source: iappfind.com

I went food shopping today.  Mother Hubbard’s cupboard was bare, having been denuded by teenagers as well as seven full days having elapsed since the last time I made the hated journey to the money pit I like to call the grocery store .  I was trying to mentally meal plan for the week.  Obviously I hadn’t written it down, well, because I’m me.  My nanny (definition is in this post ) had made me a list, which said.

• Snack bags
• Alphagetti
• Bacon

She’s not very good at lists.  Everyone has their faults. Anyways, I was pretty sure we’d need more than that to get us through the week.

I roamed the aisles, umm, meal planning (code for Tweeting, and bbming), mentally running through my cupboards, and knocking over displays of chips and boxes due to the tight layout of the store and narrow turning radius of my cart. Why they don’t make carts one-handed steering so that people can properly text and shop, is beyond me. Anyways, it was their fault I left destruction in my wake.

I decided to make veal sandwiches since my family keeps wanting to take out from California Sandwiches at least twice a week. At nearly $10 a pop, I thought I’d give it a shot in the homemade Chicky way. I efficiently haphazardly zigzagged through the store collecting my ingredients, and made my way to the check out.

When I was checking out, the cashier, who was a teenage boy, called me MA’AM. Like 17 times!  Then, he asked me if I needed a CARRY-OUT.  I felt like swatting him with my pocketbook or my cane.  When I got back to my car, I checked for greys and wrinkles, but saw my usual face staring back at me.  I decided that the poor young man was delusional and had neglected to take his meds.  There was no ma’am in the car. Just me, a HOT MAMA.  (that’s ma’m with the letters re-ordered, in case you were wondering).

Despite my deep and complete devastation, I did manage to carry-off homemade Italian Veal Sandwiches.  You can too:

Ma’am’s Veal Sandwiches

Slice 4 large soft Italian buns in 1/2 and lay on a plate.  Shred 2 cups of Mozzarella or Provolone (or buy the preshredded italian blend). Have these at the ready.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and have a cookie sheet with parchment ready.

First, slice 1 lb of mushrooms, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 green pepper, and sautee them in olive oil until soft.  While cooking, season with salt and pepper and some hot pepper flakes.  Reserve for topping sandwiches.

You’ll also need about two cups of prepared tomato sauce.  You can make your own, or buy a good quality jarred one (there are those with just 3-4 ingredients, and those are the ones to use. Stay away from jarred sauce with added sugar).  Warm the sauce gently while cooking the other stuff.

Prepare your breading bar:  In one plate, place 1 cup of flour seasoned with salt and pepper.  In the next one, mix up 3-4 eggs.  In the next one, place 1-2 cups of Italian Seasoned breadcrumbs.

Season 4 large Veal cutlets with salt and pepper. Preheat a large non-stick skillet and drizzle olive oil in it.  We want to brown the cutlets but not deep fry them.  Dip each cutlet in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.  Place them in the hot skillet but don’t crowd them.  Cook the cutlets until the breading is crisp and brown (about 2 minutes), then flip and cook on other side for same amount of time.  Transfer to cookie sheet and put in oven to keep warm while cooking other cutlets.

When everything’s done, assemble the sandwiches.  On each bun, spoon 1/4 cup tomato sauce, a handful of cheese, and a couple spoonfuls of the vegetable mixture.  Lay a cutlet ontop.  The cheese will melt.  Or even better, put it all out on the table, and let them make up the sandwiches themselves.  Take that Grocery Boy!

Homemade Veal Sandwiches