Chicken Marsala

Karin and Alan came over for dinner last night. They just had a new grandchild and Karin's birthday is next week. Also, they were willing to help me with this new blog attempt. The menu was Chicken Marsala, Brushetta with roasted garlic and tomato, salad, white sangria and homemade cannoli for desert.

It all started off well enough. I got the right ingredients. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs and chicken breast, French bread, a bottle of Pinot Grigio for white Sangria and a bottle of Marsala for the chicken. Oh, I also got ricotta cheese, mini chocolate chips and cannoli shells and lemons and limes for the sangria.

I returned from the store at 3:00 and immediately put the chicken into roast with olive oil and seasoning. I thought it would be faster that way and I was worried about not having a large enough skillet. I also put in a head of garlic to roast and a Roma tomato. I was hoping that wrapping in foil would keep the garlic odor shielded from my garlic-hating husband.

By the time my guests arrived at 5:00, everything was ready and I ran to freshen up and serve the sangria. I had Alan add his own garlic and tomato to the brushetta. He and Karin declared that successful. We had a great time and while he was here, Alan fixed my printer driver problem on my computer. (Thanks, Alan!)

Lessons learned:
1. Roasting chicken is good for the chicken but not so much for the sauce and chicken Marsala is all about the sauce. The sauce tasted good but was too thin. I think browning the chicken and cooking it in the same pan would have made for much better sauce.

2. I wish I wouldn't have broken up the chicken into pieces. By the time I stirred it and added more (too much) Marsala to give it flavor, the chicken was a shredded (but tasty) mess.

3. The new sangria pitcher works great but makes one big bottle of wine look like a few drops in the bottom. Seriously, it looked kind of funny. Need at least two big bottles next time.

4. Leftover fruit soaked with wine makes great lemonade the next day.