lemons, olives and marsala

My hard work has paid off. Just the occasional bit stomach wrenching anxiety disturbs my day and I don’t have to fend off negative thoughts very much. I’ve done lots of self care: reminding myself of all the good things, being mindful and noticing what is around me (in other words, not living in a fog), getting outside, keeping busy with drives and cooking and friends.

I heard a red-wing blackbird heralding the arrival of summer the other day! It is way too early for this fair weather dweller to arrive - someone must have given him wrong directions on his route north.

Thursday Jo Ellen and Don came for supper, and as usual, they were my guinea pigs… I was making Chicken Marsala for the first time, in fact, it was my first time cooking chicken breast in the instant pot… in fact I haven’t cooked chicken breasts, or any sort of chicken, at all for years. So I scoured the internet for recipes. Cooking times varied wildly and in the end I decided on the 5 min cook vs the 12 minute one.

Prep was easy and then I got to work sauteing and then cooking. The end result was good but not great. It needed some work. Yesterday I dug out some slightly freezer burned breasts from bottom of the freezer to try again. This time I sliced the breasts to make cutlets before dredging them in flour and browning them. I added a sliced onion to the sauce along with the sliced mushrooms. Those were sauted, then I added  ½ cup chicken broth and ½ cup marsala, then added the breasts back with a few sprigs of thyme. I pressure cooked this on high for 3 minutes and a 15 min natural release. Chicken was removed and I cooked the sauce with a bit of cornstarch until it was thickened. The result: tender chicken and more flavour in the sauce. Next time I’ll add an additional ¼ cup of marsala to the sauce just before serving. Some salt would have been a good addition. I might skip the step of browning - that would cut down on the cooking time tremendously.

I’ve been in a cooking streak lately. On Wednesday night, for just Carm and I, I cooked chicken thighs with lemon and olives over rice. Well gosh it was good! I have enough thighs in the freezer to make it for guests twice.

So much for vegan cooking...

Tuesday we had supper at Trudie & Leo’s. I owe them a few meals now ;-) And I can’t forget that Thursday we had lunch with new friends that we met camping last summer. It was wonderful to connect with them again. Interspersed with all this entertaining were drives in the country, shopping in the city, dentist appointments, and general chilling at home.

No wonder I had such success nipping this mood shift in the bud - moss doesn’t grow on a rolling stone! Oh… and it doesn’t hurt that we’ve had some days of bright sun. I may even start to get my head around the fact that we leave on our next trip in 21 days. So far I’m stuck in day to day time and can’t seem to look forward very far.

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

~Helen Keller