Schnitzel Ideas

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