Ok, here is the recipe for the chicken marinade.

3/4 cup seedless all fruit raspberry jam
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar(don't skimp on the quality, I used Colavita)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
4 4-5 oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts. (I had two packs of chicken, total of 8 chicken breasts, just doubled the recipe for the marinade. Actually should have trippled it to have a little more sauce left over before "plating up")
2-1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil(again, don't skimp you can taste the difference in the quality, I used Colavita, about $17 for a bottle but after tasting it and tasting the store brand there is a difference)
1/2 cup chopped shallots(2-3 large)
1-1/2 tsp minced fresh time

Here's what you do,

Mix jam and vinegar in a smalll pan over medium low heat. Cook stirring often until jam is disolved. Original recipe said 3-4 minutes but I could still see little globs of jam after this time. I kept on stirring until I could scoop up a spoonfull and it was all disolved. Once it has been combined removed from heat and stir in salt and pepper and let cool slightly. Reserve 1/2 cup of the sauce for later. Place the chicken breasts in a large ziplok bag or what I did was put the chicken in a large glass baking dish and then cover the chicken with the sauce. I cut slits in the chicken to get the sauce down into the meat as I only let it marinade for about 2 hours(time crunch trying to get dinner ready before wife got home from work, surprise fancy dinner). Let the chicken soak in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, the longer the better. 2 hours got pretty deep but next time I'll soak for half a day or more.

Once your chicken has soaked and your ready to cook heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add shallots and thyme and cook stirring often until the shallots start to soften. Remove chicken from marinade and discard the marinade. Add chicken to the pan and cook until the first side is just beginning to brown and then flip, about 2 minutes per side. Now add the raspberry sauce you reserved earlier. I just poured it over the top of the chicken evenly as it will have thickened a bit. Reduce the heat to low and cover and cook until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink inside. I would flip mine every few minutes and estimate is about 6-10 minutes. Once it has been cooked serve immediately and when you cut into the chicken the juice will just run out!

My tip is to make extra sauce in the beginning and warm it next to the chicken while it cooks. Once you are ready to serve you can drizzle sauce over the chicken. We put the chicken over simple white rice, wife is Japanese so we get some home grown rice from her parents farm.

The Vegetables were roasted in the oven and this is the recipe for it.

8 ounces fresh green beans with ends trimmed
1 small onion, cut into wedges
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil(I just used the extra virgin olive oil from above. We have two bottles of olive oil. The bottle my wife is allowed to used, store brand, and the olive oil I use, the expensive stuff!)
dash salt
dash pepper
2 medium yellow summer squash, halved lengthwise and sliced(I'm not a big squash fan so I substituted yellow, green, red and orange bell peppers, quantity unknown. Think we used 1 each of red, yellow and orange and two greens...three kids who like to eat)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

In a shallow roasting pan combine beans, onion and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss mixture by hand until beans are evenly coated then spread into a single layer. I used two glass baking dishes and did my best to get into a single layer but as I said, three kids takes A LOT of food!

Roast in oven at 450 degrees for 8 minutes. Stir in squash and roast for 5-7 more minutes until vegetables are tender and slightly browned. If your using the bell peppers like I did I just followed the same pattern with the peppers. After 8 minutes put in peppers and stir around.

While your waiting your 5-7 minutes for the vegetables to roast and while your chicken is on it's final few minutes of cooking pour 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan over medium high heat. Bring the vinegar to a boil and then reduce heat. Boil gently about 5 minutes or until reduced by 1/2. I used 2/3 cups of vinegar(lots of veggies). Once the vinegar begins to boil I turned our p.o.s stove to medium and the vinegar would simmer and boil so you'll have to watch this closely stirring frequently. The vinegar will thicken ever so slightly but if your picking it up with a spoon and pouring it out to gage the thickness it really does not seem to change much so I just watched the level in the pan and when it was about half of what I started at I called it good. If you like to hang your head over stuff and take a deep breath of the fragrance coming off the food I would not suggest it with the vinegar! It will flat burn out the nose hair's!!!

Once the vegetables are done, chickens done, rice is done, plate up ol' welder/chef's. Drizzle the reduced balsamic vinegar over your vegetables, add some sauce to your chicken and dig in. The raspberry and vinegar pair well together. You'll notice the raspberry flavor, it won't be over powering and my wife said she could not taste it at all but she likes spicy hot foods so I think she's burned out some taste buds along her lifetime!

Now get out there and cook!!! Next time I'll have to put my homemade torte pictures on here. Very very tasty but not for the faint of heart cooks. 4 burners running at one time with the oven going as well making chocolate sauces, white chocolate sauces and about 3 hours of mayhem!! But ohhhh so worth it!!

Shawn