Chicken Marsala-blah

I swear if my better half could eat this every night-he would. I on the other hand cannot stand it. Every time I think about it, my gag reflexes set in. However, whenever it enters the menu... such as my husband is being particularly nice or it's his birthday it always seems to be a hit. I have adapted the recipe from good ole McCormick, but think mine is a bit more stomachable than theirs- if it is even possible- my 3-year old will eat an entire plate himself.

This is a perfect meal for when you come home after work and realize you haven't taken anything out for dinner. I prefer to use frozen chicken breasts to slice thinly. They are much easier to cut, plus they don't make a sticky mess in the flour coating.

1tsp Minced Garlic
1tsp Marjoram Leaves
1tsp Minced Onions
1/2 tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1tsp Basil leaves
3/4 tsp Parsley
1tsp sea salt
1/3 cup flour
1 lb chicken breasts-thinly sliced
3 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
8 oz fresh mushrooms
1/2  cup chicken broth
3/4 cup Marsala cooking wine

Mix flour, Minced Garlic, Marjoram, Minced Onions, Salt and Pepper in a shallow dish. Reserve 1 tbs flour mixture. Coat sliced chicken with flour mixture.

 Heat 2 tbs of butter and olive oil in a non-stick pan on medium heat. When butter is melted and oil is warm cook chicken in the pan (may have to have more than one batch). Turn only once to preserve coating, but make sure coating has turned golden brown. As an encouraging factor, if some of your mixture sticks to the pan-it's fine. It helps the sauce later- don't worry about scraping it off.  Remove cooked chicken from pan and keep warm.

Add mushrooms to skillet and cook until tender about 5 minutes (the pantry was fresh out of mushrooms so I skipped this step).

Mix broth and reserved flour mixture together. Add to skillet with wine. Bring to a boil while stirring with a wooden spoon-be sure to release browned bits from chicken from the bottom of the skillet. Stir in remaining butter and basil. Mix well. If sauce is getting too thick feel free to add another 1/4 cup of both the wine and broth.

When butter has melted, return chicken to pan and toss generously. Sprinkle with parsley.

This is great served over noodles, rice or with a side of rosemary baby reds.

Twisted Stroganoff

I've been going through recipe and recipe of stroganoff and really haven't found one to suit my fancy. I could do the good ole traditional and use a McCormick seasoning packet and follow the instructions accordingly, but that doesn't really leave much room for inventiveness.

I know my better half has had quite the craving this famed simple European course for some time now. In looking in the freezer this morning what do I find but an entire stockpile of elk meat- elk hamburger-elk cube steak- and elk tenderloin. I hesitantly pull out the tenderloin in hope to make some concauction to satisfy his appitite. - As a side note, being an Idaho girl, born and raised, it is nearly inevitable that I come from hunting family. Most of my homecooked meals include wild game meat-ie elk. Forgive me if you do not believe in the whole aspect of hunting, but it is a readily available meat in my houshold and is frequently used. If you do not have access to such meats, you may substitute beef-different flavor-same concept. Just keep in mind that elk meat is extremely lean- more lean than any beef you will find.

1lb meat

2 tbs olive oil

1tsp garlic salt

fresh ground black pepper

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 tsp rosemary

1/4 tsp basil

1 clove garlic, minced

3/4 cup sour cream

cut meat into 1 inch chunks. place in non-stick frying pan. drizzle olive oil over the top of the meat.

brown both sides turning only once. season with garlic salt and pepper. add onion and garlic- cook through. add white wine and toss meat together. cover and let simmer until nearly all liquid is gone. season with rosemary and basil.

add sour cream and warm through.

serve over buttered noodles.

The Generation Gap

What is our problem? Is it just me or is the 20 somethings age group becoming seriously lazy. Myself included in this accusation, I wonder what happened. My most fond memories of my childhood were all about family dinners at my grandparents where my grandmother would get up at the crack of dawn to begin the preparations. With merely one cup of coffee in her system she was a cooking superhero. Meat-check. Mashed potatoes- check. Three veggies- check. Homemade rolls- check. Dessert-check. Ever growing family- check. I would always look forward to holidays and hunting season so that we would have another delicious homemade meal where we could laugh and catch up with the extended family. Now I wonder, are our lives moving too quickly for our own good, or is it simply that we don't take the time to slow down and enjoy the small things?

In my mere four mile drive home from work, I pass a total of nine restaurants. NINE! It's no wonder with their bright colors and delicious greasy food that my 3 year old would much rather stop in and play at one of these places rather than waiting for mommy to make dinner. EASY-yes. EXPENSIVE-yes, but is it more expensive then cooking from scratch at home? I have recently talked to my better half about this very question. I love cooking, but have the tendency to fall into what's easy. I want to eat healthy and make wonderful meals for my family, but at what cost? Do I spend more time in the kitchen to provide a more healthy meal than the alternative, or do I go easy so I can spend more time with the family? But at that point do I actually spend more time with them when all is said and done. With the twelve-million calories consumed after a fast-food meal, all my family feels like doing is crashing on the couch and watching a nightly sitcom-is that quality time?

So here we are. Forget the fast food. Bring on the good ole home cooking. Bring back my roots. Follow in my mother's, grandmother's, and great-grandmother's footsteps. Forget the laziness. Forget the bright neon lights that lure my taste buds. Forget the extra 20 minutes of lounging on the couch in a grease coma. Here we go.