It’s been a while since we’ve had spaghetti and meatballs and when Eliza brought her family down it seemed like a good opportunity. We had some homemade meatballs in the freezer but no Italian sausage so I used TPO (tomato, pepper, onion) from the Wurst Kitchen. The menu included bread with EVOO & balsamic vinegar, then panzanella, then pasta and finally dessert.
I wasn’t trying to keep making Italian but just thought this dish looked delicious and would be perfect for our Friday get together. The recipe for Easy Chicken Milanese alla Florentine came from the “Ask Chef Dennis” blog and I made several changes to it but the original can be found by clicking on the above link. Chef Dennis Littley’s comment on the dish – “Chicken MIlanese alla Florentine is a delicious restaurant style dish that is made with a crispy chicken cutlet topped with steamed spinach and sauteed mushrooms, topped with Swiss cheese and served with a creamy white sauce. It's easy to make and oh so delicious.”
I had some halibut in the freezer that I wanted to use and after searching my blog, I found a recipe that we had made previously but I didn’t have the sauce ingredients so I adapted my normal lemon, butter sauce for this dish.
Since returning from Italy, we have been having Bruschetta regularly for happy hour and during a recent trip to the Mennonite Market, I bought a bag of Roma tomatoes to use for the tomato mixture so it wouldn’t be as watery – I removed the seeds from the Roma's. I had six Roma's left and was thinking about another use for them when Bev reminded me of the pasta with fresh tomatoes we had made in the past. So I did a blog search and found the recipe for Pasta al Pomodoro Crudo and recalled that I had a half box of small shells pasta in the pantry so a meal was born. I’m posting this dish again to document the recipe using the Roma tomatoes.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA
Bev wanted fried pork chops like we both grew up eating and I wanted to cook them on the grill griddle so a plan was born using the following recipe. For sides, Bev wanted cucumber salad using the recipe below and well done broccoli then tossed in butter like she got at the cafeteria she used to lunch at.
I try to make cooking for Friday cards pretty simple so one-pot meals and casseroles are usually high on my list. I saw this recipe for Crack Chicken Casserole on the “Ask Chef Dennis” blog and it seemed to fit the bill. Dennis says that “Crack Chicken Casserole is creamy, cheesy, and packed with crispy bacon, ranch flavor, and pasta. Pure comfort food baked to perfection.” I followed the recipe as written.
Crack Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:
2 cups rotisserie chicken - shredded
8 oz cream cheese - softened
1 packet ranch dressing mix
10.5 oz cream of chicken soup condensed
1 cup sour cream - full fat
1 cup half and half or whole milk
1½ cups sharp cheddar cheese - shredded
6 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
8 ounces shell pasta - cooked aldente
2 cups crushed Ritz Townhouse crackers
4 ounces unsalted butter - melted (1 stick)
½ cup green onions - sliced for garnish
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Cook the shells per the instructions on the
package for aldente.
Butter a 9×13-inch baking dish. Set aside until
needed.
Add the softened cream cheese, ranch seasoning
mix, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and half and half to a medium bowl.
Whisk until smooth and creamy.
Both of our flights were good and on time with the only bad part being the long layover in Chicago – by flying on a first class international flight, we had access to the Polaris Club where they was food, drinks, and comfortable chairs all complimentary. This made the seven-hour layover much more bearable.
