Sunday Dinner

I didn't really grow up eating a special meal on Sundays.  My Great-Grandmother always made from scratch meals, so Sunday was just another day of wonderful food.  When my husband and I started dating, his family ALWAYS ate Sunday dinner together.  They didn't spend a lot of time together during the week (his brother was already out of the house and my hubby was working full time and going to school full time), so it made sense that they would have that meal together.  One weekend my nephew asked my Mother-in-Law if she knew why they came for dinner on Sunday.  And of course expecting some classically sweet line she would be able to share with her friends, she said, "No, why?"  My nephew's simple reply was, "Free food!"  Gotta love the honesty of children!

I would like to think that one day when Marcus is grown and married, maybe if he lives near by we can have Sunday Dinners that bring us all back together for the evening, but I guess that is something that I will never know until that day comes.  With the way the child loves to travel, I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up living half way around the world.

Right now, I try to make something a little more special on Sunday for dinner.  Sometimes it is because I am recipe experimenting, and sometimes I just want to make something that is labor intensive.  Then there are Sundays like this week, where I want dinner to look fancy, but I am not in the mood to devote all afternoon to making dinner.

One of my go to meals for this kind of week is Ina's Chicken Piccata with my own Roasted Potatoes, and steamed green beans.  Chicken Piccata makes it seem like you made something really fancy, but it couldn't be easier.  I didn't take pictures as I was making this meal, because I have made this so many times, I didn't even think about it, I just made it.  As we were sitting down, I remembered that I should take a pic, so here you go!

Ina's Chicken Piccata is really simple to make.  My only word of advice is that you need to adjust the amount of lemon based on your personal taste.  Some people like it really tart, and some people don't.  There is also the issue of some lemons being more tart than others.  Taste as you go, that is the best way to cook!

As for my roasted potatoes, they are divine, even if I do say so myself.  I think it takes the cast iron skillet to get the deep brown on these potatoes that make them so tasty.  If you don't own a cast iron skillet, go ahead and make them in an oven safe skillet of your choosing, but if you do have a cast iron skillet give it some love and make these potatoes in it.  It will love you back!

Wannabe's Famous Oven Roasted Potatoes

2 T. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced in to small pieces
1 sprig of rosemary leaves chopped
1 small bag of baby Yukon gold potatoes, cut in half longways
1 t. sea salt
black pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Heat a large cast iron skillet on medium.  Add olive oil.  Once the oil is warm, add your garlic and rosemary, and allow to sizzle until garlic begins to brown.  Add potatoes, salt and pepper.  Give it a quick stir to make sure all the potatoes have been coated in the garlic and rosemary infused oil.  Place the cast iron skillet in the oven.  Roast potatoes for 20 minutes, stirring them about half way through cooking.  FYI- the garlic chips that get leftover in the oil are delicious, and you should eat them with your potatoes!