Creamy Pesto Pasta

I went to the Farmers Market at Shaw and Blackstone this morning. When I walked in the area I smelt basil. I love the smell of basil and decided that I needed to make something with basil in it tonight. So I made a creamy chicken pesto pasta.

The ingredients I use for my pesto sauce.

Pesto sauce

Creamy pesto pasta


Recipe:

1 bunch basil
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup parmesan cheese
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup white wine
chicken or shrimp
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (evoo)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Get your pasta going. You can use penne, fettucine or whatever you like or have on hand.
2. If you are using chicken you can grill it, use precooked chicken or cook it in a skillet with salt and pepper.
3. For the cream sauce. Add 2 tbsp of evoo into a sautee pan and add 2 cloves of garlic and simmer. Add your white wine and reduce for a couple of minutes. Add your heavy cream and simmer. While that is simmering start your pesto sauce.
4. In a food processor or blender, add 1/2 to 3/4 of your basil depending how big the bunch is, add your pine nuts, 2 cloves garlic and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Add a little evoo. Place the lid on and blend, streaming more evoo while blending until it is a nice consistency. I like a little bits of nuts etc.. in it, so I don't blend it all the way.
5. Add 1/2 cup parmesan to your cream sauce, when the parmesan cheese is melted add your diced chicken to warm through. When the pasta is done add the pasta to the cream sauce. At the end, pour your pesto into the pasta and cream sauce and mix with the heat off. Just mix well and serve.

My favorite cookie

These are my favorite. They are soft and moist because of the honey!




Recipe:

1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup honey
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix peanut butter, butter and vanilla until creamy. Add the rest of the ingredients until combined then add chocolate chips. I used mini chocolate chips today and I like having little bits of chocolate through out my cookie.

Bake 10 minutes. Take them out when they are barely turning golden brown. They are suppost to be soft. After the 1st batch, I check on them after 9 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for a minute and transfer to a cooking rack.

Super Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Cost: $11.00
Time: 20 minutes prep 20 minutes bake
Feeds: 6 people

Last night I was watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network (yes, I watch that channel a lot) and they were making chicken pot pies. I have been in the mood for fall and thought that would be a good fall type meal. What made it interesting was they used puffed pastry for the top of the chicken pot pie, how easy is that!

This is what it looks like after it bakes. Nice and puffy and golden brown.

I put chicken, potatoes, onions, peas, carrots and seasonings in the filling.

As you can see, it was a hit.


Recipe:

1 rotesserie chicken from the store ($4.99 at Costco)
3 potatoes
1/2 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
frozen peas and carrots mix (1/2 bag)
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp olive oil
1 egg
2 sheets of puff pastry

1. Shred your chicken and put it to the side. Cut up your potatoes (small cubes), onions and garlic and heat a skillet with olive oil. Sautee the onions for a couple of minutes, add the potatoes and garlic. Add salt and pepper. Cook on medium high heat until the potatoes are tender (not soft).

2. Add the chicken to the mix with the peas and carrots and warm through. Add the cream, milk and seasonings and bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Unroll your puff pastry (make sure you thaw it out for atleast 40 minutes). Put an egg in a bowl and add some water to make an egg wash and set aside.

4. Spoon the chicken filling into a 9 X 13 pan. Add some egg wash around the outside of the puff pastry and put that side down on top of the filling. On the top, brush the entire pastry with the egg wash.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. So easy and good!

Project for little missies room

When it cools down a little more, this is the next project I am going to tackle. This dresser had been in the basement forever and the paint is not in good shape. I love this dresser and would love to keep the details but it needs to be sanded and painted again. I may try to duplicate the design since I really like it. This will go into little missies bedroon once completed. If you have any ideas for me, please let me know. I need some creative help and want to make it cute!

The top of the dresser is in the worst shape.

I love the flowers and colors on the dresser.

I would love to duplicate this design.

Chili Verde

Cost: $15.00
Time: 30 min. prep 2 hour cook time
Serves: 6-8 people

Grilling the tomatillos, anaheim chiles, jalapeno peppers and onions until charred.

After blending all of the ingredients, I browned the meat and added the chili verde sauce and simmered for 2 hours.

Served the chili verde on top of spanish rice and melted jack cheese over the top and served with tortillas.


Recipe:

4 pounds pork butt, trimmed and cubed into 1-inch pieces
2 yellow onions
4 anaheim chiles
2 jalapenos
4 cloves garlic
1 pound tomatillos
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 cup chicken stock plus a little while cooking
2 tbsp ground oregano
2 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp salt plus more at the end, taste for seasoning
1 tbsp ground pepper

Grill your onions, chiles and tomatillos until charred on the outside on a grill or under a broiler. Place the anahiem chiles in a Ziploc bad to sweat for 20 minutes. When the chiles are cooled down, skin and seed the chiles and chop them up and place in a blender. Chop up the onions, jalapenos (seed as well) and tomatillos and place in the blender. Add the rest of your ingredients and blend until desired consistency.

Add pork butt to a dutch oven or heavy skillet over high heat until browned on all sides.

Add the chili verde to the pork and simmer for 2 hours. If the sauce is getting too thick, add some more chicken stock while cooking. Taste for seasonings and add if needed.

You can also prep everything the day before. The next day, brown the meat and place it in a slow cooker on low with the chili verde sauce for 7 hours.

This was very good. Have to say I like the carnitas better.

First day of Preschool

Little man's first day of preschool was today and he LOVED it! He got to play outside, which the teachers told me that he would not keep his shoes on. I should have warned them that he does not like to wear shoes. Already something to work on. He learned about the letter "U", colored and got popcorn and a lolipop!

At the house before we left. Can't you tell he is very excited!

In front of his preschool, he was a ham!

Already playing with the tool set.

I pray that he will make great friends and enjoy his time in preschool.

Blackened Salmon

Time: 30-35 minutes
Cost: $18.00
Feeds: 2 adults 2 kids plus leftovers for lunches

I posted this recipe in June, so if you want the recipe, just go back to June. I love this dinner because it packs a lot of flavor with minimal time. It took about 30-35 minutes to make and that was because of the green beans. I like to blanch them and carmelize the onions and saute everything together. I also made fettucine with alfedo sauce. I used the fettucine that only takes 3 minutes and for the sauce I used garlic, a little white wine, heavy cream. parmesan cheese with some of the left over blackening spice from the salmon. Hit it with pepper at the end and tossed together.

This is the salmon once turned. It has a crust on the outside and it is moist and flaky in the inside. I just put salt and pepper on the kids and it picked up enough spice from the other two to give it plenty of flavor with it not being so spicy.

All plated up, salmon, green beans and fettucine alfredo.

The kids enjoying their dinner. Little man loves to destroy what he is eating first. "He is cooking."

I have to say it is a messy dinner.