Fried chicken, rosemary polenta, and green beans

Last night, because I did an opening shift and got done with work at a reasonable hour, I made a few recipes from the Family Style cookbook. My suspicions were confirmed: Ina Garten is a genius.

First I made the Rosemary Polenta. This was the first time I'd made polenta since April 2008, when the Great Polenta Overdose occurred. Right from the start, it smelled SO GOOD. You can't really go wrong with milk, cream, butter, rosemary, and garlic. My only complaint was that the recipe takes a long time--you have to make the polenta, cool it down, and then pan-fry it--and I had to do the first part while the sun was up and my apartment was 83 degrees.

A little while later, I made the Green Beans and Shallots and a variation on the Fried Chicken.



Both were super easy. Just saute the shallots, blanch the beans, dredge and fry the chicken. Then I fried the polenta and it was good to go. Or that would have been the case if I was capable of successfully frying things.

I should have taken a picture of all the polenta wedges that fell apart during the various stages of getting them out of the cooling pan and into the frying pan. Next time I will cook the polenta a little longer before I cool it--maybe that will help. Here is the finished plate: