Friday, October 26, 2007

Guess What I'm Having for Supper Tonight

The first night that I went to Bill's for supper we had Spicy Chicken with Peanuts. I got there about 6 and didn't leave till 3am. We ate, yakked, and drank wine (and also went through a copious amount of kleenex because we both had nasty colds). So some were around 1 or 2 am Bill hauled some of this out of the fridge because he had made it a couple of nights before and there was some leftovers. It was sooooo good. He said that he stole the recipe from a magazine. Stole, because he never actually bought the magazine but went back three times to the store to stand in line at the check out in order to memorize it. It was a bit on the dry side, so when he made it, he added the wine.

Chicken Fettuchini with Sundried Tomatoes

1/4 cup olive oil
3 large chicken breasts
1 onion diced
1 clove garlic thinly sliced
1/2 tsp fennel seed
1 medium carrot grated
1/4 cup olive oil soaked, chopped, packed sundried tomatoes
12 oz fettuchini
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (do not use the stuff in the plastic shaker)
1/3 - 2/3 cup white wine

Cut chicken into thin strips. Saute in olive oil over medium heat. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon to thoroughly drain the oil.
Saute onion, garlic, and fennel seed in the oil for about 6 minutes or until onion is soft.
Add the carrot and tomatoes and cook until carrot is soft.
Have pasta cooking in a separate pot at the same time. When it is ready, drain and put into a large bowl. Pour the wine over the pasta and stir. Add the chicken, and sauteed ingredients and stir. Sprinkle the cheese a little at a time and stir.
Enjoy this dish with the leftover wine.

And speaking of leftovers, When I make this dish now, I always make a double batch because that way there will be leftovers. This dish is wonderful as a leftover.

And now on to other things....

Finished spinning and plying Mermaids Dream the other night. Looks much like my other skein, except that it is 450 yards.
I have put down the shawl for no other reason the I have started mittens. It is getting to be that time of the year when our fingers start to get a bit cold and our thoughts turn to mittens. This is my first pair of mittens in years and they are going surprisingly quickly. I just started them on Monday or Tuesday and I am already halfway through the increase for the thumb gore. Unfortunately, I may have to put them down for a while because I seem to have a bit of bursitis in my shoulder. Maybe if I can stay away from as much shoulder irritating activities as possible this weekend, I have a chance at letting it clear up quickly. Sigh. Maybe I'll try switching to knitting right handed for a while.
I am halfway through threading a new set of shawls on a loom at the school. And I have my next set of shawls all planned out in my mind. I should have been doing this months ago, but somehow lost the initiative to do any weaving beyond my handspun scarves. They are so quick to do up that it makes weaving seem effortless.

6 comments:

margene said...

Sundried tomatoes! Yum.

Valerie said...

Thanks for the recipe! I was just wondering what to have for supper.

KansasA said...

Great recipe, too funny on how he "acquired" it... didn't he have access to a pen? LOL

Erin said...

Wow, sounds like a great time!

Anonymous said...

Okay, just to clarify, I was in the grocery line to get a few items every couple of days. I was not there just to get that recipe. I thought it would be gauche to write down a recipe from a magazine I didn't want to buy.

I forget now what the magazine was, but it was a food magazine, like Bon Appétit or something, and it was in 1992, because I seem to recall that it was the Barcelona Olympics edition of the magazine - or at least there was a magazine like that on the shelf with it. I don't exactly recall the details. I thumbed through it and for the most part the recipes didn't look that interesting, save the one I ultimately memorized. So I wasn't about to buy the magazine for one recipe.

The first time I made it I followed the ingredients list exactly, and it was rather dry, but it showed promise. So the next time I boosted the amount of olive oil (how can you have too much olive oil?), gave the drained noodles a good splash of white wine, and upped the amount of garlic.

The measurements that Jackie put up in the recipe are the ones from the magazine (except for the wine, which I added), but when we make it we do use more garlic (maybe three or four fat cloves), a bit more oil, and probably on the high side of the wine measures.

The great thing about this dish is that it's better the next day. The flavours have all blended and spread throughout. So if you want to serve it to guests, you could even make it a day ahead and then heat it in the microwave before serving.

We made a double batch last night (Jackie did all of the prep and I cooked), and there's not a bit of it left now. The leftovers were gobbled up this morning. Kids had it for brunch.

I still remember how Jackie reacted to her first taste of that leftover dish in my fridge. She REALLY liked it. Our relationship has very much involved food from the outset, and we continue to enjoy cooking new things, along with our old favourites, and sharing them with each other. The kids are, for the most part pretty good eaters, and not too fussy. They like most of the things we make, though spicy "hot" food isn't as popular with them.

I think we're making home made pizza today. I should probably go get that dough started, wash a few dishes, and see if I can get some marking done. Always lots to do here in chaos manor.

DH

David T. Macknet said...

"I was not there just to get that recipe."

Well, that's no fun! Here I was, thinking about you sneaking in to steal the recipe from a magazine, all clandestine like, when it was totally innocent all the time!

:)