Saturday, I spent a good deal of the morning and afternoon working outside. I cut the lawn like I usually do on the weekend, and then I went to Lowes for timber oil. I came home, set the ladders up, climbed atop the hot tub gazebo and began oiling the cedar roof. And then I ran out of oil, so back to Lowes I went, grabbed another can of timber oil, and came back home to finish the job. Earlier, I gave Sandy a list of what I needed from the grocery store since she was making the weekly run to Wegman’s.
Come hell or high water, regardless of whether I had energy or not, I was making Chicken Marsala for our late lunch…..and that I did. I served it with mashed potatoes, steamed carrots and a small, round, crunchy crusted Tuscan bread. This recipe is very easy and straightforward with amazing results, and if you’d like the sauce creamy, just add about 1/2 cup of heavy cream to the sauce at the very end. (for the sake of a good photograph I limited the amount of sauce on the dish, but after the photo, I added more sauce.)
We finished our (alfresco on the front porch) lunch off with fresh cherries and chocolate truffles from our favorite, local chocolatier, Raymer’s.
Enjoy!

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 Tsp. salt
1/4 Tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 Tsp. dried oregano
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/4 inch thick
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, diced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 – 3/4 cup sweet Marsala wine (I suggest the Italian wine, not the California)
1/4 cup sherry

1. In a shallow dish, mix together the flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat both sides of the chicken pieces in the flour mixture.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium heat. Place chicken in the pan, and lightly brown. Turn chicken over and add mushrooms and shallots. Pour in wine and sherry. Cover skillet, simmering chicken for 10 minutes, turning once until no longer pink.

Wine served: Zenato, Valpolicella Superiore 2010