Three Word Thursday... Alissa and Emily

Alissa and Emily!!!

Three Word Thursday... Unpacking the angels

Unpacking the Angels...

Chicken Tuscany... grown-up food at its finest

WARNING: This recipe is only for those who like "grown up food". The two children at my dinner table tonight (whose shall remain nameless but their initials are Emily and Thomas) requested chicken nuggets after one bite. Go figure. They did like the pasta, but with butter, not sauce thank you very much.

I snagged this recipe off of boomama's blog ...a very fun blog to read if you're into sitting down to read blogs of people you don't know.

The recipe is a tad long, so instead of typing the whole thing out, I'm linking you right here where you can click and print to your little heart's desire.

Boomama makes the suggestion to have everything chopped in advance, which I found to be marvelous advice. The recipe has several componants so having all the ingredients ready is pretty handy.

chopped romas, mushrooms, sage, basil and green onions... beautiful, hu?

Not much to look at, but it's the beginning of the sauce; beef stock, chianti (I actually used whatever red wine I had open) and a roux to thicken it a bit

Start cooking the chicken breasts after they have had their beauty bath in marinade

Are these lovely or what?

Saute the mushrooms in... BUTTER!

Like you've never seen mushrooms, but I think they make a dandy subject for a macro shot.

Mushrooms with the other chopped yummies, all ready for the sauce.

(chicken is coming along nicely)

Now the sauce is on the sauteed veggies and is becoming incredibly yummy.

Serve sauce on chicken and angel hair pasta.

So what would I do differently next time? Pound the chicken. A lot. As with any other chicken breast, they like to cook up thick and it's hard to get the center done. The other way to do it would be to cut the breasts down to half their thickenss. Either way, I would then decrease the marinating time to about 30-45 minutes. I think I would also try adding a bit of capers to the sauce.

If you're having company, ADULT company, this is your dish. For the kids, load up on chicken nuggets and everybody will be happy!

Three Word Thursday

GUESS WHO HELPED?

Thanksgiving, a la Grandma Vi

 My Grandma Vi would have been proud of me at Thanksgiving!

She would have loved the awesome food...

I can hear Grandma now, "Everything is just so DE-LISH!"

...and desserts!

She would have stopped to admire the table setting and food on the plates.



Silver and crystal was Grandma Vi's. She loved a beautiful table!



She would have enjoyed the gathering with those who you love...

Here are some of those people, playing "cookie face" (set the cookie on your forehead and without touching it, get it to land in your mouth). YOU try it, it's harder than you would think!



and the trip out to Christmas Forest!

 

This was the tree my team designed this year.


I thought often about my Grandma Vi on Thanksgiving, probably because of pulling out her crystal and polishing up her silver so it could make an appearance on a Holiday table. I think it's been at least 17 years since the silver was last used! It's just too pretty to keep in a box. Grandma had the gift of hospitality and loved anything to do with design, be it lighting, decorations or a table. She also loved to cook really great food.

I think I see a little of my Grandma in myself. Thanks Grandma!