Steph's Mom's Chicken Marsala

I'm so mad at myself right now! I do all my menu planning on an Excel spreadsheet. Each week when I do my new plan I make a copy of the previous week's worksheet, delete that week's plan, and then make my new one. Apparently this week I forgot the step where I put the copy on a new worksheet. Sigh. And now because my two kids have somehow sucked away any sort of memory (and intelligence) I used to have, I can't remember what we even had to know if there was anything worthy of posting. I don't think there was...I got in a cooking funk at the end of last week and was just burned out on making dinner.

Anyway, on to this week I suppose. We had some friends over last night for dinner, and I had originally planned on making Baked Pesto Chicken, but then I realized yesterday afternoon that making that would require a trip to the store with both kids after nap/quiet time. So instead of having to deal with that potential catastrophe (no, my kids are both good at the grocery store, I just hate having to take them both for only one item) I went looking for something else I could make. I pulled out my cookbook compiled by members of a parenting message board I belong to because I knew my friend Benah had a balsamic chicken recipe in there that I'd wanted to try. Unfortunately it required overnight marinating which wasn't going to work since this was roughly three hours prior to our friends' arrival. I kept flipping through the chicken section and finally arrived on this chicken marsala recipe submitted by my friend Steph. Her caption under the recipe (which is titled Stolen Chicken Marsala in the cookbook) says, "Shh! Don't tell my mother! I had to steal it--it's SO GOOD!!" Worked for me, and I had everything on hand and figured it would come together quickly.

Steph's Mom's Chicken Marsala

2 pounds chicken, pounded even
1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp oregano
1 cup marsala wine

Mix all ingredients (except chicken and marsala). Dredge chicken. Heat 2 Tbsp oil and 2 Tbsp butter in frying pan. Saute meat and chicken about 1 minute until brown. Place chicken pieces in a baking dish. Add 1 cup marsala wine to frying pan remains and deglaze the pan. Pour over the chicken, and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

*****

See, totally easy! I made my own breadcrumbs by throwing a couple pieces of whole grain sandwich bread into my food processor with some Italian seasoning. For the flour I used whole wheat. I wasn't sure how that was going to turn out as I've never used whole wheat flour for dredging, but I didn't think you could even tell it was whole wheat in the finished dish.

This chicken was amazing and fantastic and yummy and amazing and fantasic. Everyone really liked it, even the kiddos ate all of their portions. These are generally all ingredients I have on hand, so this will definitely go into my repertoire of "Akkk!! What am I going to make for dinner?!" recipes. There was one piece of chicken left last night, and after our guests left I was so tempted to eat it because I loved it so much. I was glad I had some self control because it made for a tasty lunch today!



I had to take a picture of the only piece left in the pan.

Julie's Caramel Bars

I'm not making Christmas treats this year in an effort to help mine and the husband's diets. There have been some points where I've regretted this decision and have really wanted to do some baking, but I've held strong. Mostly because I didn't have a lot of baking ingredients on hand. I wanted to make something for the boy's preschool teacher and the aide in his class, and I immediately thought of these. The recipe comes from an old family friend (as in she's been friends with our family for a long time, not that she is old), and I love making them at Christmastime. The only downside is the double boiler, but you can always use the microwave instead. I just decided to be true to the recipe this year.

Julie's Caramel Bars

35 light caramels
5 T. cream
3/4 cup melted butter
1 cup flour
1 cup oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 cup chopped nuts
6 ounces milk chocolate chips

Melt caramels and cream in a double boiler (or in the microwave).

Mix butter through salt and spread half the mixture in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Sprinkle chopped nuts and chocolate chips on crust. Pour caramel mix over this and sprinkle with remaining crust mixture. Bake 20 minutes. Chill two hours before cutting.

*****

This are insanely good. Like, ridiculously good. Like, sinfully good. I find I use slightly more than half the crust mixture on the bottom, otherwise I can't get it to completely cover the bottom of the pan. I probably do 2/3 on the bottom and sprinkle 1/3 on top. My mom had wondered if she could make these using a jar of caramel ice cream topping, but I don't know if she ever tried it. I really don't know why that wouldn't work. I put the caramels on to melt while the boy and I mixed up the crust ingredients, then I'd go stir it every now and then until it was done.

I was kind of sad to give these all away to the boy's teachers, but I'm sure they'll enjoy them. And the husband and I did sample a couple of them before I packaged them up, so we did indulge just a little. Hopefully next year he and I will both be skinny and can enjoy some extra treats this time of year!

Hushpuppies

I was reminded on our recent vacation how much I love hushpuppies. I hadn't had them in quite some time, and when we got seafood take-out one night, our dinners all came with them. Yum!! Lukcily the boy didn't like them, so the husband and I got to eat his. They were quite tasty. When we got home from our trip I was looking through the Charleston Junior League Cookbook, Charleston Receipts, I bought while on the trip and found a hushpuppy recipe. I had already decided we'd have the Catfish, so I thought these would go great with them.

Hushpuppies
2 cups corn meal
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
6 Tbsp chopped onion
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 egg
2 cups buttermilk
Red pepper, to taste

Mix all dry ingredients, add chopped onion; then milk and egg, beaten together. Drop by small spoonfuls into boiling deep fat. They will float when done. Drain on brown paper. Serves 8.

*****

Okay, I missed the part about floating when done, so it's no wonder mine were a little overcooked. The husband said that they were a bit too crispy on the outside but otherwise they were good. I cut the recipe in half after reading it made eight servings, and it still made a ton. I'll definitely make them again when we feel like indulging in fried food (which doesn't happen very often), but I'll be sure to watch how long they cook for.