Chicken breasts with artichokes, stuffing, parmesean cheese....should I go on?

I borrowed a cookbook from a friend of mine that loves to cook almost more than I do. It's the Southern Living Cookbook published in 1999. The original recipe was titled "Swiss Chicken and Artichokes with Dressing". First of all, whenever I think of artichokes I am reminded of the beautiful fields that blanket the northern California coastline. Countless times I can recall yelling as we passed thorough the little towns "look at all the artichokes!" The recipe sounded delicious, looked amazing and I couldn't wait to try it. Been saving it for a special occasion, actually. The special occasion in this case just happened to be the return of my Wildland Firefighting husband who has been gone for two weeks! I of course tampered with the recipe a bit and this is what I came up with. The results were out of this world.

1 carrot
1 small onion
1 green bell pepper
16 oz of homemade vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of white wine
1 box of Stovetop cornbread stuffing
2 pieces of bread (cut into cubes)
1 8oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 8oz can artichoke hearts
2 large chicken breasts
2 eggs (beaten)
5 sprigs of parsley

Above is exactly what I used. The original recipe calls for different ingredients, like celery and cream of celery soup. I just used what I had on hand and I'm sure it would be fine if you did the same.

First, dice the onion, carrot and bell pepper. Saute in butter until tender. Add the box of stuffing mix and bread cubes. Stir around for a moment before transporting it to a casserole dish. Add the vegetable stock and eggs to the mixture.

Meanwhile, brown the chicken breasts for about 3-4 minutes on each side. My breasts were quite large, and I had two of them. (HA!) Seriously though, I imagine if you have smaller ones they won't need as long.

Drain the artichokes and rinse with water. Arrange them on top of the stuffing and add the browned chicken breasts to the top of that.

Mix cream of mushroom soup with white wine and parsley. Mix together and pour over the chicken.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Uncover, grate parmesean over the top and bake for 10 more minutes.

Casserole aside, I also prepared a gorgeous salad of butter lettuce, tomato, cucumber, grated carrot, radish and cumin seed cheese. I also set the table with glasses have full of ice and cherry juice. Garnished with a sprig of mint and a lemon wedge to be topped off with Limonata.

He looked happy! Welcome home, handsome...