Express Lane Chicken Marsala

The kids have been back at school for a few weeks now and activities seem to be picking up at an exponential rate around here leaving very little time for preparing dinner. While sandwiches are a frequent solution to meals on the run in our house, sometimes I like everyone to have a nice hot dinner.

The recipe I have for today is a basic recipe for chicken Marsala that I often vary; for example tomatoes are really tasty right now, so for a garnish-even though it's not typical for Chicken Marsala, I like to add diced fresh tomatoes and some fresh basil. When tomatoes aren't as good here in New England-say in the middle of January-I will leave off the tomatoes and basil and garnish with just a bit of fresh parsley, which is a bit more traditional. I have used pre-sliced mushrooms to save some time, but feel free to slice your own. Add a bagged salad from the produce department you you are all set with a hot, quick meal.

Express Lane Chicken Marsala includes ingredients that with the exception a few staples (e.g. pasta, flour, salt, pepper) can be found by shopping the perimeter of your supermarket. So load your basket (no time for a cart today) and let's get started.

One word about the wine...don't buy the Marsala wine in the supermarket! The kind of Marsala "cooking wines" they have available in the supermarkets are really not very good and they are very high in sodium. I think it pays to invest a few extra dollars in a nice quality Marsala wine from your liquor store. If you prefer to eliminate the alcohol, just substitute some fresh lemon juice or a good quality balsamic vinegar.

Express Lane Chicken Marsala with Quick and Creamy Peppered Pasta

4 or 5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (try to find the thin sliced ones unless you have time to pound them to 1/4 inch thickness)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cup pre-sliced Shiitake mushrooms

1/4 cup dry Marsala wine

1 cup chicken broth

1 large tomato, small diced

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil

Pasta:

8 ounces angel hair pasta, cooked al dente

2 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons hot water from cooking the pasta

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pat the chicken breasts lightly with paper towels. On a small plate or piece of waxed paper, combine the flour, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Coat both sides of the chicken with the flour mixture.

Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat; add the chicken and brown on both sides, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove the chicken from the skillet and add the mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms for about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the Marsala wine and the chicken broth. Cook for about 3 minutes, then return the chicken to the pan, reduce the heat to medium and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and whisk in the remaining tablespoon of butter. Arrange the chicken on individual dinner plates and top with the mushrooms and sauce. Garnish each serving with diced tomatoes and fresh basil, if desired.

Toss together the pasta, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, pasta water and pepper; serve the pasta with the chicken.

Yield 4-5 servings

Bittersweet Chocolate Coconut Bread

I have always been a tea drinker. I remember happily drinking tea with my brothers and cousins at the dining room table of my grandmother's house. The tea, thick with milk and sugar, was more of a dessert than a beverage, but I felt so grown up drinking it. Now I drink it black. Oh my sweet tooth hasn't gone away, I just prefer not to drink my sweets-I much prefer to eat them.

Bittersweet chocolate to me is the best kind of chocolate; it has a chocolate sweetness that is...well..not too sweet. This bread, a tea bread if you will, is just that-not too sweet. The texture is definitely bread-like as opposed to cake-like and I love to nibble on it in the evening with a cup of green tea.

You can usually find bittersweet chocolate in the baking section of the supermarket. I like the bar form and will usually crack it with the back end of a knife while it's still wrapped in the package-I like the non-uniformity of the pieces as opposed to using chips, but if you prefer you can substitute chips. Try to find the bittersweet chocolate, but if all else fails semi-sweet chocolate will work just fine.

Bittersweet Chocolate Coconut Bread

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon coconut extract

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup sweetened coconut

1 (3 ounce) bar Bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl whisk together the egg, milk, coconut extract and vegetable oil. In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder; stir in 3/4 cup of the coconut and the chocolate.

Using a wooden spoon, gradually stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.

The final Martha Moments

The Martha Stewart Show continues...

We're moving over to the gardening section with blogger Margaret Roach from A way to Garden. She has some of the most beautiful pictures of gardens and wild life in the garden- especially to someone such as myself who is only capable of growing mold on old food in the fridge.

We're moving on to the final segment... I promise to post pictures! Oh wait Martha just announced that we are all getting a wireless printer courtesy of HP! How cool!!

I"m going to take pictures now!

More Martha!

Perez Hilton is on stage talking with Martha-he refers to himself as the Michael Phelps of blogging. His entertainment blog is one of the most popular blogs out there and is said to be able to make or break careers. He blogs 50 or 60 times a day! Yikes I have a hard enough time getting out a few posts a week! He was very coy about how much money he makes blogging which makes me think it's lots!

Next up Matt Bites. Matt is making cookies with Martha...he's so calm, if I were baking cookies with Martha I'm pretty sure I'd be so nervous that I'd get my spatula caught in the beaters. They are making alfajores...a buttery cookie with a dulce de leche filling..mmm.

On to crafting next with Eddie Ross. Eddie is a senior style editor at Martha Stewart Living and is currently a contestant on the reality show Top Design. He shared with Martha some cool flea market finds. He showed Martha how he makes magnets out of vintage earrings and wrapping paper out of vintage cards.

Martha!

Martha just came out to greet the audience and is letting everyone know that you can find out all about how to start your own blog on her web site.

Martha's sister is in the audience as well as Martha Stewart's magazine staff who she gave Cannon G9 cameras to.

Deb Perlman was just introduced she is the author of Smitten Kitchen she has a readership of over over 1,000,000 a month! Meg Frost of Cute Overload-how cute! She started a collection of photos and then put them online. She currently has the number one bestselling calendar on Amazon.com. Yeah we get a copy!

Coming up is one of the most famous celebrity bloggers Perez Hilton.

Live from the Martha Stewart Blogging Show!!

This is so exciting! I'm sitting here live in the Martha Stewart Show audience for a show about blogging!! Stay tuned for updates!

Linguini and Oreos

Tomorrow is National Linguine Day. I’m not sure when or why it originated, but a day devoted to pasta sounds like a good idea to me. Don't panic-I did not create a recipe combining linguine and Oreos; we ate linguine for dinner and for dessert we had an Oreo vs. Hydrox cookie showdown. But now that would be creative...linguine with an Oreo cookie mole sauce perhaps?

Since my first attempt at cooking eggplant a few days ago, I’ve made a few kinds of eggplant dishes and this one-Roasted Eggplant Linguine with Smoked Mozzarella-was a favorite. I only made enough for two, since my son decided that he was going to make homemade pizza for himself and the other two kids.

Just a few words about the Italian seasoning grinder that I’ve included in the recipe…I love this stuff. Not too long ago, McCormick came out with spice grinders: seasoned salts, peppers and pizza seasoning. The Italian seasoning (originally called Pizza Seasoning) incorporates garlic and spices and I have found that it comes in very handy when you don’t have any fresh garlic in the house. It gives a mild garlic flavor without overpowering. Of course you can go ahead and substitute fresh garlic if you have it on hand, but in a pinch the Italian seasoning comes in mighty handy, it's great for seasoning pastas, omelets, sauces and pizza. You can find the spice grinders in the supermarket spice section.

Roasted Eggplant Linguine with Smoked Mozzarella

1 small eggplant, peeled and cut into 1 inch dice
1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
Pinch red pepper flakes
6 ounces linguine shaped pasta, cooked al dente according to package directions
1/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon McCormick Italian Seasoning Grinder
1/2 cup diced smoked mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spread the eggplant in a single layer on a large baking sheet and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper. Place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until eggplant is golden brown.


While the eggplant is cooking combine the tomatoes, basil, rosemary and red pepper flakes with the remaining salt and pepper in a small bowl.

Heat the broth in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the pasta, tomato mixture and the eggplant; cook for about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the pizza seasoning and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top.

Yield: 2 servings

For dessert, we decided to have an Oreo vs. Hydrox cookie taste test.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hydrox Cookies, the original cream filled chocolate cookie, Kellogg’s (the current owner of the Hydrox brand) decided to bring the cookies back.

I remember as a kid not really liking Hydrox cookies too much-I thought they tasted too waxy and tasted ironically like imitation Oreos. This incarnation of the cookies I think tastes ok. While each of us in the family were able to identify the Oreo and identify the Hydrox, it wasn’t because of the taste, it was because of the crunchiness of the chocolate wafer (the Hydrox cookie is crunchier). Ultimately the Oreo cookie won (3 to 2) because the chocolate taste of the Oreo wasn’t too overpowering. I’m pretty sure if we had thrown a double stuffed Oreo in there it would have been unanimous…what could beat a double cream filling?