Hey there – are you ready for some pasta?   If you lived in this house – you would have to be or you would starve!  We eat pasta all the time.  It is truly one of my favorite foods.   When Alex was a toddler I used to make him the tri-color rotini shaped pasta with just a bit of butter and Parmesan cheese.  He loved it and he ate it all the time.  My mother in law used to make funny comments about it.  Somehow he survived and we all still eat a lot of pasta.  This recipe, or a form of it came from Gimme Some Oven.  When Jordan and I saw it we knew we HAD to try it.  It helped that I had just been to Costco and purchased bacon and asparagus.  YAY!  The original recipe calls for white wine, which we aren’t huge fans of , so the recipe listed below is what I did instead.

^^The curly pasta we used.

I found this adorable curly pasta at Target.  It was a lot more expensive then the pasta I normally buy – but it’s just so cute, I had to try it.  The pasta was actually quite delicious.  It had a great texture.  I would buy it again, plus the box was super cute too!  It was the Giada de Laurentiis brand.   If she can eat pasta and look like that – it can’t be all bad, right?

Pasta with Bacon and Asparagus 

1 lb. uncooked pasta

1 lb. uncooked bacon, diced

1 lb. of fresh asparagus, ends trimmed and cut into 2″ pieces

1 cup chicken broth (or white wine, if you go for that sort of thing!)

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus a bit extra for garnish

Cook the pasta al dente according to package directions, drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, add diced bacon to large saute pan.  Cook until crispy.  Remove the bacon onto paper towel and set aside.  Remove all but a couple of tablespoons of the bacon grease.  Add prepared asparagus to the pan and saute in the bacon grease for about 3 minutes.  Add in 1 to 2 teaspoons minced garlic and stir to combine.  Pour in the chicken broth and stir well, scraping up the yummy bacon bits off the bottom of the pan.  Cook for another 3 minutes.  I like my asparagus crunchy so I tend to not cook it for very long.

Pour the cooked pasta into the pan with the asparagus and chicken broth, add the bacon and the Parmesan cheese and toss until combined.   Serve immediately topped with a bit more shaved Parmesan cheese and a bit of fresh basil.

We served ours with some spicy, Cajun shrimp – but it would have been filling enough to eat for a meal without the shrimp.

Cindy

The other day I made this delicious and spicy jambalaya and everyone loved it.  I had been wanting to try a jambalaya for a while, and when I found this recipe on Gimme Some Oven, I knew this was the one.  I love her blog- she always has great recipes!

Anyway, I modified the recipe slightly, only because I didn’t have all the ingredients that I thought I had.  The original recipe called for several classic jambalaya ingredients such as shrimp and okra  – for the original recipe, click here: www.gimmesomeoven.  The jambalaya turned out great and I can’t wait to make it again.  I wanted to make it with brown rice, but I waited too long to get dinner going and I was afraid that the rice would never cook, so I used white rice.  Next time I will plan ahead and try brown rice.  If you decide to make it with brown rice, you will need to increase the cook time and probably add a bit more chicken stock.

California Jambalaya

3 T olive oil

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 white onion, diced

3 small bell peppers, cored and diced – any colors you choose.  I only had red and yellow –  I think green would be a nice addition.

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 to 4 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 lb. sausage, sliced – I used Polska-Kielbasa

2 cups chicken stock

1 – 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 to 2 T Creole seasoning *

2 tsp. Chili paste *

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. thyme, crushed

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper *

Heat 2 T olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add celery, onion, bell peppers, and garlic.  Saute for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are soft and mostly cooked.  Add the remaining T of olive oil, chicken and sausage and stir to combine.  Continue cooking for about 5 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink and mostly cooked.

Add the chicken stock, tomatoes, rice, and all the spices/seasonings.  Stir well to combine.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 25 -30 minutes, or until rice is cooked, stirring occasionally so the rice doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan.

Once the rice is tender, taste and add in any additional seasonings.  You could add the shrimp and okra in at this time – if you like those kinds of things!  : )  Shrimp I would use next time – okra, never!  ewwww!

Remove the bay leaf and serve with garnishes such as fresh parsley, green onions, and hot sauce of desired.

*We like very spicy food – and this was spicy!  You may want to cut back a bit on some of the heat and taste it before adding all the seasoning I added.  Also the original recipe called for jalapenos and by some freak of nature we didn’t have any.  I substituted in the chili paste to make up for the lack of jalapenos.  I loved the hot chili paste flavor, but I would add in jalapenos next time too.

This would be delicious served with corn bread and a salad.

Cindy