The Victory Meal

It's time to post another recipe and this had to be the one.  The reason being, when I made the squash that was my previous post, I served it with this chicken and they went really well together.  It was a victorious meal for me.  Remember from my past post that my Honey is a real cook.  This has not always gone so well for us.  He had to learn, the hard way, not to look over my shoulder while I'm cooking giving me advice on how I'm not doing things correctly.  Then he had to learn to not inform me at each dinner how I could have made it better.  I know.  I should appreciate his help since he truly is a real cook but I'm kind of stubborn and it bugged me.  I wanted to produce a meal, on my own, that he actually liked.  This meal scored me one of the happiest victories of my life.  He kept eating, and eating and  "mmmmmmm-ing."  Oh happy day.  Here is a picture of what makes this dinner special.

These are diced.

They are combined with garlic, white wine, paprika and ground red pepper and poured over chicken.

It is baked until the chicken is done.

At this point you can thicken the sauce if you'd like or just serve it as it is, which is what I did.  The picture isn't very pretty, but the taste won over my toughest customer.  And in the family news . . . we had a surprise party last Saturday.  My son planned the whole thing, but then it was for his "daughter" as we call her.  

Sathura, or Sassy as we call her turned five.  He was pretty excited.  When we got her the pet store told us if she made it past a month we were doing good.  We're five years into this thing, we must be doing something right.  Here is the big surprise moment.  

A little blurry but you can still see the excitement.  Notice also the cleaning supplies on the bottom left.  Lizards don't always have very good bladder control.  And here, they are singing happy birthday.

She loves her present.  See the smile on her face?

And the party ended with a round of the green machine.  Who knew a reptile that never drinks water could hold so much liquid.  Thus the reason she is only allowed in my son's bedroom.

We're pretty excited for Thanksgiving less than a week away!      I've rolled out the recipes, done the big shopping trip and am waiting with anticipation for the big cooking day.  After I do my Thanksgiving cooking I'll have a recipe to post that you may want to add to your Thanksgiving table.  Yum yum.

Chicken Breasts With Artichoke-Pepper Sauce


1 (6 oz) jar marinated artichoke hearts
1/2 cup roasted red bell peppers
4-5 chicken breasts
salt
6 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper


Place the chicken in a casserole and salt to taste.  Drain the artichoke hearts, reserving the liquid.  Dice the artichoke and peppers then add the remaining ingredients as well as the reserved artichoke liquid.  Pour over the chicken.  Bake 350 degrees until the chicken is done.