parmesan. If you have a favorite “Desperation Dinners” recipe, please email it to tellus@KitchenScoop.com.
Suggested menu: Chicken Fingers Parmesan with crisp green salad with bottled dressing and Italian breadsticks.
Ÿ Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross are co-authors of the “Desperation Dinners!” line of cookbooks. Write them at Desperation Dinners, c/o United Media, 200 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. More at the Desperation Dinners website, kitchenscoop.com.