Doggy Quilt Finished

The doggy quilt is finished, binding is made and I will sew it on tomorrow.  I stitched in the ditch around all the borders, doggies and hydrants.  The dogs then have a small amount of decorative stitching on the heads and bodies.

For lunch I tried a new recipe—Chicken Marsala—I’ve made it in the past but not for a long time.  I Googled substitutions for marsala wine as I had none—seems there isn’t a good substitute for the distinctively sweet taste of marsala wine.  So, I wandered downstairs to the wine rack looking for something I thought might work—the first bottle I pulled out was a bottle of Muscadine Wine given to us by an Arkansas relative who shall remain nameless.  The first thing I noticed were the words, “semi-sweet.”  OK, this will work and by George, it did!  My Chicken Marsala was delicious and here is the recipe:

Chicken Marsala

2 to 4 boneless chicken breasts, pounded to about 3/8" thick

1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 TBS olive oil

1 1/2 TBS butter, unsalted

1/2 small onion halved and sliced thinly

1 clove garlic finely diced

3/4 pound mushrooms, sliced thin, any variety

1/2 cup Marsala wine

1 cup chicken stock

Parsley as garnish if desired

Pat the chicken dry, season with salt & pepper and dredge in the flour shaking off excess.

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy skillet on moderately high heat until it is shimmering. Add the chicken, browning on each side about 3 minutes, remove to a plate and keep warm.

Add butter to skillet, sauté onion, mushrooms and garlic, stirring occasionally until the juice from the mushrooms has evaporated. Add the Marsala and cook the mixture, stirring occasionally until the wine is almost evaporated. Add the chicken broth and chicken back into the skillet and cook for approximately 15 minutes, turning the chicken once. Remove the chicken from the skillet.

Simmer the remaining mushroom sauce until the liquid is reduced to about 1/2 cup. Spoon mushroom sauce around the chicken and sprinkle with parsley if desired.

Our morning temp--Our neighbors who are calving reported minus 30 this morning—those calves are going to come out as popsicles!!  It warmed up enough for us to take a walk this afternoon, a whopping 2 degrees above zero!!  I opted out of yoga this morning—just too cold to get out and about.

 

Happy Birthday dear Ms. Jeane—hope it was a good one!!!