Do you like sun dried tomatoes as much as I do? I LOVE them……those chewy, tart little pieces of joy. I have been craving them lately so I made this pasta dish that is so scrumptious. You can use any veggie that you like pretty much. My favorite is sun dried tomatoes, asparagus and mushrooms, but since the asparagus looked pretty crappy in the stores, I passed on that. So I used fresh green beans and mushrooms. Use any kind of pasta that you want, but I love those cute little bow ties. For some reason, I get a kick out of the shape of those. But then again, pasta is good in any form, if you ask me!

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta

1 chicken breast, sliced thin
4 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
5-6 sun dried tomatoes, sliced
Fresh asparagus or green beans, cut into 2” pieces
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 chicken bouillon cube
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup milk or half and half
1/4 cup water or white wine
Salt and pepper
1/2 lb bow tie or penne pasta
Freshly grated parmesan cheese for sprinkling

Boil your choice of pasta, drain and set aside. Pour olive oil into a large skillet. Add the butter and heat till butter melts. Add the chicken and stir fry till chicken is lightly browned. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add the green beans or asparagus to the pan and stir fry till tender. Add the garlic, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and the chicken back to the pan. Add bouillion cube, milk, wine and salt and pepper. Just let it simmer for a few minutes until everything has a chance to come together. Add your cooked pasta and stir until pasta is coated with all of that yummy goodness. Sprinkle with some grated parmesan cheese and devour.

I really don’t know what to say about this delicious piece of heaven……… I filled this with homemade custard, but you can use a boxed pudding, or whip cream, or even tuna salad, chicken salad, pasta, whatever you want!!!!!!!! Easy to make, impressive to look at, delicious in your tum. SERIOUSLY……

Cream Puff

1 cup water
1 stick of butter
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 425. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. It may look like it isn’t going to mix together, but it will. Drop by large tablespoons full onto an ungreased baking sheet. (makes 20 small puff) or drop larger spoonfuls to make larger ones. **
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. They should sound hollow when you tap them and the centers should be dry. If they aren’t, they will collapse on you……and that is a horrible thing.
When the shells are cool, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.
** you can use a muffin tin too if you want. just plop some of the mixture in ungreased muffin tin. (about half full)

Leftover rice, some mushrooms and some spinach. This is one of my favorite side dishes. I LOVE rice. I love spinach. I love mushrooms. Since I had all 3 on hand, I had to make this. So easy, so yummy. It’s a great side dish to beef, chicken or fish. Everyone loves this and I know you will too!

Spinach Mushroom Rice

no measurements here. Just adjust to your taste.

left over rice
fresh spinach
fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper

In a large skillet, melt some butter. Add the mushrooms and saute just until they are almost soft. Add the garlic and spinach and then the rice. Stir it around till everything is heated. Add salt and pepper. Serve.

Awhile back I posted a recipe for Asian coleslaw. I am not a fan of coleslaw with the typical mayonnaise dressings. BLEKH!! Not my thing at all. That is why I like the Asian slaw and my Mexican slaw. Years ago I went to a Mexican restaurant in town and they serve a tiny little bowl of slaw with every meal. I noticed it had corn in it. Hmmm, that was interesting and I fell in love right then. SO yummy. This Mexican slaw is super refreshing and simple. I served this with some melty cheese quesadillas for guests recently. Perfect, non complicated meal.
So, if you are experiencing miserably hot weather like we are…..and your hair is all sweaty and plastered to your face and your clothes are sticking to your sweaty body and you have no energy and you are looking for a light refreshing dish, you just may want to try this slaw. Not saying it will cool you off or anything, but it won’t just lay there in your gut making you feel all weighted down and miserable. Try it!

Mexican coleslaw
2-4 servings

Half of a  head of cabbage, shredded (or buy the already shredded kind with carrots in it)
1/2 carrot, shredded
2 green onions
1 cup frozen or canned corn (or roasted fresh corn removed from cob)
1 jalapeno, minced (optional) you KNOW I gotta have my heat
Chopped fesh cilantro, to taste
Juice of 2 limes or lemons whisked with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
(or you can just use italian salad dressing)
Salt and pepper

Toss everything together and chill. That’s it!! Great with some shredded chicken mixed in,  too.

As most of you know, Friday is Cupcake Friday in my office. I thought I would change it up this week and decided to make biscuits and gravy. I made some homemade buttermilk biscuits……….m-m-m-m-m-m……and sausage milk gravy. My daughter and I were just talking about comfort food last night. This is THE comfort food. Nothing like a hot flaky biscuit right out of the oven, split open and smeared with a little butter and maybe some jam….or just butter. It’s such a pretty sight. 🙂 I tested it out last night when I took the tray of biscuits out of the oven and one happened to fall into my hand and split open. Then it fell into the butter. I hate when that happens. Leaves you with no choice but to eat it. Yep, that’s what happened. So good.
Happy Friday everyone.

Biscuits and Gravy

 Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 400 deg. In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients. Add the shortening and mix it with a fork until you have large course crumbs. Slowy add the buttermilk, just till combined. DON’T OVER MIX. Dump it onto a floured work surface and just gently knead a couple of times. You do NOT want a tough biscuit! Pat it down into a 1” thickness and cut circles with a glass rim or cutter. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. Makes 6 biscuits

Gravy

1/2 lb. breakfast sausage
2 cups milk
1/2 cup flour
Salt and pepper

It’s hard to give exact measurements when making gravy….but this is close.

In a large skillet, cook the sausage. Remove the sausage from the pan and set aside. On medium heat, in the pan drippings (sausage grease), add the flour and with a fork or whisk, stir till it becomes a paste. Slowly add the milk and continue to whisk until you have a smooth gravy. If its too thick, add more milk. If its too thin, just mix a little more flour into a small amount of milk and add it to your gravy. Once you have a nice smooth mixture of gravy, add the sausage that you had set aside. Stir. Add salt and lots of black pepper.

Note: This is excellent made with bacon instead of sausage. Just fry chopped pieces of bacon, remove from pan drippings. Make your gravy as I explained above, then pour it over your biscuits. Sprinkle with the fried bacon bits.