Ciao bella Chicken Cacciatore

I have a confession. I really hate chicken. It tastes gamey to me, nothing like it used to. The only way I will eat it is fried, with lots of gravy, or like this, when it has stewed in a wonderful sauce and, well, doesn't taste like chicken!

Chicken cacciatore is healthy, full of vegetables and protein, and has an earthy, satisfying flavor perfect for fall. And it is surprisingly easy to make. Just give it some time and you'll have a meal even a chicken hater will love.

You will need:
2 pounds of chicken, cut any way (I prefer strips cut into chunks)
2-16 oz cans of diced tomatoes
1-16 oz can of tomato sauce
1 package baby Bella mushrooms or portobellas cut in large chunks
1 onion cut into thin slices
1 green pepper cut into slices
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
3-4 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil

Here's how it's done:

1. Add olive oil to hot pan
2. Brown chicken on all sides.
3. Add onion, pepper, mushrooms, and garlic and saute until onions are starting to look clear.
4. Add tomatoes and rest of seasonings.
5. Cover and let simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally. It can simmer longer if you like.
6. About 15 minutes before you are going to serve the sauce, uncover and let some of the water simmer off.
7. Practice your Italian accent while eating this fabulous dish.

I like to serve this atop angel hair pasta or spaghetti. To make it really hearty, use linguini. The sauce is a little thinner than canned sauces and doesn't cling as well to shaped pastas, but they can be used also.Enjoy!

Rain, Spaghetti Carbonara, Spaghetti Face!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Haven't written in a few days, looking for a job - Uuggh. It has been raining cats and dogs in Ohio; yesterday, it rained so hard that a major freeway artery (315) flash flooded during rush hour. No one was hurt, but startling nonetheless.

All the rain has been good for the flowers, but they are all tamped down from the constant downpours. With the soggy conditions, I haven't been able to get to any of my endless list of gardening projects - the arch is leaning over further, the weeds are getting higher (they like the rain, too, darn it).

My mystery clematis that I planted a few years ago with my New Dawn rose has finally decided to flower - looks suspiciously like a Nelly Moser. Both clematis and rose are flowering now, which makes for a pretty display.



My remaining lavender row (the most stalwart bunch, apparently) is beginning to bloom. Lavender is my favorite flower, bar none. I am a bit obsessed with it, and at one time had around 70 plants in the garden. But time and Ohio blizzards have taken their toll, and now there are only 10 or so surviving plants. It has taken everything I have in me not to go out and buy up all of the lavender in Columbus this year.



Spaghetti Carbonara

It was just my daughter, the baby, and me for dinner. Kendall, the baby, and I went to the pool today (until the most recent torrential downpour started) and when I got home, I wasn't in the mood to cook a grand dinner. Thankfully, Kendall and Will love just about anything, so I decided to whip up a quick pot of Spaghetti Carbonara. This is one of the simplest, most satisfying pasta dishes (well, besides opening a can of spaghetti sauce - nothing wrong with that, as you will soon see), and cooks up lickity-split.

You'll need:
A 1 lb box of spaghetti (linguini works well, too)
3 eggs
1/2 cup grated parmesean cheese, or 1/4 cup parmesean and 1/4 cup romano
1 TBSP black pepper
1/2 TBSP dried basil (parsley is the traditional herb, but I love basil, so that's what I use)
1/2 - 1 lb of bacon, fried and crumbled**
minced garlic to taste (I usually use around 1 TBSP)
A big dallop of butter or margerine or olive oil

1. Cook the pasta until it's al dente. Drain.
2. While the pasta is cooking, combine the eggs, cheese, basil, and pepper in a bowl and mix together. Set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a pan. Add the bacon and garlic and saute for 30 sec to 1 minute.
4. Add the pasta to the garlic and bacon and toss.
5. Pour the egg and cheese mixture onto the pasta and toss over medium heat until the egg is cooked through, about 1 - 3 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

If you really want to be impressive, put the pasta in a large bowl and garnish with a few sprigs of fresh basil or parsley, sprinkle some freshly grated parmesean cheese on top, or some pepperoncini. Or just serve it out of the pan. It will taste just as good.

** Bacon is the traditional meat in this dish, but I actually prefer ham (around 2 cups diced, which is what I used tonight), or better yet, proscuitto (around 1 cup, it goes a long way). I guess the uniting factor here is that some sort of preserved pig should be used!

Spaghetti Face!

We've been on a pasta kick recently, which is just fine with Will; he is like me and would gladly eat pasta every day. He is especially fond of spaghetti marinara, and is quite skilled at covering himself in it!



Of course, there is no such thing as too many photos of your baby covered in spaghetti, so in that spirit, here's a picture of his first spaghetti dinner.



He just grew out of the sleeper, which is remarkably spaghetti sauce free!