Chicken in Mushroom Wine Sauce

If you are looking for fat free recipes then turn the page 

right this minute my friends because this is not going to be your answer!

I could eat this chicken up all day and any day.

It is THAT good.

Serve it over a bed of fettuccine, rice, risotto or in a big 

bowl by itself with a thick slice of bread to soak up the wonderful sauce!

Add more garlic to bring it up a notch or throw in a handful of basil to change it up.

What ever you do make sure to save any leftovers to devour 

for breakfast the next day!

Chicken in Mushroom Wine Sauce

4 - 6 Chicken Breasts no skin nor bone

2 T Butter

1and 1/2  C White Wine

2 Cups White Mushrooms cut in half

1 C Half and Half

1 Lemon juiced

2 T Olive Oil

1 T Cornstarch

3 Garlic Cloves - minced

Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper to Taste

1/2 C flour for dredging

Dredge the chicken in flour and lightly brown in olive oil. Place browned chicken in a lightly buttered  baking dish. To the dish sprinkle the lemon juice over the chicken, add garlic, 1 T butter sliced and 1 C wine. Cover the dish and bake in the oven for 1 hour at 325. Check halfway through cooking to make sure there is enough liquid. If liquid is needed, slowly add more wine. While chicken is cooking in a sauce pan add 1 T butter, remaining wine and mushrooms. Cover and simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes. I don't like to overcook my mushrooms but instead I like them to be fairly chunky and only slightly  collapsed. Add the Half and Half and bring to a simmer once again. Add cornstarch to 2 T water in a separate small bowl until incorporated and then add the cornstarch mixture to the mushrooms while they are simmering which will thicken the sauce. Add salt and pepper once the sauce is thickened to your liking and then cover and pull off heat until chicken is ready. When the chicken is ready, plate up your pasta, add a piece of chicken and then dump your sauce over everything! Serve it up with some great bread and rustic bread for sopping! Enjoy! 

How To Build The Best Charcuterie Board

My family loves to make boards!

We take turns designing and creating the perfect

mix of nuts, fruits, cheese, meat and spreads.

It is how we start our family dinners just 

sitting around by the fire outside, visiting and 

sharing smiles and wine. My favorite store to find

goodies for our board building is Trader Joe's.

I will set you up for success!

Pick up these perky finds below for your next board!

Ok my friends!
There ya go!
Have fun boarding!

More Board Ideas HERE

 

Wedding Bliss and Blessings Beyond

 

With a big, mama, grateful heart I want to welcome

Micah, my newest daughter, to the Nucci Family!

As a mama I prayed for Jake since childhood for

God to show him the woman He chose for him

to become one and navigate this crazy and often 

very confusing and challenging life together.

Jake kept his eyes wide open and waited sometimes

impatiently for that woman to step into his world.

When Jake moved to Dallas almost 3 years ago, I followed

him behind the UHaul and moved him into an apartment 

in just 2 short days. I remember giving him a big and long hug,

slipping some cash in his pocket for supper and telling him

that he would be a hot ticket in the Dallas dating market so

he would need to take time to review his many options and not

fall in love with the very first girl who caught his eye.

Well he waited an entire 24 hours to ask Micah to dinner

and the rest is history! Our entire family welcomes Micah with

our arms wide open! We love her for the amazIng Godly

woman who loves our Jake. Boy oh boy are we BLESSED!

Thank you God for bringing them together from miles apart.

Thank you Micah for loving Jake so completely.

Thank you Jake for patiently waiting for God's will to unfold.

We love you both a whole LOT

and we can't wait to watch your journey unfold.

As Catholics we believe that when God joins 

a man and woman together through the 

Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, they become ONE body.

One to conquer this life together.

One to worship and glorify God.

One to accept the gift of children.

One, never to be alone.

ONE!

How amazing is that!

God created man and woman out of love and commanded them to imitate 

His love in their relations with each other. Man and woman were created for each other: 

“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him. … 

The two of them become one body.” (Genesis 2:18, 24)

Photography

by

Chelsea Reece

Venue

The Grand Ivory

Allie Grace

I am so proud to introduce this sweet baby girl, 

Alexandra G Wolpert

singing Black Hole, her very first solo! 

I love this baby girl and her pure heart and soul!

The Bond Between a Mother and Her Son

 Before I became a mother I was busy and fulfilled with my new career teaching children on the autism spectrum and loving my new life as a wife to my college sweetheart, Steve. Life was good, I mean really good. I could not imagine things being better or even greater. But then Jake made me a mother, a mama because that is what he called me, Mama. He was born into this world rather abruptly poor little guy. He was very content with staying quietly tucked away nice and safe inside my womb. When he was born his hands were spread wide apart as if to say, "Hey, where are you taking me?" and he finally settled down as soon as he was all swaddled up and in our arms safe again. People always comment on how amazing he is and what a beautiful person Jake is as if they want to know some secret method Steve and I used to raise this boy up to be the incredible human that he is. I always reply, he was born that way and he was. He arrived straight from God with the most pure heart and soul ready to teach all of those who are blessed to call him friend or family. He is all things good and beautiful. He loves BIG and I mean really BIG with his entire being. He is as loyal as they come and will stand by you until the end of time. Jake gave his heart to Micah last weekend and boy oh boy we love her as much as we love Jake. She has a heart as big as Jake and the two of them will be unstoppable together. Their wedding was so very special and in the video below you will see our dance. I ran out to the dance floor so giddy and you can see him waving his hands to calm me down. This is pretty typical banter between the two of us. Me being a spaz and he calming me down or running from being embarrassed. These are the moments that make a mama proud as a peacock and I can not believe how blessed I am! God is real GOOD to me and I am beyond grateful all the time. 

Let's Plan A Wedding!

My son, my first born, my sweet Jake, will take this beautiful, 

Godly woman, Micah, to be his wife in just a few short weeks!

Since Jake was a young teen he has dreamed and prayed for

a soulmate to build a life with. He has found his soulmate in Micah!

We are thrilled to welcome her into our family and consider 

ourselves extremely blessed to call her our daughter

and sister. Gratitude is our word of the year! 

I have had so much fun watching them plan for 

the day they become husband and wife.

Below are a few of my favorite 

selections we have chosen to help us decorate

our tables for the Rehearsal Dinner!

Click through the photo to see the vendor!

Mama's Sauce

My sauce is a happy sauce!

It is a recipe that combines the tricks and tips

of many chefs! It is a recipe that has most definitely 

evolved as I have aged. Most importantly I have learned

that the longer I leave it alone, and let it do it's own thing,

the better it comes out! So as you take a look at the ingredients

and instructions, remember to "make it your own" by adding/subtracting,

tossing and turning it all up so it becomes YOUR sauce.

Just enjoy the process and have fun feeding your people.

Ingredients

2  14.5 oz cans of good diced tomatoes (San Marzano is my choice)

3  14.5 oz cans of crushed tomatoes                        "

1  14.5 oz can of tomato sauce                                 "

1  empty tomato can filled with red wine          

5  cloves of garlic peeled and crushed

1/2 of a bell pepper cleaned of seeds - do not chop

1 cup of fresh basil and more for garnish

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tablespoon of white sugar

sea salt and pepper to taste

freshly grated Parmesan  

Start with a great pot. A pot that is heavy like a dutch oven.

Your going to cook this all day so you don't want to have to 

babysit your sauce in a pot that will easily burn food.

Add all of your ingredients except basil into you pot and bring to a low boil.

Stir it well, cover and reduce heat to a low simmer.

Simmer all day if you can or at least 5 hours. In the last hour add the basil.

Ladle over your favorite pasta with fresh basil and parmesan and you are GOLD!

If you want to add Italian sausage links to this sauce then you will want to 

first sear the sausage links first in the same pot with a little amount of olive oil.

Do not cook the sausage all the way through just brown outside and then 

add all of the remaining ingredients to the pot and simmer all day. 

Meatball lesson will be on another day! 

Last tip!

Do not underestimate the amount of entertainment 

a small human in a high chair can bring when presented

with a plate of pasta and a LOT of red sauce!

Isabella Louise enjoying spaghetti!

Too Much To Pray About

 

My mind is weary.

It will not silence, decompress, pause, coast,

relax, suspend or even simply idle long enough

for my thoughts to slow down for me

to process them. So they land all over me covering 

me like a heavy, wool, not so comfortable blanket.

The kind of blanket that you bring out for those

 last minute camping trips where everyone ends up 

sleeping in the car sitting up or those slumber parties when 

you were 12 and everyone brought fancy sleeping bags but

the basement was so cold the blanket was grabbed from

the closet in desperation at 2 in the morning when we were

 too lazy to run upstairs and turn the dial on the heater to make

 it kick on. The scratchy, heavy, musty and disliked but

necessary blanket. You don't want it but kicking it off means

you have to deal with the uncomfortable situation. 

That about some up how I have been dealing with my thoughts

for the last 6 almost 7 months now. And I can tell you it's not fun yet

I am still not ready to kick the blanket off. So how do I handle this?

How does anyone handle "THIS"? 

It's hard to say really.

We are traveling down roads most have never traveled.

There is no blueprint, no booklet of instructions and yet we

are forced to create a new "normal" and in a very short period

of time everything, well almost everything, has reluctantly changed.

We adapt, alter, about face, change course, shift gears, and just put 

it all in reverse. And for most of us change can be challenging.

So it's hard and we rebel a little and then we rebel a lot.

I can only rebel so much and then I tend to let it all cover me like

 the dreaded blanket. I can tolerate it more than the usual person due to my

stubbornness and strong will and then at some point I start to get annoyed 

and I am forced to make a move so I begin by throwing one foot outside 

of the blanket.Then the other foot and then one big kick and the 

flood gates open. Yep, that's me. The bound up and wound up

 thoughts rapidly and violently break the damn and I am forced to swim. 

First I let the rushing thoughts take me. I give in but my head stays afloat.

Next I grab a broken branch so I can rest a little while I tread from time to time.

Then when I am finally ready and mad and strong enough I start to go against 

the current, fighting my way back to the riverbank. It may take awhile and I will surely 

need many breaks and may even have a few setbacks but I know where I am headed 

and put forth the effort to get there. Once I am there I rest. I rest and rest knowing

I am okay. Knowing someone and something greater has me and I let go.

I give "THIS" to God.

I finally give ALL of "THIS" to God.

But until I am ready to kick the blanket off, I pray.

I pray for my own healing and for every single person who is doing

 the very best they can to deal with "THIS".

We will ALL be okay.

We will ALL get to the riverbank in our own time

and in our own way.

But in the meantime pray with me.

Pray for yourself first so you can then be strong

enough to be there for your family and others.

Pray desperately for our world.

Give "THIS" to God.

God Bless you all so very very much!

If you are looking for a safe, beautiful and loving community

to pray with please join our community at 

Many Hail Mary's At A Time

We welcome you with open arms!

There is something very special planned for the month of October!

Share with us your prayer intentions  HERE!

We pray the rosary live every day at 6:45am central time @manyhailmarysatatime .  

If you cannot make the live time we will be posting the rosary we pray every day on Instagram and also on our YouTube channel. We have so many great guests scheduled for you to learn more about how to pray, how to meditate and share the power of the rosary. ~Kristin

Sprite / 7Up Biscuits

2 cups of Bisquick Baking Mix

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup Sprite or 7Up

1 stick of melted butter

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Mix by hand sour cream into your biscuit mix in a medium bowl. 
• Stir in 1/2 cup 7 Up (any clear carbonated drink will work). Dough will be very wet, don't worry. If dough is too stiff add a few more tablespoons of Sprite. (see photo above) 
• Melt butter in a 9 inch pan. It can be round or square. I stick my pan and butter in the oven for a few minutes to melt the butter. Don't burn the butter.
• Drop dough by a huge spoon on top of melted butter (see photo above).
• Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.