1920s, Valentines Day, and Chicken Marsala

well, Valentine's Day is over and all its related festivities. I never thought it would snow in February much less on any special occasion. On Thursday I pitied myself and how I just didn't feel like cooking. Well, the wintry weather took care of that. What could be better than being huddled up indoors with your favorite people, cooking and drinking and listening to records? I mentioned the St. Valentines Day Massacre party Andrew and I were attending with our friends Katie and Jeremy - it was a blast and no one broke the 1920s/gangster dress code.
for our Valentines date we saw a double-feature at The Nickelodeon: An Education and A Single Man. An Education was less intense than I expected, but better overall. I thought it was much more conclusive than I thought it would be in the end, and I loved so many of its characters. My favorite character was Miss Stubbs for her stubbornness, solid advice and wisdom, decisiveness on what was right and fearlessness to say it, but her grace and love that she gave to Jenny when she finally came back around. A Single Man is a lot harder to talk about and you will just have to go see it. It was sad, a little window into an unknown world for me, and I liked the color saturation/desaturation effects they played with. It was a little slow overall but I think that was part of what helps a conventional crowd eventually identify with an unconventional character.

so, I know I have been rambling on about non-food related things so I will cut to the chase! Chicken Marsala was on the menu for Valentines Day, and it turned out delicious with a few glitches (like, all the sauce stuck to the chicken in the pan and so all that was left in the skillet was oil to pour over. We were looking for more of a gravy to add to our pasta and chicken after serving). I used Tyler Florence's recipe with my own modifications (mainly for cost purposes):

4 boneless/skinless breasts, sliced lengthwise to make thin
All-purpose flour for coating
S/P
1/4 c. EVOO
8 oz. portabella mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1/2 c. dry marsala wine
1/2 c. chicken stock
2 T unsalted butter
fresh parsley

Prepare the chicken and a large skillet with 1/4 c. EVOO on medium-high heat. In a dish, mix flour, sea salt and freshly ground pepper, stirring with a fork to mix well. Coat all sides of each chicken cutlet in flour and pan-fry in skillet for 5 minutes on each side, until done. Set aside and keep warm. Start pasta water to boil.

In the skillet, saute mushrooms until moisture has left and they are browned. Deglaze pan with 1/2 c. marsala wine and simmer ~2 minutes to cook out alcohol. Add 1/2 c. chicken stock, letting simmer for a few more minutes to reduce. Add the butter and stir in well, adding cooked fried chicken to coat in sauce. Add parsley - serve onto plates over bowtie pasta, putting lots of mushrooms on each plate!

We made green beans (great job Andrew) to go with our marsala. yum yum.