4 Unexpected Setbacks Cooking an American Dinner in England

We are finally settled in our apartment, which to me, calls for a celebration. Back home, my favorite dinner to cook (because it's so easy) and Christopher's favorite to eat (because it's so yummy) is Ritz Cracker Chicken--a recipe my college roommate and I used to make in our apartment senior year.

For such a simple dish, I had some unexpected hiccups while preparing it in our new galley kitchen (which may or may not have been the inspiration for the tile mosaics in the NYC subway stations.)

Here are the challenges I faced (PS- the recipe is at the bottom of this post--make it! I promise you'll love it!)

1. Everything is smaller here. Check out this teeny weeny little parmesan cheese container I got (the biggest one I could find) compared to a measuring cup. Granted, we had used a little of the cheese the night before, but the amount left over didn't even equal half a cup. #fail

2.  Just because it's a brand-name doesn't mean it's exactly like the kind back at home. The recipe calls for a sleeve of Ritz Crackers, but guess what, they don't come in sleeves here! And upon a traditional taste test of the first cracker, I noticed they're less salty, so it makes the overall recipe taste a little different. And again with the itty-bitty-ness...

3. The temperature conversion is still confusing. My oven only goes to 250 but I have to remember it's celsius over fahrenheit. I found this neat app called Units Plus (it's free!) which converts everything from temp to length to currency--a must for anyone living or traveling abroad. It will help prevent this:

4. And because everything is smaller, there's no room for left-overs....

Luckily the final dish ended up being so good (despite our setbacks) that we didn't have to store anything anyway!

Ritz Cracker Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:
3 or 4 tablespoons butter
lemon juice
sleeve of Ritz Crackers
1 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
thin-sliced chicken breasts

Directions:
1. Melt butter, add 2 or 3 big squirts of lemon juice
2. Crush up sleeve of crackers, mix with parmesan cheese, salt and pepper
3. Coat chicken breasts in butter mix
4. Coat with crackers
5. Put in Pyrex dish (squirt lemon juice or white wine at the bottom for an extra kick)
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour

Enjoy!

What's your favorite recipe to make? I'm always looking for the next favorite.