This recipe is one of my favorite comfort foods.  It is one of my favorites because not only does it taste good (really good) but because it is perfect for one of those cold and rainy nights we get here in Northern California.  There is something about browning the chicken, the oven heating, combining the ingredients, and the sound of rain tap-tapping against the kitchen window that simply make me shiver with happiness.  I cannot even begin to count the number of times I've made this over the last 30 plus years.

So below, I give you Tom Hanlon's recipe for Chicken Italian (as modified by me):

Ingredients:

• one fryer cut up (when Tom first showed me how to do this...fryers were 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds.  Today's fryer from Lunardi's was 5.16 pounds!)
• 2 tablespoons butter (today I used light olive oil)
• one eight ounce bottle of Wishbone Italian salad dressing...or use your favorite Italian salad dressing
• 2/3 to 3/4 cup of white wine
• salt & pepper to taste (or Lakeland's "Good With Everything Herbed Sea Salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon or so of rosemary

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large frying pan, melt butter or heat olive oil to brown chicken
3. Brown chicken in frying pan, season lightly with salt & pepper
4. Meanwhile, combine rest of the ingredients in a medium bowl (except the rosemary)
5. When chicken is browned, place skin side down in roaster (blue granite works nice)
6. Pour combined ingredients over chicken, top with mashed rosemary
7. Bake 45 minutes at 350.
8. Then turn chicken over and bake another 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy with rice, baked potatoes, or a parmesan pasta..and a simple tossed salad.

Thank you, Tom, for this recipe that I have enjoyed over and over again...and I have to tell you that my friends (family) love it as well.

I know this remarkable woman named Marian Lysdahl.  To those of you that know her and of her, you might be confused by my use of the present tense when saying "I know her" rather than the past tense of "I knew her."  You see, a few years ago that seem like only yesterday, Marian lost her battle with cancer and transitioned on to this next stage of life with we can only guess at knowing what we know.  Several years ago I had one of those "aha" moments when our Unity minister...said "We think eternity begins when we die.  However, that is not true for we are in the middle of eternity right now.  We were.  We are.  We always will be."

Consequently I know that Marian is with us right now.  She is the whisper of love when Kenny Lysdahl grows discouraged.  She is the scent of perfume in the air that reminds us that she is here.  She is the lesson well remembered by her children.  She is the sum of memories that are shared with her grand children.  Although on a day to day basis we might not be aware of her...she is with us.  This afternoon as I finally made for the first time her recipe from brownies...I truly know she was in my home, sipping a glass of white wine, encouraging me as I set out to do the recipe, laughing when the brownies came out of the oven perfect.  So here is her brownie recipe in her very own words via an email from August 15, 2003:

"Hi John,

Sorry this is late.  Here are a couple of things which you asked for:

File all recipes in photo albums.  The plastic sleeves protect the recipe cards from splatters while working in the kitchen.

Keep a plastic container in the laundry room to collect lint in and then place outside in the spring to birds can use the lint for their nests.

Pour iced tea into an ice-cube tray and use "tea cubes" instead of regular ice cubes in your glass of iced tea.  Then when they melt, the ice won't dilute your tea.

Favorite Comfort Food-Brownies with Hershey's Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 stick margarine
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 can Hershey's Syrup

Cream sugar and margarine.  Beat in the 4 eggs.  Add the flour.  Then add the syrup.  Place batter in jelly roll pan.  Bake 25 minutes.

Frosting for Brownies
1 1/2 cup of sugar
6 tblsp. milk
1 stick margarine
1 cup chocolate chips

Bring sugar, milk and margarine to boil.  Boil for 3 minutes.  Turn off heat and add chocolate chips.  Beat until thick.  Frost brownies.

Well, John, I hope this helps.  Let us know how your project goes.

Love,
Marian"

A number of years ago...and it could be 10 years ago exactly...I started a project that was intended to be a cookbook called "In the Comfort of Family, Friends & Home."  It was to be a collection of tried and true recipes from friends and family.  Unfortunately when I was well into getting this work of "art" off the ground, my computer was infected with a virus that corrupted all the files and hence all the work that had been done.  Yes, I did print everything...or almost everything...but then was too discouraged to resume the work.

Now here it is ten years later and on and through this blog I intend to get this legend of family and friend recipes done.  So over the next several days and maybe weeks, you will see many postings here of recipes done in the voice of the people that sent them to me.  You see, I am not going to really edit the emails and letters sent to me...but rather let the voice of the person that contributed be heard through me and this blog.

This recipe is from a cookbook that I've had since 1981.  However, I did not "discover" the recipe until 2012.  Three things happened after the "discovery":  1)  This recipe is easy!  2)  This recipe is delicious!  3)  This recipe is so easy and delicious that I've made it over and over again...and you can adapt it!

• 2 cups milk (whole milk)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup bisquick baking mix
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed or sliced
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup flaked or shredded coconut

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease pie plate, 9 x 1 1/4 inches.  Place all ingredients in blender container.  Cover and blend on high speed 15 seconds.  Pour into pie plate.  Bake until golden brown and knife inserted in center comes out clean, 50 - 55 minutes.  

After the pie cools, you can add a fruit topping of your choice:  cherry, blueberry, apple...and today when it has cooled I will top it with lemon curd.  I imagine that you can also warm up hot fudge and drizzle a bit of the hot fudge over each slice before serving.  Refrigerate any remaining pie.  Enjoy.

Over the years I've developed this very simple yet very good pot roast recipe.  It truly is infallible...and it is so simple to make.  It is the type of meal you can put in the oven and then go watch a movie on TV...and by time the movie is done the roast is nearly done.  Below is the basic recipe.

I assume it is a very Midwestern thing...but it is an extraordinarily good combination to cook a small beef pot roast and a small pork roast together.  The flavors meld and the gravy is mouth watering.  I remember my mother browning the two types of roasts on top of the stove as if it were only yesterday.  My Aunt Libby would do the same thing.  My sister-in-law Marian also would combine the two roasts for an exceptional dinner.

My version is what I would call "The Lazy Man's"...but it works and so here is the basic recipe:

• one 3 pound boneless pot roast
• 1 packet of Lipton's Onion Soup
• 1 can mushroom stems and piece, drained
• 1 can Golden Mushroom Soup
• 1 cup wine (either red of white...good quality not best quality.

Place roast in your favorite covered roaster or Dutch oven.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the rest of the ingredients and pour over the roast.  Bake covered at 325 degrees for 3 hours.  Do not snoop.

This recipe even makes its own gravy...so remove the roast from the pan and slice, pour sauce (gravy in a gravy bow) and enjoy with mashed potatoes and your favorite vegetable.

...and you can do the pork/beef combination mentioned above this way too.

So tonight I did a minor change in that I browned the roasts first: