Cranberry Chicken

Lets face it, it has been quite a while since I posted a new recipe. This one is a new family favorite. It has only 5 ingredients. Takes less than 5 minutes to put together. As a bonus it has 4 servings. It also tastes good cold.

Cranberry Chicken

2 Large chicken breasts, skinless and boneless about 1 pound

1 cup of cranberry sauce, I use the chunky kind

1/2 cup of water

a pinch of salt and pepper

4 quart LeCreuset Cast iron pot with lid or something of a similar weight.

Spray the inside of of your LeCruset 4 quart soup pot with Pam. Who ever is washing the pot can thank me later. Wash the chicken and place in the pot. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Cover the chicken breasts with all the cranberry sauce, you will have a nice thick layer. Add the water to the bottom of the pan. Cover and place the pot in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. The chicken will not come out dry. The chicken will also be very pink on the outside when cooked. 

Let the chicken rest for 5 to 10 minutes in the covered pot before slicing. Slice into medallions no thicker then 1/2 inch and arrange on 4 plates. It is also good to have a little extra cranberry sauce on the table in case anyone wants a little more cranberry sauce on the chicken.

I hope that you enjoy this quick and easy recipe as much as we do. 

Clare's Cafe

Today while I was out and about with Nancy she took me to this terrific little cafe called Clare's in Oracle.  The food was good. I had the hash browns and a bowl of fruit.  I could have gone for another plate of the hash browns they were so good. Nancy had the breakfast casadia with eggs, cheese and sausage. It looked wonderful.  There was a small basic menu and all the food that came out to other tables looked good too. 

On top of the great food there was wonderful art work on the walls. If you want to add some art work to your walls this is deffently the place to go. There are several different mediums from water color, oils, photography. Some local crafts people also had things like silk purses, totes and a viratey of hand crafted purses.  I also saw jewelry, cards, hand woven baskets.  

Clare's is deffently worth the drive.  Here is a poster from the ladies rest room that includes the address. 

Monday

Last night was a long night with Eric. I managed to get to bed by 2:30 and John let me sleep in until after 7am so it was not the caffeine rich day I was anticipating. 

I did manage to spend time with Nancy and get some knitting and talking in.  Do you believe that I ran into someone who did not remember my name but rather my shawl.  I will add the link tomorrow. 

At home I got some cleaning in and finished 2 more hats tonight. Now that I refilled the yarn bag it seems that I have a long way to go again. 

Small Steps

One empty bagay may not seem like much. But this is one of the bags that that was full of yarn for the hat stash down. This bag represents about a dozen hats for kids in need. This bag is also represents my long term goal of deep cleaning the house. One less bag of clutter in the house. Yes I know that I am am talking about yarn.  But even too much yarn can lead to clutter, sigh. I guess I will not be the one with the most yarn. I will have leave that to friends. 

Oh well it's time to end this blog and head off to the 4th avenue street fair.  It's a little too cold to take Eric so I am leaving the guys at home.  

Scrapy Hats

I think I will be knitting Scrapy Hats for at least another 6 months. My goal is to knit through all my odd balls of yarn before I move on in my night time knitting.  I have knit 81 Scrapy Hats since mid October. Yes I have another one half knit. 

To give you an idea of how many odd balls I have to knit through, I am including a picture of just about 1/3 of what I have degisnated for hats. Take in mind that this is after 81 hats. This is only 2 bags. I have  at least 2 more to go after these are empty.  I have already emptied 2 bags. 

Thank goodness I have people lined up to distribute these to kids in need.  We'll it's time to get in a few more rounds before bed. 

Really!!!

I really do think some people are very dense. Take yesterday at knitting for instance.  *I did edit out most of this paragraph to protect the truly dense. The bottom line is that is not cool to demand a designer give their patterns away for free. Also it is not cool to buy one copy of a pattern and make photocopies to distribute to friends.  All I can say is that it was a classic head desk moment.

Please remember that when you think of photocopying someone Else's work to copy and distribute for free you are depriving that person a small monetary reward for their work. Every designer and pattern maker loves what they do. Some rely on the money to pay for the basics like putting food on the table.
Some of the larger publishing houses have been known to go after people for copy write infringement. Is your check book large enough for this? So please think before you copy and share. Maybe even contact the designer to see if they are available to teach a class on their books or patterns.

Or another good one was later in the day. I was waiting for the last wheelchair accessible parking space at Trader Joe's. When I was the subject of numerous rude gestures. * This paragraph has also been edited to protect the rude drivers out there on the roads. Please Remember Manners are necessary when driving during the holidays and year round..

A Little Bit of Everything

A lot has happened since the last post. I got a request from Eric's day program for winter gear for the Primivera Men's Shelter in town so that the young adults from his Taglit program learn about clothing the poor. So I stopped knitting kids hats for a few days to make a couple of adult hats. Everyone is suppose to bring something, so I don't feel the pressure to make dozens of hats. I will add the rows and picture at the end of the blog. I have since gone back to making kids hats.  I enjoy these, they are like candy because they go so fast. I also found out that the kids who got them so far love them. Plus they said that they would take as many as I could knit.

We went to a marshal arts recital of sorts. Yes I know it is not called a recital but my Japanese is not good enough to remember the name of the event as well as spell it. My apologies to all. Eric's friend Matthew a second degree orange belt, did a terrific job. We were rewarded for the outing with a Saturday night of wild eyrping and laundry. Followed by a day of trying to get liquids into Eric. We are hoping to get Eric back on his formula tonight. Needless to say it was a lot of long hours and a very wild weekend.

Today I got some spinning done. All I have to do is spin 3/4 more of the next bobbin and then I will ply the yarn. Hopefully John can get the Lazy Kate straightened out before then. I also think I might have over estimated the time I have for the on line course that I am in the middle of. I hope to play catch up this week. I find it hard to get really creative things done when I am in a state of exhaustion.  Plus it is probably not safe to use certain carding tools while half asleep.

Well it is time to go make dinner.

2 hats for 88 more rows toward the 1 million row challenge.