To Cook Or Not To Cook...That Is My Question

Garlic Parmesan Chicken Pasta Bake

I'm getting lazier and lazier about cooking. But eating out brings it's own set of things I don't always want to do—getting dressed, driving to town, waiting on the food, etc. It can take longer to go out for dinner than cooking. So last week I tried a new recipe minutes after announcing I wan't cooking dinner. Cooking seemed to be the lesser effort.

The recipe was good enough that we ate it for two nights, then packed up the last bit and took it to the lake for a quick meal down there. We are getting the lake place ready for family that will head this way in a couple of days.

I found the recipe online—actually its found me. It popped up as I was browsing the 'net. You can check out the original recipe at Bowl Me Over. She has good notes about how she made it. This falls in the comfort food category. 

As I often do, my version of this recipe was based on what I had on hand. I plan to make it again sometime and actually try it as it was written. I'll give you the recipe I found, then tell you how I changed it. I've realize as I'm trying to learn improv on the piano, I've been doing improv in the kitchen for years!

GARLIC PARMESAN CHICKEN PASTA BAKE

1-lb rotini pasta, cooked and drained (save a cup of pasta water)

3 cups cooked chicken, diced or shredded

2-15 oz jars Alfredo sauce

1 cup garlic parmesan sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 375º. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.

While rotini is cooking, mix chicken, Alfredo sauce, garlic parmesan sauce, and half the mozzarella and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cooked and drained pasta, adding some of the saved water if needed. You want it creamy.

Pour mixture in to baking dish. Top with the remaining cheeses.

Cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 20-35 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly. 

You can broil it for 2-3 minutes to brown the top--but be careful not to burn!

Remove pasta from oven and let rest, covered with foil, for 5 minutes before serving. 

As I typed this recipe out, I realized how much I improvised. I knew I was changing some ingredients because I had to. But I failed to read the part about covering the dish with foil before I baked it! When will I ever learn to read ALL of the recipe!!! Nevertheless, it was good. It would have been a little creamier if I had covered it. Next time I'll know.

Okay. Here are my variations: 

• I had cooked, cut up chicken breasts in the freezer. I thawed them in the microwave while the pasta was cooking.  
• I only used one jar of Alfredo and one jar of garlic parmesan Alfredo sauce.
• The recipe calls for 1 cup of garlic parmesan sauce. Next time I will look for that near the salad dressing and bbq sauces. Evidently it's condiment used for wings.
• I added 1/2 cup pasta water since I didn't have the extra cup of sauce. 
• Since I only had 2 cups of chicken, I added some frozen peas. They were okay, but not sure I would had them again. 
• I only had one cup of mozzarella so I used that and plus one cup of cheddar. 

Because I had cooked chicken in the freezer, this was just a dump it all together and mix recipe. So quick. You could also use rotisserie chicken. Next time I will find the garlic parmesan sauce. An extra cup of sauce would make it nice and creamy. Mine was getting close to being dry. More sauce. Use the foil. Both of those things would have helped.

I think this is a dish my younger grandchildren would like...chicken, pasta, cheesy sauce. Now that you've read how much I changed things up, go try your own variations. If I had found any broccoli in the refrigerator I might have added cooked, chopped broccoli to the dish instead of peas. Like many recipes, it's just a starting place. Make it your own!

We will have family here for the next couple of weeks. Doubt I'll post again for a while. 

UPDATE: When I was at the lake last week, I shopped at a large grocery store nearby. I found the parmesan garlic sauce this recipe actually calls for! It's a sauce for wings. Can't wait to try it again and see if it makes much difference.

Summer Things

Just a quick hello this morning. No new recipes. But I am making a grocery list right now while I sip my morning coffee. That's progress. We spent the weekend at our lake house trying to take care of some chores. And while we were there we got to watch a beautiful full moon rise over the lake. The reflection in the water gets me every time.

Last week I took a piano workshop. Five days, three hours each day. It was designed for piano teachers who wanted to be more creative in their teaching, who wanted to add jazz and blues to the traditional repertoire. I got to sit in and listen. What did I learn?

• I learned that in a 3-hour zoom meeting, my iPad Pro goes from 100% battery to 6%. I could do the class without being plugged in. Barely. As much as I complain about technology, it was amazing that each day I could attend a live class with participants in assorted time zones.

• I learned that when I relax my shoulders, my face looks thinner. Seriously. After sitting for hours each day looking at myself on zoom (I used the gallery setting a lot) I saw that I most often sat with my shoulders tensed up. And when I relaxed them, yes, my face looked thinner. When I taught guitar lessons I cautioned all students to relax their shoulders when they played. I could see that as they struggled to learn something new, the shoulders moved up toward their ears. And I would remind them to relax. I need to remind myself that shoulders reaching for the ears is never a good thing.

• I learned that even though I do not have a music degree like the piano teachers, I have learned a lot over the years. There are many ways to learn. Maybe I had less to "unlearn" than the classical pianists. <smile> Don't underestimate the body of knowledge you've acquired over your life, even when it didn't come with a grade or a degree. Experience counts.

This week I need to get back to regular life. Family will be here soon to spend some time with us at the lake. 

When Daddy-O had a new lake wall built over the winter, he added some steps to make it a little easier for kids to climb out of the lake. I am 100% sure this was not what he had in mind!

 New wall. New pier. New grass. Old owners. Now to make time to get down there. It's hay season here but the lake isn't far away. Whatever you are doing this summer, wherever you are spending your summer, enjoy it. Stay cool. Stay safe. Make memories. 

What's Happening In My Kitchen? Not Much.

In the last couple of weeks I've had local people say to me, "You haven't posted much on your blog lately. I really enjoy reading it." That made me smile. I don't read the statistics that I could find somewhere on this platform to see how many views a post has had. I don't keep up with how many subscribers I have. I have never monetized the blog. Notice there are no pesky ads? 

All these years I've written it because I enjoy the process of writing. And the length of these posts suit me well. (Did I tell you that I wrote a newspaper column back in the day?) Occasionally I will look back through the 13 years of blog entries and I can see how my family has changed. How it's grown. I frequently look up recipes here—both with the index and the little search box that lives in the top left corner of each post.

My days are different now than they were way back when I started this blog. I think I said last blog post that I haven't tried new recipes lately Because I just don't cook as much as I did. We don't eat as much as we did. Sometimes now instead of cooking supper, we have a snacky supper.

Charcuterie boards or food boards, if you will, are so popular now. In my house these "boards" often coincide with cleaning out the refrigerator. Or making do the night before I grocery shop. I'm trying to squeak one more meal out of what's on hand.

When I arrange my bits and bobs of what's in the fridge on a tray, it's looks like fun. It looks like a treat. Picture what it would look like if I set the bag of pretzel chips, the box of crackers, the jar of jam and the bottle of ranch dressing out. Same foods. But I can guarantee those bags and boxes wouldn't get an "Oh, wow!" from Daddy-O. It's all in the presentation.

I love trays and own so many sizes and shapes. But sometimes I will just grab a cookie sheet or a pizza pan because it's handy. Choose your board or pan, arrange your food neatly, think about the colors when you lay it out. And if possible make sure to have different textures, like crunchy crackers and celery and creamy dip, soft cheese and hard carrot sticks. 

If I were doing this for a party or gathering, I would be much more intentional about on what goes on the board. But the photo above was our actual "dinner for two" a couple of weeks ago. It's as basic as you can get.

Here is another meal suitable for an "I don't want to cook" night. Last week I swore there was nothing here to cook. Daddy-O offered to take me out, but I couldn't think of one restaurant that tempted me. So I looked around the kitchen and spied a container of grape tomatoes. 

And in just under 30 minutes we were sitting down to dinner. This recipe calls for ingredients that are staples in my kitchen—spaghetti, olive oil, garlic, etc. I didn't have the fresh mozzarella it calls for so I subbed shredded mozzarella. Not quite as good, but it worked. If I had not had basil growing in our yard I might have sprinkled on some dried basil. Think beyond the recipe!!!

Be aware that this recipe doesn't make a lot. It feeds the two of us. I have stretched it to feed three by making a big salad to serve along with it.

GRAPE TOMATOES & PASTA (serves 2 to 3)

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups grape tomatoes

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, cut in thin strips

salt & pepper to taste

pinch of sugar (optional)

3 tablespoon fresh grated parmesan 

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

fresh mozzarella pearls

8 oz. thin spaghetti

Heat oil in a large skillet to low. Add garlic, stir and cook about 2 minutes, being careful not to burn it. Add whole grape tomatoes. Cook over medium heat about 5 minutes until tomatoes begin to soften. Break up some of the tomatoes. (I used a potato masher to mash up some of the tomatoes—maybe half of them. This releases juices that will help make a sauce.) Season with salt and pepper, add a pinch of sugar if tomatoes are very acidic. Stir in basil.

Cover and let simmer 10-15 minutes until the tomatoes are soft. Grate fresh parmesan over the sauce. Add balsamic vinegar. Stir to combine.

While sauce is simmering, cook spaghetti to al dente. Using tongs lift cooked spaghetti straight into the sauce. (Save a little pasta cooking water and add a spoonful or two to thin sauce if you need to.) Remove skillet from heat. Toss cooked spaghetti with tomato sauce. Poke mozzarella pearls down into the pasta. Cover and let sit a few minutes to let mozzarella melt.

Top with more Parmesan and garnish with basil. Serve.

And our last resort dinner when the fridge is empty is some kind of breakfast food. We spent one night at the lake last weekend. Now THAT is a truly empty kitchen. We have barely been down there this year. But the previous visit I had left a loaf of cinnamon bread in the freezer and I had bought a half dozen eggs that were still good. Daddy-O made French toast that night. He first told me that he couldn't make it because we didn't have any milk (he usually adds milk to the eggs.) I told him to splash a little water in the eggs instead. Think beyond the recipe!!! Beyond your usual. 

There is a little knitting still going on. These delightfully cool days are perfect for porch knitting.  We try to spend as much time on the porch as possible on these perfect days. Knitting. Reading. I even take a keyboard out there and practice piano sometimes.

Some of you have been interested in my jazz journey. The online piano platform I enjoy offers a monthly song "challenge." Four weeks to learn a new tune. I don't always do the monthly song but I love this month's choice, Blue Skies. I'm working on the piano version, but my ukulele version is ready now.