Chicken with Red Pepper Pan Sauce, barking dogs

This was one of those dishes I made when I hadn’t a clue what to make for dinner.

I had a red pepper that needed to be used but everything I suggested was vetoed…. It doesn’t happen often (the veto) but it does from time to time.

Anyway, I kind of tossed a few things into a skillet, fried a potato, put it all on plates and that was that.

Except, much to my surprise, the chicken was really good.

But I had no photo and didn’t write anything down.

So I did the only logical thing…. I made it again the next night.

Chicken with Red Pepper Pan Sauce  

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, cut in half
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 red pepper, cut into strips
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tsp chicken base or part of a stock cube
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 tbs tomato paste

Instructions:

• Heat oil in nonstick skillet over medium high heat.
• When hot add paprika, cumin and sauté 10 seconds.
• Add onions, peppers and sauté for 5 minutes. Remove to a plate.
• Add chicken and brown on both sides.
• Return vegetables to skillet, add white wine, chicken base, cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through, 7 – 8 minutes longer.
• Stir in tomato paste, heat through and serve.

Print Recipe

I just let the dogs in…. again.

In the summer the days are long and warm. We have the doors open and the dogs can wander in and out all day long. They only bark when appropriate and only occasionally bug me for petting.

In the winter, which is now, the days are short. We go for our first walk as soon as it’s light enough to see, which is after 8 am at the moment, and go for our last walk just before sunset which is 5:30 pm.

For most of the day they want to be inside, by me, napping.

It’s when they get active that they drive me crazy.

In the morning, after our walk, when I want to sit quietly at my computer, checking the headlines and enjoying my coffee, they want to be petted.

Both of them, at the same time.

Five minutes later they need to go outside.

Five minutes after that there’s a single ‘woof’ at the door – time to come in. If I’m not there in seconds it becomes multiple ‘woofs’, louder and more demanding.

Once back inside they both need to be petted again.

Then they need to go back outside.

Repeat twice more.

Finally, they settle in for the morning. At noon we go out for some serious play / work time which is followed by more nap time.

By evening they’re awake and bored again.

I let them out and they immediately run around the perimeter of the fence barking frantically.

They’re big dogs with bigger barks. They can probably be heard in Paris.

The neighbors assure me that it doesn’t bother them.

The fact that the neighbors have actually assured me of this lets me know that the barking can be heard load and clear in their house, too.

But there are bunnies and deer and fox and things-that-go-bump-in-the-night that simply MUST be barked at.

Frequently.

I give them five minutes of barking time, then call them in.

And pet them. Both. At the same time.

Half an hour later they want to go out again.

They bark frantically.

Five minutes later I call them in.

And pet them.

Repeat and repeat and repeat.

I tell them that if they would just not bark they could stay out – but where’s the fun in that?

And if I didn’t have to pet them both at the same time I could have a free hand to use my mouse and, thus, my computer.

Instead I have to give (and receive) warm cuddles from my devoted puppies.

Oh, poor, poor, pitiful me…