Classic Recipe ~ Chicken Marsala with Mushroom Sauce

For father's day I made my hubby this delicious chicken Marsala dish for dinner. This recipe is actually out of a cookbook I purchased 25 years ago titled Wine in Everyday Cooking by Patricia Ballard. It is a book about "cooking with wine for family and friends". Of course I did take liberties with the original recipe and changed a few things down through the years, but it is basically the recipe published by Ballard. I didn't know it then but wine was to eventually become one of my absolute favorite ingredients to cook with. 

Chicken:

1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breast, skinned and pounded thin

2 large eggs, whisked

 seasoned bread crumbs

olive oil 

and butter for sauteing

Sauce:

2 1/2 cups Riesling

1 cup sweet Marsala

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

 3 T. lemon juice

2 T arrowroot or cornstarch

1 lb mushrooms cleaned and thickly sliced

2 T. gravy seasoning and browning

Heat oil and butter in a pan. The easiest thing to use is to use an oven proof pan or cast iron skillet. Dip the chicken into the eggs and then roll it in the breadcrumbs until well coated, place in hot pan. Brown the chicken on medium heat about 4 minutes on each side. Remove each piece from the pan and place on a plate, or if you are not using and ovenproof skillet, place chicken in an oven proof baking dish.

Wipe clean the pan of any remaining breadcrumbs which may have burned. Add the Riesling and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and add the Marsala, broth and lemon juice and bring back to a low boil. Remove a ladle full of the hot liquid and mix it with the arrowroot or cornstarch. Stir until the dry ingredient is blended and then return the blended mixture to the boiling liquid in the pan, stirring as you are pouring it into the pan. The pan liquid will begin to thicken. Add the sliced mushroom and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the gravy seasoning and remove pan from the burner. Add the chicken back to the pan, or pour the sauce over chicken in a baking dish, and place in an oven heated to 350 degrees. Bake the chicken uncovered for 20 minutes.

Every time I make this dish I am amazed at how easy it it to create such a delicious meal. This is a true tried and true recipe...I hope you enjoy it as much as we do here at 

TheBigGiantFoodBasket.

XO

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A Special Treat For Dad ~ Bacon Peanut Brittle

Here is a peanut brittle just for dad! The salty flavor of the bacon mixed with the sweetness of the brittle is absolutely yummy together. I found this recipe in this week's issue of Women's World magazine. It was actually a recipe submitted by another blogger and is billed as "...a must try recipe for peanut butter fans." I made two attempts in making this brittle. The first time around I am not quite sure what I did wrong but the brittle wasn't really brittle at all, it was much more soft and bendy, and the color was not attractive. To be honest it was the flavor combination that made me want to give this treat another try. 

After giving it a little thought,  I decided to go back and use my own reliable peanut brittle recipe. What I did to adjust the original recipe was to reduce the brown sugar and made sure the bacon was very well drained. I also left the peanuts whole instead of chopping them so you got the full flavor of the peanuts along with that of the bacon!

1 lb. bacon

brown sugar to spread over the bacon

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup light corn syrup

pinch of salt

1 cup roasted peanuts

1 T unsalted butter

1 tsp. brown sugar

2 T. peanut butter

2 T. heavy cream

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

Line jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and place a rack on top. (I used the rack from my roasting pan.) Place bacon on top and spread the top of the bacon with the brown sugar, about 1/2 tsp on each strip.) Heat oven to 375 and back bacon for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and flip bacon. spread another 1/2 tsp. of brown sugar on the strips and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove strips from rack and let them drain thoroughly on paper towels. Pat with towels as well. Cut bacon into small pieces and set aside.

Next place the sugar, light corn syrup and the pinch of salt in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 3 minutes. Remove and stir in the peanuts and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from microwave, add butter and brown sugar and cook for another 45 seconds.  Stir in the bacon and then quickly spread the mixture out onto another jelly roll pan generously sprayed with cooking spray. Let cool in frig for about 15-20 minutes. Once hard break the brittle into pieces. 

In the meantime in a small saucepan, mix the peanut butter and cream on medium heat until blended and then add the confectioner's sugar. If the mixture seems a little dry add more cream and blend until smooth. Let cool slightly and then put the mixture into a sandwich bag and snip one corner.  Pipe the peanut butter mixture over the bacon peanut brittle. Yields about 15 - 18 pieces.

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!!!

XO

The Liebster Blog Award

A few weeks ago Lynne from the sweet blog Turnips 2 Tangerines had awarded me the Liebster Blog Award. The Liebster Award is an award given to bloggers by other bloggers. Kind of a "High Five" your doing a "Great Job" award.  It's a great way to get to know the blogger and to recognize fellow bloggers. It's like a fun chain letter in the blog world that helps bloggers connect and support each other and to discover new blogs. The award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers and there are a few rules. (Which are always subject to change in whatever way you like to change them.)

1. Post 11 random facts about yourself.
2. Answer the 11 questions from the person who nominated you.
3. Pass the award on to 11 other blogs, who have less than 200 followers, and link them in your post.
4. Ask the blogs you nominated 11 questions.
5. Go back to their blog and tell them you have nominated them.

11 Random Facts About Me~ 

1. My favorite sport to play is basketball 

2. In high school a twirled a baton

3. I am a registered x-ray technologist

4. I love toffee

5. I've run two marathons (one was New York City in 2011, the day before my 50th birthday)

6. I went back to college at age 38 to become a registered nurse

7. I have been to 25 of the 50 united states

8. I drink way to much ice tea

9. I  adore old movies 

10. I love to dance

11. I've worked as a jeweler 

11 Questions from Lynn are~

1. What is your favorite color? Green

2. What is your favorite dessert? Creme Brulee

3. What month were you born in? November

4. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Rocky Road with peanuts

5. What is your favorite snack food? (Chips, Popcorn, Doritos etc.)

Kettle Cooked potato chips

6. Regular or Dirt Soda? Diet

7. What is the name of your favorite fast food restaurant? Not really fast food because I don't really eat fast food but I love Applebees and Chipolte.

8. What are your favorite 3 ingredients to use in cooking? Olive oil, chicken and pasta

9. What is your favorite herb? Basil

10. What is your favorite craft? Making burlap wreathes

11. What was your best thrift store find?  A beautiful red transferware pitcher and saucer for only $10

Now for my nominations: (I am keeping the nomination list to just 5 as it was when the award was first created.)

Leslie from Leslie's Garden and other Delights
Leslie's passion is gardening and spending time with her family. I have been following her for a while now and she has the most tranquil and beautiful posts on her blog...definitely worth checking out.

Emma from Crafty Girl and Foodie
Emma is a 10 year old blogger who loves to cook and do crafts. All I can say is that if she is this good now I can only imagine what her blog will be like in just a few short years.

Allison from Vegan Mommy Chef
Allison is a mommy of two beautiful children who happen to have many food allergies. Allison has to be creative in her cooking to keep it safe without sacrificing taste for her family.

Millie from Lean & Luscious Corner 
Millie is an Area Director of Weight Watchers and the author of the Lean and Luscious Cookbook series of which I have had Volume II of the series in my arsenal of cookbooks for about 20 years now. I was thrilled to find Millie's blog!

The Mom and Daughter team from Flavors by Four
These gals love cooking, baking and sharing new recipes with one another. Consequently their readers get the chance to enjoy the fruits of their labor as they blog about their wonderful recipe finds.

Now for my Questions to the nominees:
(Again I am keeping the number to just 5)

1. What is your favorite blog to follow?

2. Where do you seem to find the most inspiration?
(for your blog or life in general)

3. What is your favorite candy?

4 If you could meet anyone who would you choose to meet?
(living or departed)

5. If you could go anywhere in the world where would you choose to go?

Thank you again Lynne from Turnips & Tangerines for this very sweet award and I hope you my nominees take the time to pass this award along to other bloggers to help encourage them to "Keep on Blogging" 

Have a wonderful day!
XO

Pan Roasted Asparagus with Sauteed Red Onion and Crispy Bacon

A few weeks ago my sweet hubby bought for me the mega book Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. Now I honestly had not had the chance to sit down with the book and really peruse through it, but last night I picked it up and began looking at asparagus recipes. For some reason I have been hording asparagus and my vegetable crisper is now totally bursting with it. So in an effort to use it up, I went through the book looking for some new variations of pan roasted asparagus and came across this recipe. Hey all you have to do is mention the word bacon and I am there! So today I picked up the ingredients and gave this recipe a whirl.

Ingredients you will need...

5 strips of bacon cut into small pieces

1 large red onion cut in half and sliced thin

2 T balsamic vinegar

2 T maple syrup

salt and pepper to taste

1 lb thin asparagus, trimmed

cooking spray

Lowreys Seasoned salt

Cook bacon in 12 inch pan until crispy, about 5-7 minutes. Remove bacon and let it drain on some paper towel. Drain off all but one tablespoon of grease from the pan and toss in the onion. Cook onion for about 4 minutes or until it becomes soft then add the balsamic vinegar and syrup. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. 

In an effort to keep the calories down I decided to use cooking spray instead of the butter and olive oil in the original recipe. Spray clean pan with cooking spray and add the asparagus. Sprinkle with the Lowery's seasoned salt and cook asparagus uniformly in pan until asparagus turns a bright green, about 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Now here I departed from the recipe by cutting my asparagus into 1- 1 1/2 in pieces. Toss the asparagus with the onion mixture. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

XO

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Whole Lifestyle Nutrition

Feature Today Over at Savvy Southern Style

So excited today because for the very first time The BGFB is being featured over at the gorgeous blog Savvy Southern Style Wow Us Wednesday link party. What did Kim pick to feature you ask...

To see the recipe click here.

Thank you so much SSS for the nod...what a wonderful surprise. To see all of this week's fabulous features just click on the link below...

Savvy Southern Style

And have a great day!!!

XO

Decadent and Easy Chocolate Bread Pudding

 I know that this is a wonderful comfort food for a lot of people, but to be honest I have never heard of chocolate pudding bread before. I was Googling bread with chocolate and Chocolate Bread Pudding popped up which totally peaked my interest. So I jumped around on the net to check out various recipes and finally I decided to give it a whirl and come up with my own version of this favorite dessert. This was also really easy to make with simple ingredients you probably have already in your pantry.

All you need is the following...

3 cups of day old bread, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/4 cups of half & half

2 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup dark rum (optional)

whipped cream and chocolate syrup to top off your pudding

In small saucepan heat the half & half on medium heat just til it begins to boil. Remove from heat, add the chocolate to the pot and let melt. In the meantime place the eggs. vanilla, brown sugar and salt in a good sized bowl and beat til blended. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat.for about one minutes. Add the rum at this time if you are going with the "big girl" version of this recipe. Toss in the bread and make sure you coat it well with the chocolate mixture. Let the mixture stand for about 15 minutes. Don't worry  if it looks a bit soupy, this is what will give the bread a pudding like quality. 

Pour into a baking dish sprayed with cooking spray or into ramekins for individual servings like I did. Place in oven preheated to 325 degrees and bake for 45 minutes.

Note...I did not change the cooking time using the individual ramekins versus putting it all in one baking dish. The original recipe made it in one dish with this cooking time.

 Serve warm or at room temp. Top with whipped cream and chocolate sauce drizzle.

Makes 4 servings.

Enjoy!!!

XO

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Snippets of Inspiration

Double Feature

I am beyond thrilled today not one but two of my salad submissions from last week over at The Daily Dish Magazine's Foodie Friends Friday, party have been chosen a Hosts Favorites.

The salads they liked were my Limey Roasted Corn Salad...

...and my Caprese Tower Salad.

Thank you so very much ladies of  "The Dish" for the two very generous nods.

Hop on over to the Daily Dish Magazine to check out the other wonderful salads being featured this week! To get there just click here.

And have a great day!!!

XO

Edamame Crostinis with a Smokey Shrimp Topping

Let me start by saying...I LOVE EDAMAMES!
(I also like saying the word EDAMAMES too!)

Whew now that I got that out my system I can go on. Anyhow this recipe was originally done with fava beans still in their pods and the process was to grill the pods and then remove the beans. While I am sure the beans were as yummy as can be, I decided to go with edamames or soy beans, already shelled and found in my grocer's freezer section. I also made a few other changes to the original recipe due to my own personal taste and availability of ingredients.

The original recipe is over at one of my favorite food blogs Spoon Fork Bacon.

To make the smokey shrimp:

About 1/2 lb of raw shrimp, cleaned and shelled with tails still intact

2 T. liquid smoke (you can find this in the BBQ sauce section of your local grocer.)

1 T ground cumin

1 Tsp. Hungarian Paprika

juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 cloves of crushed garlic

2 T extra virgin olive oil or EVOO

salt and pepper to taste

The Edamame Mixture:

12 oz. frozen shelled edamame beans, prepared according to package directions

5-7 cloves of garlic, roasted 

3 T. of toasted sliced almonds

1/3 cup of EVOO

juice of one lemon or 1/4 cup lemon juice from bottle

1/4 cup pf shredded Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

And one large baguette, sliced thin and toasted either on the grill or in a hot oven. 

Start by adding all of the shrimp ingredients to a bowl and let marinate in the frig for at least 1/2 hour.

In the meantime add the edamame ingredients to a blender or food processor and blend. The consistency will depend on your preference. I personally like it a bit more on the creamy side so I adjust the recipe by adding a little more of the liquid ingredients. 

After shrimp is done marinating saute it a pan sprayed with cooking spray until they just turn pink. Don't overcook or your shrimp will be rubbery. Spread the edamame mixture onto toasted bread and top with the smokey shrimp.

I hope you enjoy them!!!

XO

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Fresh Caprese Tower Salad

A couple of summers ago I was down the shore just for the day with a good friend and my two kiddies. We decided to have lunch at this lovely restaurant called The Columns right across from the beach in the beautifully Victorian shore point known as Avon by the Sea NJ.. We went in bathing suit covers and all, but then again that is the attire of the sea shore! Anyway, we ordered up this appetizer called a Caprese Tower, and I have been wanting to recreate it since then.

Well this week the northeast is in a little bit of a heat wave, 90+ degrees to be exact, and because of this unusually warm weather I have begun dreaming about the summer's tomatoes and fresh basil. Fortunately our local Thriftway had a huge sale on vine ripened tomatoes this week, so I grabbed a few just to have for salads. Much to my surprise they weren't spongy at all...they quite beautiful, perfect for the Caprese Tower!  

All you need is a nice ripe tomato cut into 1/2 inch thick slices. Do the same thing with a medium size ball of fresh mozzarella. Pour some olive oil on your serving plate and kind of roll the oil around. Then grab some large fresh basil leaves and begin to stack your tower on the olive oil covered plate. Start with the mozzarella and finish with a tomato slice with one basil leaf between the tomato and cheese. Top with a pretty sprig of basil. Sprinkle with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. I also added some balsamic vinegar to the plate so I could swirl each bite of my tower through both oil and vinegar.

 We decided to really enjoy our tower and sit outside with a little white wine to accompany this wonderful dish. Kids are outside playing...wow what a great beginning to the summer season!

Ciao!!!

XO

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Call me PMC

This Chick Cooks

Mom's Favorite Picnic Chicken

OK...we are talking super easy and packed with flavor!!! Typically I use thighs and legs for this recipe but you can easily use breast meat too. Instead of dipping the chicken into egg and then coating it with bread crumbs, the chicken is first covered with a creamy salad dressing and then coated in crunchy Panko crumbs. The dressing actually helps to seal in the meat's juices so every piece is super moist. This chicken goes great with any summer salad, and is perfect for toting to any outdoor party!

6-8 pieces of chicken, skin removed, rinsed and patted dry

Any thick salad dressing like Ranch, Creamy Italian, Creamy Caeser and such

1 cup panko style bread crumbs

1/2 package of Good Season's Zesty Italian dry mix

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Mix dry dressing mix with the bread crumbs, then coat the chicken with the creamy dressing followed by dredging it in the Panko crumb mix. Place on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. It's that easy!!

Hope you enjoy!!

XO

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