You know me, I like to re-purpose food! Chicken Marsala is a fav and making it into Chicken Marsala Soup is even better!
Sorry that I have been MIA over the past two weeks, I have a good excuse! Part of my business plan for this year includes my blog. It’s time that I be proactive and start monetizing what I’m loving doing (besides my real estate career)! To make all this happen, I really needed a boost and interact with other bloggers and see what actually needs to be done to run my blog as a business, so I went to my first conference! Yeah! My friend Lea Ann who writes Highlands Ranch Foodie and I traveled to Salt Lake City to attend the Build Your Blog Conference. Wow! We learned a lot and came home full of knowledge and a better understanding of what really needs to be done to make our sites take off! You will see some small changes happen on my site but mostly it’s the back end stuff that you don’t see and I need to start using Pinterest and Instagram, two things that I was trying to avoid! Not anymore… I will now schedule time to “pin” and like more stuff! Ha, seems like brain damage but I gotta do what I gotta do right? I too will be a pinning fool! Wish me luck! 🙂
So, if you have been following me, you know that I love to travel and I pretty much have a blast with whatever I do. Salt Lake City was no exception! Lea Ann and I lucked out and did something that I haven’t done in 35 years! We arrived on Thursday and on Thursday evenings, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practices. It’s free and open to the public! Wow! If you ever have an opportunity to see this, do it! It’s truly magnificent to hear over 360 people sing in such harmony and the acoustics in their facility are pretty unreal! To top it off, the Utah State Symphony was also practicing that night as well. They seriously played for an entire hour without a break! The whole experience gave me chills! I’d do again in a heart beat! Make sure you hang out on Temple Square too. I am not a Mormon but found it to be quite inspirational and very beautiful.
Very few people know this about me. I grew up in Cincinnati but grew up skiing in Snowbird, Utah. It was an easy flight for us and back in the day, skiing was “cheap”. (If I recall, like $10 a day)! We could leave Cincy and be skiing in a world class resort in the afternoon. When I grew up we met a most fun family on one of our trips. I have stayed in touch with them for 35 years and sure enough, they live in Snowbird now! Lucky me! Of course I called while I was in town! I haven’t seen them since 1987 or something but it was just like yesterday when we reunited! Boy did we have a blast and I realize that Snowbird is the best ski area that I have ever skied. Period. For me, plenty of super steep terrain, long slopes, tons of vertical all of which make you feel the “burn” at the end of the day! Sorry Colorado, Utah has you beat! (Yep, I just said that). Two days. One beautiful with sunshine and soft snow and the other, a huge snowstorm and tons of light fluffy powder. Pretty sure that I couldn’t ask for anymore! Spoiled, YES I am, I know it but super grateful to have all these opportunities and friends and family to share it with! I’ll be back sooner than later. Hopefully, in April if I can swing the time away! Spring skiing is always epic, especially in Snowbird/Alta!
Whew, I just talked a lot about Utah, so I might as well mention soup! Chicken Marsala Soup to be exact. I have eaten out a ton in the past couple of weeks and it seems that every place was serving Chicken Marsala. It’s actually one of my favorite things to make, so I decided against ordering it out but have been craving it as I have seen it a lot lately! Me being me, I decided to make a soup out of it mostly because I can freeze the leftovers for another day! It’s a simple soup to make and somewhat healthy because I left out the cream and I only added a little flour for thickening. It’s still winter (although you wouldn’t know in it CO, it’s been crazy warm), so a big bowl of hot soup is perfect for a cozy dinner at home!
- 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
- 1 pound mushrooms (I used crimini), sliced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 tbs butter
- 2 tbs flour
- 1 cup Marsala wine
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbs thyme leaves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- fresh parsley
- In a large dutch oven (soup pot) melt 2 tbs of butter on medium heat and saute half of the mushrooms for 5-6 minutes or until they become soft but not too browned. Remove and set aside.
- In the same pan, melt the other 2 tbs of butter and add the mushrooms, onion and garlic. Saute for 5-6 minutes or until the veges become soft. Add the flour to combine well and cook for another minute to cook out the flour taste.
- Add 3/4 cup of the Marsala wine, scrapping up any brown bits from the pan. Add the chicken broth. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- Either transfer the soup to a blender (a little at a time, in small batches) and blend until smooth or use an immersion blender and blend in pot until smooth. If using a blender add back to pot.
- Add the reserved mushrooms, the shredded chicken, bay leaves, salt, pepper and thyme. Simmer for a half an hour.
- Add the Parmesan cheese, the other 1/4 cup Marsala wine and a half cup or so of parsley. Adjust seasoning if needed.
- Serve hot with more cheese and crusty bread.
A really stunning picture of what I believe to be one of the most beautiful buildings in America. The Mormon Temple. Even though I am not Mormon, it is a such an amazing piece of architecture and really quite awe inspiring! Especially at night!
Choir practice! Really amazing to see and hear 360+ people sing together in such beautiful harmony.
Selfie on the chair! I love, love, love skiing with these friends!
The view in Mineral Basin. Wide open and spectacular skiing!
This is what a “Bluebird” day looks like out west! Navy skies and not a cloud to be seen! Where was my sun block? Looking up the Peruvian Chairlift!
Something that I have never seen before! A tunnel built through a mountain to connect two sides of the ski area. That was a cool experience!
We skied on the left side of Snowbird, Mineral Basin and even skied over to Alta for lunch and some great “pow, pow”!
WOW! Check out this view from the airplane!
Seriously one of the prettiest views that I have ever seen out an airplane window. The Great Salt Lake is pretty gorgeous! I never realized how big it is!