Tonight’s dinner is brought to you by store-bought frozen mozzarella sticks. I know, I know… but sometimes you just have to give into the Dark Side.

But while the cheese may have been a store-bought, the potatoes and chicken strips were homemade. As low as they may be, I do have my standards!

The chicken started out as two boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips, marinated in a  bit of buttermilk, and then dredged in a combination of bread crumbs, corn meal, garlic powder, freshly-grated parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and Hungarian paprika. The potatoes – one large russet – was cut into 8ths, rolled in olive oil, and then covered with bread crumbs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, freshly-grated pecorino romano, and  Spanish paprika. Everything cooked at 425° – the potatoes about 25 minutes, the chicken about 20 minutes, and the mozzarella, about 9 minutes.

Of course we needed fabulous dipping sauces… Ketchup – organic, of course, local honey and dijon mustard, soy sauce with sambal oelek, and salsa. I actually considered a fifth sauce and then came to my senses.

It was a fun finger-food dinner and since it was just the to of us, we even got to double-dip.

And speaking of dipping… More chocolate-dipped strawberries for dessert, tonight.

It doesn’t get much better.