This is one of my favorite recipes. It is easy to make and freezes well.

Servings 6

• 12 ounce bow tie pasta, uncooked
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup cranberry liqueur or 1/3 cup port wine (I use red cooking wine)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup sliced shallots or 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion (I use shallots)
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken ***, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 1/4 cup canned low-sodium chicken broth
• Chopped fresh thyme or parsley (I used parsley) (Optional)

Per serving:

427 cal, 6g fat, 37g protein, 50g carbs, 2g dietary fiber, 76mg Cholesterol, 404mg sodium

Directions:

Combine cranberries and liqueur in a small microwave safe bowl and cook at high power 50 seconds or until hot. Let stand while preparing pasta and chicken. In general, I add extra cranberries and heat longer than suggested. I also tend to just pure in as much wine as is necessary to cover the cranberries.

• Cook pasta according to package.
• Melt butter in large deep nonstick skillet. Add shallots; cook over medium heat 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Combine flour, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper in a plastic bag add chicken and shake to coat.
• Add chicken and any remaining flour in bag to skillet.
• Cook 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink, stirring occasionally
• Add broth to skillet; bring to a simmer stirring occasionally
• Simmer uncovered 5 to 6 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly and chicken is cooked through.
• Drain cranberries; stir into sauce.
• Drain pasta and return to pot
• Add chicken mixture from skillet to pot and toss well
• Sprinkle with thyme (parsley) if desired.

The latest Pinot that I tried was this one from Fish Eye.

They have a flash based web site where you click and a blue fish controls the screen movement. Click on the wine bottles and it reloads the page with the selected wine.

As far as the wine goes it is really pretty good. It has a nice flavor on the first sip and doesn't have the sometimes over strong aftertaste.

Fish Eye even has recipes for both warm weather and cool weather on the web site. That is just plain cool.

So it is fairly cheap: $10 bottle and well worth a night of relaxation.

Keeping with my simple theme, here is yet another meal that is quick and easy to prepare. I used a pair of T-bones, but the steak can be essentially any cut you like.

Ingredients

Steak - 2 T-Bones

Squash - 1/2 pre cut

Zucchini- Whole

Red Potatoes - 10-15 small

Sweet Onion - 1

Stick of margarine

Directions

Fire up the grill so it gets nice and hot

Vegetables

• Chop the onion
• Cut the potatoes up into 1" - 2" pieces. Leave skin on.
• Mix the onion and potato and wrap in aluminum foil [ do not seal yet ]
• Cut 1/4 stick of margarine into slices and spread on onions and potatoes
• Seal potatoes and set aside
• Slice zucchini into 1/8" slices and wrap in aluminum foil [ do not seal yet ]
• Cut 1/4 stick of margarine into slices and spread on zucchini
• Seal zucchini
• Cut squash into 1" - 2" pieces , wrap, and spread remaining butter slices on top.
• Seal squash
• Now place all 3 vegetable packages on grill for approx 30 - 45 minutes depending on quantity

Steak

• Lightly coat the steaks with a pepper blend or seasoning blend 
• Once the vegetables are done place steaks on grill and grill for approx 5-10 minutes a side (or until done to your taste)

Enjoy!

I'm going to have to start a category called YAMM (yet another main meal).

This one came out of the fact that I have very little food in the house and wanted to put something on that would be ready when the kids and I got home later in the day.

Ingredients

1 Package Chicken *** (boneless)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons butter/margarine

2 Tablespoons sesame seeds

1 Small bag of precut baby carrots

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Place butter in center of Crockpot (underneath chicken)

Place chicken in bottom of Crockpot

Cover chicken with olive oil

Sprinkle chicken with sesame seeds

Cook on low for approximately. 5-6 hours

Add baby carrots

Cook an additional 2 hours (until carrots are soft)

This makes a nice gravy inside the Crockpot. I steamed some rice and broccoli and had a quick and tasty meal. The kids even liked it.

Ever go to one of those Chinese restaurants where it seems like you can't take more than a sip of tea before someone runs up and refills your glass and by the time you leave you have this feeling that you've had more to drink that you usually do? Well, you are probably right. CongnitiveDaily just reported a study that used a self refilling soup bowl to test if how much we eat is related to our perceptions or to our stomachs. The surprising answer.... is here

I'll give you a hint: how much you eat isn't dictated by how hungry you are.

Tonights wine is yet another Riesling. This one by Blue Fish.

Much like the other Riesling I talked about this one is fruity and smooth. It has very little of the "tingling" aftertaste that many Rieslings tend to have.

Check out the uniquely colored bottle

This is a German wine (didn't know that until a moment ago) and I think it is the first German wine I've ever had. For less than $10 a bottle, it now stands as my favorite Riesling so far.

Yes, this is another easy, quick and tasty main course.

Ingredients

1 Package Pork Chops

6 - 10 Graham crackers

2 -3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Can of Sliced Pineapples in Juice

Instructions

In a large skillet on medium heat place the olive oil

Place graham crackers into a large baggy and instruct your 4 and 7 year olds to crush them [child labor is optional, but tends to be more efficient than adults at this]

Rinse the pork chops and place into the baggy with the crushed graham crackers

Shake well until all pork chops are coated

Place pork chops into hot pan and brown for about 3 - 5 minutes a side

Add in 1/2 - 1 cup pineapple juice and simmer for another 1 - 2 minutes

Remove from pan, cut and serve

Place pineapple on main plate to compliment the pork chops. My whole family loved this one. Very flavorful!

I always forget how much I tend to like Beaujolais. They tend to have a fruity taste without of the acidity you get in a lot of red wines.

This one is no exception. In fact, I think this is one of my favorites so far. Certainly the best wine I've blogged about.

My initial thoughts:

smooth, light taste. Tastes of fruit, though just a hint. Can't pin down other flavors. Odd; sensual almost.

There is an article about ten nutrition myths here. The article cites the top 10 nutrition myths and "dispels them".

The list includes things like eating carbohydrates make you fat, eggs raise cholesterol, and vitamins.

One of the items on the list @ number 9 is Drink eight, 8-oz glasses of water per day.

The author contends that you don't necessarily need that much and in fact it is somewhat arbitrary. I won't dispute that, however there is one piece about drinking water that wasn't mentioned.

When you drink cold water your body actually burns calories to warm the water up. Think about that for a moment. Cold water has zero calories, so by drinking it you basically get "free" caloric burn.

HowStuffWorks.com has an explanation of how to calculate how much is burned (around 70 Calories a day) which you can read here.

Like anything too much cold water can be a serious problem as well. You can die from drinking too much water due to Hyponatremia.

Moderation in life is important!

Today's wine is a red from Argentina. This one isn't my favorite wine. It has a rather strong after taste. Not sure how to describe it other than "sharp". Taking a deep whiff of the wine gives a hint of the actual taste.

It isn't bad, and certainly for the $6 - $7 I paid for it I can't complain, but it will not be making another appearance on my table. I had a picture of the bottle, however my Bluetooth from my phone to laptop seems to no longer work and I'm too lazy to take a picture with the digital camera.

Want to see the vineyard? Go here