Winter Garden and Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Last night I decided it was time to do a walk through of our wintery garden, I haven't spent much time out in the garden since the busy holiday season.  I went out just before dusk, and decided to snap a few pictures before dinner.

The barberry bushes and their pretty red berries are the star of the garden right now. We have been in a fog bank for over a week now, the fog has frozen onto all the plants and trees and looks beautiful, the red berries really stand out.

The frozen fog has made delicate icicles throughout the garden.

The rose hips are very pretty and stand out against the dark greens and browns in the garden as well.

Here is our plum tree.

I enjoy looking up through the tree branches at the wintery sky.

The garden is quiet and peaceful.

On foggy winter nights, the smell of a nice warm dinner cooking is always welcome.  Last night I thought I would jazz up our chicken, and decided to wrap it in a layer of bacon.  I started with frozen boneless skinless chicken tenderloins, and wrapped each one with two strips of thin bacon (some of the smaller pieces I only wrapped with one strip of bacon).  I topped them with some fresh ground black pepper, then popped them in the oven at 400 F.  After about half an hour I flipped them over to brown the bottom, when the bottom was browned I flipped them back upright to make sure the top was crisp and brown.

When you are sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the bacon is crisp and fully cooked, remove them from the oven.  I cooked mine probably five minutes too long, some of the ends of the chicken had dried out too much, but the taste was delicious.  I served them along side boiled potatoes with butter and sour cream, and a big serving of steamed broccoli spears.  Definitely a meal I will be making again!

Today I took a beautiful country drive and got out for a short walk down by the river, I will have some beautiful pictures to share in my next post.  For me there is nothing more invigorating then getting out into nature, even for a little bit, I tend to get a bit of cabin fever when we have too many gray days in a row, which we have a lot of here in the Willamette Valley.  I look forward to sharing about my outing as well as a new soup recipe I will be trying out.

How's the winter weather in your part of the world?