A homerun

Ron Luciano’s Easy Tomato Chicken
365 Ways To Cook Chicken Copyright 1986

½ cup flour
1 chicken (3 pounds), cut up and skinned I forgot to skin it
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup dry white wine
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
6 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 celery rib, sliced into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese I used the stuff in a green can
1 tablespoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1. Place flour in a plastic bag. Add chicken pieces, several at a time, and shake to coat.
2. In a large flameproof casserole, heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes. Add chicken and cook until golden on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Do not brown.
3. Add white wine, tomatoes, carrots, celery, cheese, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Mix well, cover and cook over low heat about 45 minutes, until chicken is tender.
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Ron Luciano was a major league baseball umpire and author of several books on his umpiring career. Unfortunately he committed suicide, about 9 years after this recipe was published in this cookbook. Okay, this is weird. I just read that he died on January 18, 1995. I cooked this on January 18, 2010. And he shares a birthday with my sister - June 28th.

I really loved this. It smelled so good cooking that I kept lifting the lid to smell it. I did make one error and forgot to skin the chicken which you really want to do since with the skin, too much fat gets into the sauce. Since I cooked this a day ahead, I was able to skim the fat off the top before reheating it.

This would also be good with just skinned thighs and drumsticks or I might even try it with boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

I chose this recipe since I had everything but the tomatoes. I had two celery sticks left on a veggie tray we had at my son's birthday party. I had (and still have) a surplus of carrots. I keep some 'canned' grated Parmesan on hand at all times. As a side, I cooked the remains of orzo and rice pasta I found in the cupboard. Both boys love pasta and rice and pasta that looks like rice is a huge hit with them.

Question of the Day: Do you follow any professional sports? I don't anymore but I was a HUGE baseball fan in the mid-80s. I followed NASCAR briefly, about 10 years ago.