Rosies Pasta

This is from a cookbook we got in college. We made it for dinner last night and still love it.

4 Chicken Breasts
1 Can Evaporated Milk
1 Shallot or a bunch of Green Onions
half a package of Mushrooms
1/2 cup Peas
Cooking Wine
Red Pepper Flakes
3 cloves garlic
Sundried Tomatoes
Bowtie pasta
Italian Seasoning
Basil

Turn Oven (that's the boxy looking thing that pizza comes out of) to 400 degrees.
season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper and italian seasoning and cook until pink is gone and juices run clear. When the chicken comes out of the oven shred it with a couple of forks or an industrial piece of kitchen equipment. Using the forks will make you feel more like Julia Childs or Emiril Lagassee (take your pick) The kitchen equipment will only drive you to drink.

Put some water on to boil for the pasta. When water is boiling stick your hands in to test it out, than add the pasta.

Put the sundried tomatoes in a bowl and add enough boiling water to the bowl to soak the tomatoes. After the sundried tomatoes have soaked for five minutes slice and set aside.

Add a teaspoon of oil, garlic and 1 tablespoon of flour to a sauce pan. Sautee the garlic and flour for a minute then add the evaporated milk to the saucepan. Add the red pepper flakes to the sauce and keep on medium heat. The red pepper flake amount is up to you - the more you add the greater the kick and the less likely your kids will eat it. Keep stirring the sauce until it boils....this will require a third arm because now you need to multitaskwhile continuing to stir the sauce.

Add the cooking wine - a quarter of a cup - add the peas, mushrooms, shallots and the sun dried tomatoes and sautee over medium high heat for several minutes. Add the shredded chicken. Cover the chicken and vegtables and cover. Keep stirring the sauce with that third arm.

The pasta should be close to being done about now.

Keep stirring, just keep stirring, stirring, stirring.....and did I mention that it is best that if you use a whisk for this sauce.

Drian the pasta, add the chicken and vegtable mixture, then mix the sauce into the pasta. Garnish with fresh chopped basil and serve with crusty bread. Take an ibuprofen for your sore arm. Next time get the kids involved to stir the sauce while you are finishing your Diet Coke.

8 layer salad

Ok this salad is sooooo good. It even competes with the almond orange one. Simple basic ingredients but all together is just yummy.



Spinach
strawberries
avocado
cucumber
red onion
feta
walnuts (extra extra good with the sugar ones. you can buy them already like that with the salad accesories)
Brianna's blush vinagrette dressing

super super good. Try it.

Chicken Cacciatore Subs

Four Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (We use the frozen ones from Wal Mart)
Two cans of diced tomatoes
1/2 onion chopped
Three cloves of garlic chopped
One green pepper chopped
one handful of mushrooms sliced
Oregano
sliced provolone cheese
hoagie buns

Turn on your broiler
Slice the chicken breasts into thin strips and brown them with olive or canola oil
remove the chicken breasts from the pan
add the garlic, onion, mushrooms and pepper - brown for several minutes
add the chicken back into the pan
add the diced tomatoes to the pan
add oregano
bring to a boil and then down to simmer
spoon the chicken to the hoagie buns, top with the provolone and then put the subs into the broiler for five to ten minutes until the cheese is melted and the buns are browned

(This is a total rip-off from Rachel Ray - I saw on her 30 Minute Meals) - but it turned out so well that it is a staple in our house now that the dumb neanderthal man (that would be me) can cook without help.

Super Easy Brownies

6 TBS cocoa
2 Cupbs Sugar
1 Cup Vegtbable Oil
4 eggs
1 1/2 Cups Self Rising Flour -or all purpose flour and add 1 tbs baking power
1 tsp vanilla

beat all ingredients except for flour - then add flour.
bake at 325 for 20 minutes.

Add walnuts, pecans or chocolate chips if desired (or if your wife will let you...don't get me started about walnuts and how I love them)

Servie with Ice Cream - but that just goes without saying

Coke Pulled Pork

Everyone always asks me for this one...So I thought I would just post it here...and be done.
Buy the pork roasts from Costco that are vacuum sealed, and they come three or four hooked together. They are very low fat and it seems like it is sirloin tip or something like that. I just put the pork roasts in the crock pot and pour coke over them and cook them forever. They just fall apart when you are pulling them out of the crock pot.
I usually cook three together in my big crock pot - for around 6-8 hours. Then I just pull it apart. Obviously, that makes a ton of meat, but I just put the leftovers in freezer bags and it is fantastic.

Then you can use the meat for whatever.
We always use this sauce:

1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 1/2 Tbsp. Worchestershire
1 Tbsp mustard
1Tbsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 cup ketchup
thick slice of onion and lemon

Reduce 1/2 hour - or until desired thickness.

Honestly, I rarely put all of the water in. Because I am usually in a rush, and don't have a ton of time for it to reduce. You can also do less butter if you are worried about that sort of thing.
Depending on what you are doing with it, if you want the sauce really thick/really sticking to the meat, you can use a little cornstarch to thicken it a lot more.

We use the pork to make quesadillas on the fresh tortillas from Costco and it is SO good. You can add cumin or chili powder to the sauce to make it a little more mexican - ish. We just do it plain, and we love it.

If you are doing sandwiches, it is so yummy to caramelize some onions, and just add a couple tablespoons of the sauce and a little butter to the pan when you are cooking the onions - it just gets all toasty and delicious.