Month 8 day 10: Summery Pork Cutlets and Collards

Today I made:
End-Of-Summer Pork Milanese, Every Day with Rachael Ray, September 2011
Sweet & Savory Collards,  Every Day with Rachael Ray, September 2011

This was in a 30 minute meals section. I'm not sure how long it really took, but I think it took longer. It also took up a lot of space, so unless you're clearing off dirty dishes into the sink along the way, you will get stuck at the end. And maybe a tenderloin will fall into the sink when you're trying to plate them :(

This is supposed to be really flavorful, because there are all kinds of fresh herbs in the breadcrumbs. But it made the breadcrumbs soggy, and it never really crisped up (I may have crowded the pan and used too little oil). It calls for putting 1/2 c grated Parmigiano-Reggiano into the crumbs too, which I couldn't stand to do since I feel like you usually end up throwing half of the breadcrumbs away when you're done cooking. I decided instead to just grate some cheese over the cutlets as they cooked. In the end there were too few breadcrumbs (it needed the extra 1/2 c of volume??), and the cheese taste maybe wasn't as pronounced as it should have been. Oh well.

Since it's the end of summer, and we got the vegetables at the store instead of a farmer's market, the tomato and the corn weren't all that flavorful. Why not make this in the middle of the tomato/corn season instead? The vegetable topping isn't seasoned except with basil and salt and pepper, so it had better be pretty fresh and tasty on its own.

I'm not sure I'll keep this recipe, because it was kind of a hassle, and I feel like there are better dishes to be made with the same time/effort.

The collards didn't really taste particularly sweet or savory :-P I two-thirded the recipe, but put in the full 3 cups of water. In the end there was still water at the bottom of the pot, and I suspect a lot of the sugar, garlic, mustard, and lemon flavor got washed out. Maybe if I had only used 2 cups of water this would have been more flavorful.