In the oven…

I love pasta shapes.  Most of them have fun names that come from their appearances, and adorable tiny things make me smile 🙂

Gemelli roughly means "twins" in Italian (think Gemini, the twins) and they are two little rods twisted together. Any short, hefty-ish pasta would work well.  I tend to avoid long noodles in casseroles, because it is difficult to mix sauce and pasta evenly.  I had milk, chicken, and random stuff around, so I got gemelli and made this tonight. It’s a beautiful PINK 🙂

Gemelli Blush Alfredo Bake

• 4 Tb. butter
• 4 Tb. flour
• 1/2 quart of milk
• salt & pepper
• grated parmesan cheese (I used one small bag)
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 pound par-cooked gemelli pasta

1. melt butter over medium low heat
2. add flour and whisk together and let heat for a minute or two (this gets the raw flour taste out)
3. off of the heat, slowly add milk, whisking constantly to get rid of any clumps
4. return to heat and stir while it slowly thickens
5. salt and pepper liberally (this seasons the sauce, the pasta, the tomatoes, and anything else you add, so don’t be stingy)
6. add parmesan and stir until melted
7. off heat, add chicken broth, tomatoes (this is when it gets wonderfully pink!), and pasta (I also added one chicken breast, sliced, because I had it on hand…you could also use veggies, broccoli, whatever)
8. coat a casserole pan with cooking spray and pour in pasta mixture, making sure to spread everything evenly around the pan
9. cover with foil and cook at 350° for about 30 minutes
10. uncover and bake another 20 to 30 minutes (until pasta is cooked through)
11. top with mozzarella if desired and bake for 5 minutes until cheese is melted

Happy Birthday!

I missed it yesterday because we were busy running around, having lunch with Saugata, and coming home to see Andrew, but yesterday, March 21st was SANTANA’S BIRTHDAY!!!

She is such a party puppy!!

Out of curiosity, we researched Freckles’s birthday…approximately October 13, 1994…She will be 14 this year!!! So old!!

Also, Happy Birthday to Dori, whose birthday is the same as Santana!!! Yay!!

From soup to enchiladas!

I spent two years re-making leftovers for my roommate Veronica while I lived in KY.  She was super-wonderfully fussy and generally wouldn’t eat straight leftovers, so I learned to take whatever dinner we had and make it into something completely new (roast beef turned into mock-Philly steak & cheese; garlic chicken turned into stir fry or lo mein; smashed potatoes turned into amazingly creamy fried potato cakes for breakfast; etc.) 

Anyway, I had a ton of Chicken Tortilla Soup leftover….

I strained the liquid out of the solid parts of the soup (veggies and chicken basically) and put the liquid, a cup or so of shredded cheese, and a little bit of the chicken and veggies on low heat to melt the cheese and make it into a thickened sauce-type-of-thing.

The rest of the chicken and veggies got rolled up into four leftover, unbaked tortillas, lined up in a baking dish coated with cooking spray.

The melted, hot sauce went over the filled tortillas, just to cover, and then the whole thing got topped with a little more cheese.

Covered with foil, baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes…uncovered and continued to bake for 10-20 minutes.

DELICIOUS.
Probably not technically enchiladas, but close enough for my tastes. 

Make me smile

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I tried to find a recipe, got fed up with the intertubes, and made my own…

-1 large onion, frenched or sliced

-1 orange bell pepper

-1 hungarian yellow wax pepper (medium to hot…you can substitute whatever kind of peppers you want, depending on how much heat you want from them)

-1 Tb minced garlic

-chili powder, paprika, salt, thyme (all to taste)

• saute all of this in a little bit of olive oil until the onions have softened a bit

– 3 chicken breasts (about a pound)

– 1 large box of chicken stock

– 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles

• add these three ingredients into the onion mixture and make sure the chicken is covered by liquid as much as possible
• cover and cook at a low simmer for half an hour or so…basically until the chicken is cooked through
• pull chicken breasts out of soup and tear/chop and return to soup

– 1 bag of fresh corn, cooked in the microwave according to the directions on the package (you could also use 1 can of corn)

– 1 bunch green onions/scallions thinly sliced

• add corn and green onions into soup and add chicken stock or water to get it to the soup-y consistency that you want
• re-cover and cook until heated through
• serve with tortilla strips (cut up flour tortillas, coated in cooking spray, and baked in 350 degree oven for 10-20 minutes), sour cream, and cheese…all of this helps to cut through the spice of the soup, so don’t be afraid to make it a little spicier if you plan to use cheese & sour cream.