My Favorite Things

Yesterday was such a fabulous day! I got to catch up with some of my best friends from Texas for a few hours in SLC during the day and then that night I got to catch up with some of my longtime best girlfriends in Logan. I definitely needed a day like that and had so much fun laughing and chatting and catching up with everyone. I need to do that more often!

In catching up with my Logan girlfriends, we did a "favorite things" gift exchange. We each had a list we were supposed to share...none of us had it handy, surprised? Not me. Haha! I do promise to send it to you ladies though! Anyway, based on that, I plan to share some of my favorite things on the blog occasionally (in no particular order). You may find some of them strange, but try them and you may love them too!!

The first I'll share because I've been planning to share a SUPER YUMMY recipe and I use this in it. The recipe is "Spicy Chicken Pasta" and it is so good that I seriously want to lick my bowl to get all of the yummy goodness when I'm done. It calls for 2 cups of heavy cream and I never plan ahead and buy cream. So, I try to have Gossner's Shelf Stable Whipping Cream on hand. It doesn't have to be refrigerated until it is opened and has a few months shelf life (at least). Here's a picture of it:Anyway, I rarely use it as a "whipped cream" but I use it in all of my pasta recipes that call for cream. So there you have it. Try it, you'll love it! You can find it in a few grocery stores in Logan or at Gossner's, but I have no clue where to find it outside of Logan.

On to the recipe...you have to try this too!! I'm now craving it just blogging about it. For those of you that tried "Tim Tortellini" that I shared a long time ago, I love this even more!

Spicy Chicken Pasta

1 package angel hair pasta

4 chicken breasts, chunked

2 T. butter

1 1/2 c. fresh mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 c. sun-dried tomatoes, diced

3/4 tsp. red pepper, crushed

1/3 c. green pepper, chopped

2 c. heavy cream

2 c. chicken broth

1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

2 T. flour -OR- cornstarch

milk

salt & pepper

**Prepare pasta and set aside. Saute chicken breast pieces in butter. Add mushrooms, garlic, tomatoes, crushed red pepper and green pepper. Saute for 3 minutes. Add cream and broth; cook for 5-7 minutes. Add Parmesan cheese. Mix flour with a little milk to make a paste and quickly stir into mixture to thicken it. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta.

As a side note, I use Ultra-Sperse to thicken this and skip the flour/milk paste. I also used 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper rather than the 3/4 tsp. since I'm kind of wimpy when it comes to hot things. Those are the only change I've made to the recipe.