Of groceries, gadgets and gold

Tomorrow night is my small group.  And since it's Valentine's Day, we're having a special dinner.  I decided to go with Italian and then narrowed it to chicken parmesan this week.  The recipe I have calls for the chicken breasts to be butterflied, or cut in half horizontally.  Kroger has signs up saying that they'll cut any meat your way, so I was hoping they could do the chicken for me.  Which meant that I had to go during the day when the meat counter was open.  Which meant I needed to go on a Saturday.  I normally go to the stores late at night...like 10pm.  There's no one there, I can move quickly and it's nice and quiet.  Today was a madhouse!  Not only is it a Saturday, but it's the day before Valentine's Day and all of those men who have procrastinated on getting flowers for their sweethearts were lined up at the floral desk.  And we're supposed to have another big storm hit tomorrow night, so people were in stocking up.  Pure craziness.  I doubt that I'll ever go back during the day.  It's just not worth it to me. 

Besides the chicken parm, I'm making a salad and we're having garlic bread.  One of the girls in the group is bringing chocolate cake, but I also wanted something that was not as chocolatey.  The recipe for Caramel Apple Cheesecake on Annie's Eats fit the bill perfectly.  Annie encouraged readers to make their own caramel sauce and whipped topping.  I had never made either, but decided it was cheaper and would taste better.  The caramel sauce was very easy...3 ingredients and stir constantly.  And boy is it yummy!  Then, I had to crush graham crackers, mix with butter, sugar and cinnamon and press into my springform pan.  I bought the springform pan almost a year ago via Pampered Chef and had never gotten to use it.  I was very excited to try it out!  So, graham cracker crust, then caramel and pecans, then sliced baked apples.  I love my apple corer/peeler/slicer.  That thing is incredible.  It looks like this one:
Makes the job go so much faster and is way easy.  That all got baked and while it was baking in the oven, I started the sugar cookies.  I admit that I used a mix, but it was a Christmas gift from Tony's sister and her kids, so I needed to use it.  I made hearts with my wonderful metal heart cookie cutter.  I greatly prefer metal cookie cutters.  I think they have a much cleaner line.  After I rested for a while, I needed to work some potatoes I had that were getting ready to go bad.  So, I peeled, diced and cooked about 12 cups of potatoes.  I also love my vegetable chopper that my ex's mom gave me.  It's seriously the gadget I probably use the most in my house.  No kidding.  Mine came from Williams Sonoma, but I know other places sell them.  Here it is: 

If you don't yet have one of these suckers, go get one.  Today.  I bought one for my mom and she turned around and bought one for my aunt.  It's amazing.  I also want the multi-chopper, but that's another story.  :)

Finally, gold.  The US won it's first gold medal today!  Yay USA! Beyond our gold in women's moguls, it was great to see Apolo Ohno and JR Celski in men's short track speed skating.  It was a great night for the US.  And Celski's story is incredible.  In September, after qualifying for the Olympic team, his skate blade sliced his thigh and he had to have 66 stitches to close the wound.  Tonight was the first he had competed since and he took the bronze!  And Ohno has tied Bonnie Blair for medals with 6 after his silver from tonight.  Overall, it was a good day.  A great day.  Hope you had a good one!