Sweater Weather

Happy Autumn! I've been trying to get myself psyched for Fall (aka the death of Summer) by getting Peter psyched for Fall. He knew that yesterday was the last day of Summer. When ever I asked what tomorrow (today) was (is) he would say, "Halloween!"

Last night I put dinner into the oven late so Bryan suggested that instead of waiting for it to finish and in turn getting the boys into bed late we should have Peter's current favorite food: cereal. So I popped our chicken into the oven to bake and we sat down to Trix, Rice Chex, and Raisin Bran. Thank goodness cereal is relatively healthy.

We will have last night's dinner tonight. Before I put it into the fridge last night I tasted it. Delicious. It was so good my eyes got a little watery. And you know what? I made up the recipe. That's right, this girl, who has never been that great at improvisational cooking, invented something good.

And so, I present to you The Chicken:

• 3 chicken breasts, cut in half hamburger style (so now you have 6)

Combine in freezer size Ziploc bag (or whatever brand bag you happen to have, it won't effect the food... as far as I know)

• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (we made bread crumbs from this)
• Parmesan cheese (I think I put in 1/4 cup, but that's really just a guess.)
• A few shakes of course ground black pepper
• A few shakes of dried sweet basil
• A few shakes of garlic powder (Sensing a trend?)
• A few shakes of season salt
• The secret ingredient: A few shakes of cinnamon

Give the chicken the old Shake-and-Bake treatment and cook it in the oven at 350 degrees until it's done. I used a meat thermometer, so I'm not sure of the exact time. Forty minutes maybe?

As you can tell this can barely be called a recipe. It's more of a throw-what-you've-got-into-a-bag-until-it-smells-right-and-then-cook-it-and-eat-it. The cinnamon adds just the right hint of warmth and richness. It's very Fall-ish. We're going to eat it with rice, slices of homemade bread, and green beans and carrots picked from our garden.

I'm looking forward to dinner. And maybe Autumn...