My SO has been in the pressure cooker for about 5 months with work. He has
a breather tonight and I have decided to make a special "comfort food"
meal.. His most often requested meal is anything "schnitzel" Basically a
pounded (thin) and breaded piece of meat, fried in oil/butter and finished
with a lemon, butter and caper sauce. I do this with veal scallopine or
chicken breasts or pork. With pork I sometimes mix equal parts bread crumbs
and grated gruyere and serve with fresh lemon. I am looking for something a
little bit different although along these lines.

I decided to make Thomas Keller's Onion Soup Gratinee as a starter. Since
this calls for a considerable amount of cheese similiar to gruyere my usual
cheese breaded pork is probably not a great idea. Keller's onion soup, btw,
is truly delicious. I made the beef/chicken based broth last weekend
(actually used Lynne Rosetto Kasper's brodo recipe from "The Splendid Table"
as this is my all time favorite broth recipe) and caramelized the onions
yesterday. For those of you unfamiliar with his recipe this involves a
futzy but warranted method of cutting the onions into uniformly thin slices
along the grain of the onion and cooking low and slow for a good 6 hours to
caramelized perfection. The soup is in the fridge to be finished with oven
broiled french bread and the cheese at the last minute.

I am looking for a schnitzel idea that will work well with this starter but
a little bit different from my usual variation on a theme. I was thinking
of making spaetzle to accompany because the SO loves spaetzle but this might
be a bit too heavy with the cheese and bread in the soup. Dessert is a
financier cake/cookie with a poached pair.

All ideas appreciated!

TIA

Kate