The best thing about jury duty last week was getting home before 4 p.m. and not leaving the house until almost 9 a.m. It was fantastic! Yes, I had to lick my wounds and practice hooey-balooey positive self talk because I was rejected from two jury panels. The self talk was more along the lines of "you are a freak, you are smart enough, pretty enough, and dog-gone-it people like you". So to boost my self esteem that has sunk to a new low of worrying about what convicts and ambulance chasers think of me I did what I love, I made dinner.

Doesn't that look fabulous?! So good, so rich, and so incredibly pretty--Just like me! well minus the rich part and probably not the incredibly part either but who cares anyway, I am smart, funny, and people really like me.

This is not a dish I could just throw together on my lunch hour. I also wouldn't prepare this before going to work unless I happened to be up at the butt crack of dawn.

The ingredients:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 Red Peppers, sliced into strips
• 1 large onion, sliced into strips
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/3 cup of whipping cream
• crumbled bacon (about 5 strips)
• Garlic salt and Cracked Pepper
• Minced Garlic (3-4 cloves)
• 5 Tablespoons of tapioca, crushed (you can use 4-5 tbls of cornstarch mixed in water instead)
• Fresh Basil
• Asparagus
• Rice or Mashed Potatoes

In a saucepan melt butter and add the peppers and onion. Saute until slightly wilted but so the crunch is almost gone. Pour into the CrockPot and add the garlic, bacon, and crushed tapioca. Sprinkle with Garlic salt and Cracked Pepper. Pour in the chicken broth and stir. Place the chicken breasts on top and sprinkle with Garlic Salt and Cracked Pepper.

Cook on high 4 hours or low 6 hours. There will be another half hour or 45 minutes after this when the asparagus, basil, and whipping cream is added.

Prepare the asparagus by cutting off the woody part and cutting into 3 pieces. Wash and tear the basil, I used the whole package because we really love basil. Remove the Chicken from the CrockPot and add the whipping cream, basil, and asparagus. Stir until combined (if using cornstarch instead of tapioca I would add it at this time) and place the chicken back in the CrockPot. Turn to high and cook an additional half hour.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes. We did rice the first night and then I made mashed potatoes for the leftovers. Personally, I liked the mashed potatoes better. Wide noodles would be good too.

And then to celebrate no more jury duty and because I wanted a pick me up since the local ambulance chaser thought I would not make a good juror because I ..........well I don't really know but I am sure it was because I was too fantastic, too logical, too smart, and too many people like me, I made this:

We had these delicious, wonderful, incredibly easy but freaky fattening and gorge inducing Apple Dumplings. TD had seconds! He never has seconds that is how tempting and wrong they are. If I ever just let myself go and know I will be able to live without my pancreas I am having an entire pan of these right after a heaping plate of Chicken Alfredo with a side of Chili Cheese Fries, loaded of course.