Swanky Pasta with Summer Squash

Okay friends! This is awesome! Totally combined these things on a whim and we love it...knock out flavor!

2 TBS olive oil
1/2 Summer squash, sliced
1/2 tsp ground ginger dash of crushed red pepper (a little goes a long way)
1/2 cup white cooking wine (add salt if you use table white)
2-3 TBS of cream cheese
1/4 cup marinara sauce
4 leaves of fresh basil chopped
Farfalle Pasta
2-3 red potatoes, baked and cut into bite-size pieces

Saute the squash in the oil with spices for just a few minutes, add cooking wine, marinara, and cream cheese and half of the basil and bring to a boil. Turn to low, toss with cooked pasta and potatoes. Remove from heat, dish up and top with remaining fresh basil. YUM!

*This makes a great side dish, or vegetarian main dish. You could easily add a meat of choice at the beginning with the squash and it would be fantastic.

Susan's Creamed White Wine Lemon Chicken

Just hosted dinner club at our place for about a dozen friends and this was the recipie of choice! Susan has made this once before, combining a few recipes, and well...tweaking the whole thing to make it even more awesome. It was time to write it down!

Susan's Creamed White Wine Lemon Chicken

Prep Time: 30 mins | Cook Time: 30 mins | Servings: 12 | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

Sauté:

2 tbsp butter
1/4 c white or sherry cooking wine
3 packages of white or baby Bella mushrooms, cut in half
2 shallots or 1/2 medium onion chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp Italian pizza pasta grinder spice mix (Aldi has a great one)
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cute into 1 inch strips
1/8 cup Italian parsley, finely chopped

Cream sauce:

2 cups cream
1 1/2 cups white cooking wine
1/3 to 1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp butter


Directions:

Begin with the sauté:

1. Melt butter in large skillet; add wine, mushrooms, shallots, salt, and Italian spices. Allow to heat to a low boil. Sauté until mushrooms are just cooked. Remove mushrooms from skillet and keep warm (I use my crock pot). Don't crowd the mushrooms. Do not rinse skillet.

2. Sauté chicken in same skillet, Adding wine if necessary. Cook until outside of chicken is white. Remove from skillet, keep warm with mushrooms. Pour out any excess liquid, but do not wash pot.

Next prepare cream sauce:

1. Bring heavy cream, white wine, and lemon juice and butter to a boil in the same skillet.

2. Add chicken back in to finish cooking.

3. Remove chicken again, and keep warm. Add flour in slowly, in small amounts. Do not add too much, as the mixture will thicken after being taken off the heat.

4. Combine chicken and mushrooms. Mix and heat through. When using the crock pot to warm, just pour sauce over mushrooms and chicken and stir.

Serve over your choice of pasta. Top with freshly chopped Italian parsley and Parmesan cheese.

Susan's Bruschetta (MY BRUSCHETTA!!!)

This one, I (Susan) have been making for a couple of years. I got inspired when a good friend gave me a ton of basil (and I mean a ton). It's all about tasting it as you go to make sure you like it, but here's how it goes for me:





4-6 Roma Tomatoes, chopped pretty finely, but not quite diced
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
3-4 cloves of fresh garlic, diced
3 or so tablespoons of fresh chopped basil (or you can do dried, and will probably need just about the same b/c it's more compact and will turn out to be a little more than if you measure fresh cut).
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon of dried)
freshly shredded parmesean cheese

Mix all ingredients except the cheese together and adjust to your liking by adding more or less of any ingredient. More garlic or basil can add quite a bit of bite, whereas more tomatoes/olive oil can help to calm down the flavor. Also, I sometimes will add a dash of mixed herbs and spices. Usually something like the Italian pizza and pasta mix grinder you can get at Aldi. Add the cheese at the end before serving, or hold it out entirely, and only sprinkle over bruschetta once atop your italian bread of choice.

Speaking of bread, I like to use the pre-cut slices of Italian bread that come in a bag for a couple of bucks at the Green Hills Kroger (yep, the only Kroger I've found them at). You can of course use any toasted bread you'd like. It's easy to toast the little Italian slices in the oven. Just set the oven to 350 and let the slices toast for a few minutes on either side. This bread is also a great option because it's bite size, making it easy for finger food.

Enjoy!!