A Catch Up, A Sneak Peak, and an Awesome Recipe

I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would share a few tidbits about what's been going on. Ryan's work sent him to Los Angeles to work as a sponsor for a huge Adobe convention. He had a lot of fun, learned a ton, met some cool famous people, and most importantly won us some awesome swag! He won a new droid, which means I am the proud new owner of his old droid, and a google tv! I have not a clue what a google tv is capable of but Ryan assures me it will be cool. He got to meet Martha Stewart, and William Shatner,from star trek! I'm sure the computer nerds went nuts, they could have paraded in the Victorias Secret Angels and nobody would have even noticed in a giant conference full of computer nerds. While he was in CA, Moose and I made our way down to Ohio. I morph into a little kid when I walk in those doors, let my mom make me hot chocolate and do all the things for me that I am more than capable of doing myself, but she just does everything better! I was able to go to Sean's last soccer game, which was sad but so fun to watch him play. My dad and I also convinced my mom to let us take Sean's senior pictures. We had so much fun doing it, much to Sean's dismay I'm sure. He was a good sport and after some editing I think they turned out quite good.








Next, I have been on a quest for quite some time to find a copy cat recipe for The Cheesecake Factory's chicken madeira recipe. It's Ryan's favorite! And I was sure I could make it and probably with 1/6 of the calories. I think I have succeeded!

Ashley's Chicken Madeira

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 boneless chicken breast
8 asparagus spears
4 slices mozzarella cheese

Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups fresh sliced mushrooms
3 cups Madeira wine
2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Cover chicken breast with plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thick.
2. Sprinkle each filet with salt and pepper.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in frying pan over medium-high heat.
4. Saute fillets 4-6 minutes per side until done and browned just a bit.
5. Remove from pan and wrap in foil to keep warm while you make the sauce.
6. In chicken pan add olive oil and sliced mushrooms; saute for about 2 minutes.
7. Add Madeira wine, beef stock, butter, and pepper.
8. Bring to boil then reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes until reduced to about 1/2 original volume. When sauce is done it will be thick, and brown.
9. While sauce is reducing, bring a pan of water to boil.
10. Add salt to water at boil; blanch asparagus (3-5 minutes). Drop asparagus in ice water to halt cooking.
11. Set oven to broil.
12. In baking dish arrange chicken, cross 2 asparagus stems over each piece of chicken and top with a slice of cheese.
13. Broil until cheese melts.
14. Put chicken on plate.
15. To serve, top with 3-4 tablespoons sauce on each piece.

***As much as I searched I could not find madeira wine, so I did some research and it is pretty comparable to marsala wine so I just used that!