30 Dishes Before 30: Recipe #1: Chicken Cordon Bleu

My 30 Recipes before 30 challenge has officially begun!

Recipe 1: Chicken Cordon Bleu

I made my first new recipe for my personal challenge this weekend. My lovely friend Jillian was kind enough to brave my first new dish: chicken cordon bleu. I learned that chicken cordon bleu is extremely easy and quick to make. It was so easy, that I'm going to make it for myself for dinner again tonight because I have a little bit of the breading mixture left to use up.

With the new dish, I served a baked potato with dolled up sour cream (little dried onion and minced garlic for flavor), broccoli and a baguette served with olive oil and a delicious Parmesan garlic seasoning mix I bought from Pampered Chef. We also shared a bottle of chardonnay. (A dinner party is not a dinner part without wine!)

The recipe I used was from a favorite cookbook of many, The Joy of Cooking. This recipe I found on Food Network from Tyler Florence is nearly identical. (Of course, I don't think you're allowed to deviate too much to make chicken cordon bleu

Good things that came from my first 30 before 30 dish were:

• I finally bought a meat tenderizer.
  
• Now owning said meat tenderizer, I intend to cook a lot more stuffed chicken and pork chop recipes-- delicious!
• I have no need to ever buy frozen chicken cordon bleu from the grocery store ever again.
• I had a great dinner with a great friend who is always brave and gracious when it comes to my cooking.
  
• We drank a lot of good wine with the dinner.
  
• I got to play hostess. This I like.

So, dish one, I would count as a success. Thanks, Jillian, for being my first guest! I look forward to hosting several more parties between now and September!