The Law School Transplant - If you don't find me helpful, hopefully you'll find me at least mildly entertaining.

So, as I posted earlier, we began our 30MM challenge at 6 p.m. this evening, with three of us making RR’s Parmigiano-Reggiano-Crusted Chicken Picata. The meal is complete, my belly is full, and now it’s time for a recap.

I enjoyed having everyone start at the same time – even though we weren’t in the same kitchen, it felt like we were doing this “together.” We updated a Facebook comment thread periodically, and it was fun to keep tabs on everyone’s progress. As predicted, the iPad also proved to be a handy tool during this venture.

My ingredients, ready to go at the stroke of 6:00:

So, to answer the question of the evening, Did anyone complete the meal within the 30-minute timeframe? In short: No. From start to plate, Jenny, Allison and I finished in 52, 59 and 43 minutes, respectively. Here are some of my thoughts on the exercise:

• If I’d prepped my ingredients prior to making the meal, my time would have been cut significantly. But, it’s only fair to count prep time as part of cooking time.
• I read the recipe through from start to finish before I began, so even though it was listed as part of Step 3, the first thing I did was put a pot of water on to boil. It seems the editors should always put this at the beginning of any recipe that involves boiling a lot of water.
• I did end up butterflying the chicken breasts rather than pounding them, which might have cut a few minutes from my time. It’s also substantially less disgusting.
• As I normally do, I kept a grocery bag near my work space to use as a garbage bag. This kept me from having to run back and forth to the trash can.
• Certain steps consistently took longer than the directions indicated: reducing the wine, wilting the spinach, etc. I sometimes wonder if, à la in My Cousin Vinny, the laws of physics sometimes cease to operate on RR’s stove.

Here is my finished meal:

And Jenny’s lovely dish:

And finally, Allison’s festive plate:

While none of us finished within the 30 minutes, I had a great time participating in this fun exercise. And besides, any way you slice it, 43 minutes from start to finish for a meal like this is pretty darn good. As Rach would say, “Delish!”