Granny's gone and done it again

[CapricornFarm]

I watered the flower garden and the tomatoes. Plus the strawberry beds. I think some of the plants died to dry weather. Ugh.

 

[ShrekDawg]

 

[Nomadicus]

I'm up. Not much longer.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I'm up. Not much longer.

Hi

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I decided to make my dupe Garlic Parmesan Chicken (from Longhorn). I've been working on it for weeks, hopefully I can post up the recipe when I get every bit dialed in. It's closer!
This way, even if I don't eat much, there was enough motivation to cook it.
But geesh, I messed up tonight, forgetting the garlic of all things! ME?! Without Garlic? It would be a good opportunity to taste test garlic powder instead of fresh for the sake of the normal people who might want to make it... but I don't want to be noisy rooting through the cupboards and awake the Kitchen Police (aka Mom, hehe).
Also, somehow I let my rue go lumpy? LOL

I figure even @BigBlueHen53 can try to make it (if you want to) since you can substitute a lot of the ingredients. I wonder if they have fake parmesan...?

Oh! They do... made of a few different things. One is made with cashews. Then there's this one.

Thanks, Larry, that's thoughtful of you! I'll have to give this a try. I need to order a new batch of cashews, the last batch I got have no flavor, I think they must have been harvested green.
I usually have fresh garlic on hand as well as the powder, but ... have you ever tried the jarred minced version that lives in the fridge? It's a handy substitute for fresh, I often toss it in soups, stews and chili.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Good grief, girl, still up at 3 a.m.!?!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Good grief, girl, still up at 3 a.m.!?!

It was 4 am here and yes I had slept like an hour or two though and then slept some more after that. I did eventually sleep

 

[SourRoses]

Thanks, Larry, that's thoughtful of you! I'll have to give this a try. I need to order a new batch of cashews, the last batch I got have no flavor, I think they must have been harvested green.
I usually have fresh garlic on hand as well as the powder, but ... have you ever tried the jarred minced version that lives in the fridge? It's a handy substitute for fresh, I often toss it in soups, stews and chili.

How dare they treat lovely cashews that way? They're the best nuts / not-nuts. I would keep them on hand but I have a cashew munching problem, so it's better to get them only once in a while. Was it too late to take them back to the store?
I bet the cashew Parmesan is the best imitation version, since it's supposed to be a very nutty cheese. I wonder how it performs in baking, if the oils might come out of it under high heat?

Thanks for thinking of me on the garlic. I have a pickiness issue. Mostly because they add citric acid to those jars to preserve it and it throws the flavor off. Other people don't eat as much garlic in a dish as I do, so the minute amount of citric acid doesn't bother them

I've even decided I don't prefer "regular" garlic, I want the purple hardneck varieties. They are so much more complex!
This was taken partway through my prep to make stir-fry:

One Christmas my mom gifted me a Mueller SmartStick with a chopper thingy.
It minces my garlic up so fine & tiny!


About the recipe, I was thinking your GD might appreciate it based on what you told me of her tastes and that it's a dish complicated enough in flavors that the substitutions might be more disguised (if that thinking makes sense).
When I first set about trying to copy the recipe, mom found a suggested version online that used ranch dressing. Umm, no, that did not taste right at all. We went back to Longhorn and when my meal came there wasn't as much sauce as usual. I asked the waitress if I might have a little more on the side, and she was so nice she brought this soup crock out full to the brim with it! I was in heaven, kept saying "not ranch dressing" lol. Of course we took most of it home, and mom used it on some roast lamb and her chicken wings.

Things I haven't been able to imitate (yet)... the bread crumbs crunchy texture. And the stretchy cheese component. When you dip into the sauce at the restaurant, the cheese kinda stretches a lot. Which isn't something Parmesan likes to do, but it tastes like only Parmesan in there. Early on, I tried using some block whole Mozzarella as well, but that was too mild for the flavor profile and still didn't stretch the same.

What I have gotten right so far is the flavor of the sauce itself. My mom has an old cream sauce recipe that I modified by taking out some ingredients and making looser (the oven stage thickens the sauce further).

So I guess what I want to know is, do you want me to share my so-far recipe with you so you can experiment as well, or do you want to wait until I've got it perfect and then modify it?

 

[ShrekDawg]

Good morning!

 

[Nomadicus]

Good morning!

Good Morning. I over slept once I did get to sleep.