OVEN-BAKED PARMESAN BREADED VEAL CHOPS WITH APPLES

H2OPE FOR HAITI - A BLOGGERAID FUNDRAISER

"Although each person's donation may be small, even single drops of water will eventually fill a swimming pool"

- BloggerAid

"It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it."
- Albert Einstein

Romance, humor and story-telling are put aside for one day in order to talk about BloggerAid.

"We love baking, but we need to take a break and think of others today!"

Food Bloggers know that we are a both an unusual and a lucky group of people. We feed our blog with toothsome food, and plenty of it. We aren’t like other bloggers who fill up their pages with political opinion or tales of the everyday, pages fed with ideas and thoughts costing little more than brain cells, elbow grease and passion. Oh no, our blog posts are all about the food, our words are wrapped up in puff pastry and dipped in chocolate, our ideology cooked up around luscious meals eaten at elegant restaurants or on splendid vacations, our stories served as side dishes alongside meals whipped up in well-appointed kitchens or on backyard barbecues. We may count our pennies as we decide between cuts of meat or brands of chocolate, but we understand that without the ingredients that only money can buy, vegetables and herbs from our own private gardens or just plain good luck to be where we are our blogs would just not exist. We know how lucky we are.

And Food Bloggers are a generous lot. They spend their days cooking and baking for family and friends, passing around plates of cookies at the office, are the first to sign up platters of goodies for school bake sales and church pot luck dinners, they are thrilled to be asked to create scrumptious treats for a friend’s wedding brunch or a neighbor’s child’s birthday party. Food Bloggers love to share, their hearts are warmed by the smiles on satisfied faces as hands reach out for seconds. Food Bloggers are generous because we know how lucky we are.

An old fashioned Charity Drive.

And Food Bloggers know when it is time to give back and help those less fortunate than ourselves. First came The Blogger Aid Cookbook, a collaborative effort by food bloggers the world over under the loving hearts and guiding hands of Val of More Than Burnt Toast and Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen, all proceeds of the sale of this incredible cookbook going to the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP).

And now there is H2Ope for Haiti, the brainchild of my wonderful friend and truly talented and caring person Jeanne of Cook Sister!, an on-line raffle to raise funds for Concern Worldwide’s Relief Effort in Haiti (providing clean drinking water and purification tablets to the victims of the recent earthquake). From Sunday, February 21 - Sunday, February 28th, BloggerAid Changing the face of Famine (BA-CFF) is running H2Ope for Haiti is raffling off some truly wonderful prizes (donated by a generous group of Food Bloggers) – prizes ranging from personally autographed cookbooks to parcels of baking goodies to original artwork and each prize, unless otherwise stated, is available for worldwide shipping (see the list of prizes here). Now, how can you purchase raffle tickets perchance to win one of these fabulous prizes AND donate money to this important cause? First, choose the prize or prizes you wish to buy tickets for, each ticket is priced at £6.50 – about $10, carefully note down the prize codes (very important!) then just click through to the Just Giving donations page where you will find complete instructions on how to purchase your raffle tickets and specify your chosen prizes.

Buy your raffle tickets now!

You will find the list of prizes here.

And now it is my turn to give back as well. I have donated one prize to the Auction, a prize that truly reflects my personal philosophy at Life’s a Feast :

A Luxury Gift Package Chock Full of French Baking Ingredients (Prize Code HFH27)


including:

Strawberry Mint Sugar (Quai Sud)
Blueberry Hibiscus Sugar (Quai Sud)
(Unrefined/Brown) Sugar with Penja Pepper (Terre Exotique)
Sweetened Vanilla Chestnut Cream (Clément Faugier)
Chocolate Balsamic Glaze (Balsamusse)
Sweetened Cocoa Powder with Orange (Quai Sud)
Spiced Dark Chocolate with Tonka Beans (Zaabär)
3 bars of chocolate by Confiseur Mazet:
Dark Chocolate with Orange & Cloves
Dark Chocolate with Ginger
Dark Chocolate with Grapefruit
Nestlé Milk Chocolate with Caramel Baking Chocolate
Local Sea Salt from Noirmoutier in a Lighthouse Shaker

And if you act quickly and hop over to buy your raffle tickets for this great prize, I will add one or two extra surprises for the lucky winner. Soon you will be on your way to creating a bounty of tantalizing, exotic, spectacular desserts!

PRIZE CODE : HFH27

Don’t forget, you have until Midnight on Sunday February 28 to purchase your raffle tickets! Happy bidding!

Let's hope that your lucky number is drawn!

Now, to wet your appetite, I am serving up dinner for two, just you and me, gorgeous, crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside Oven-Baked Breaded Veal Chops with sautéed Caramelized Apples. Enjoy!


OVEN-BAKED BREADED VEAL CHOPS with APPLES

2 medium-thick veal chops
½ cup (45 g) bread crumbs, preferably homemade
2 tsps freshly grated lemon zest
¼ cup (20 g) or more freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup (15 – 20 g) flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 apple per person (use any good pie apple)
Margarine or butter
A dash of maple syrup or brown sugar


This recipe can easily be doubled for 4 people.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Peel, core and slice the apples and set aside while you prepare the veal chops.

Season the flour with a bit of salt and a healthy grinding of black pepper and place on a plate or in a wide soup bowl.

Lightly beat the egg and place in a wide soup bowl.

Blend the bread crumbs, lemon zest and the Parmesan until well combined in yet another wide soup bowl or dish.

Rinse and pat dry the veal chops. Dip each chop first in the flour, coating both sides well then shaking off any excess flour. Then dip each floured chop in the beaten egg then into the breadcrumb/lemon/Parmesan mixture making sure both sides are well breaded.


Place the breaded veal chops on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake until the breading is golden and crispy and the veal chops are cooked through, as pink or as white as you like): this could take anywhere from 10 – 15 minutes depending on your oven and the thickness of your chops.

While the chops are baking, melt a tablespoon or so of margarine or butter in a frying pan, sauté pan or skillet. When the butter is sizzling, toss in the apples until they are all coated in the butter and cook until tender. Drizzle with a bit of maple syrup or sprinkle with a bit of brown sugar and add a grinding of black pepper and continue tossing the apple slices and cooking until golden and lightly caramelized.


Serve the breaded veal chops with the caramelized apples and eat as you peruse the H2Ope for Haiti raffle prizes then, once you have finished your delightful meal, click through to the Justgiving Donations page and purchase your raffle tickets.

* Thanks to Deeba and Jeanne for some of the words I used in today's post. I love you both!