Patti's Chicken

Like everybody on Earth, my mom has a handful of staples that frequent our kitchen table.  This is one of those dishes.

When I called my mom for the recipe I asked her, "So if I put this on the blog, what would I call it?".  Like most foods in our house it goes by the practical name of "that chicken pasta dish with the peppers and the cream sauce".  To my surprise, she said she'd call it Patti's Chicken.

Patti was my mom's college roommate.  According to my mom's legend, she came up to visit my parents and made this dish for them.  They apparently fell in love with it, because we've been eating with some regularity ever since.  Patti, incidentally, gave me the teddy bear that as a child became that stuffed animal that you have a disproportional affection for.  This made it a target, and ended up having its head pulled off half a dozen times (that's life with an older brother).  It's actually the only one that seemed worth packing when I moved out to Illinois, and it still sits in my window sill.

This dish is a perfect summer food.  It makes me think of one of those warm summer nights, sitting out on the back patio, sipping on cold white wine with the whole family.  It's light and easy, ideal for those nights when it's too hot to turn on the oven, and your sink is too full of dishes to make many more.  So without further ado:

Patti's Chicken

You'll Need:

1 small container of heavy cream

1 box thin spaghetti 

2 TB butter

1/2 of a sweet onion

2 or 3 peppers- ideally red/orange/yellow bell peppers

basil (the dry, shaker kind is fine)

chicken base (or chicken stock or bouillon)

white wine

1 small bad of shredded mozzarella

The full recipe is typed out at the bottom for your convenience.
Here's the last minute "hey mom, I don't have recipe, what do I do?" version.

Peanut Noodles

Due to the great success of Joe's last entry, we're in for another delicious and exciting edition of Joe's Cooking Corner!

And because we still had half a box of snow peas left we opted for another asian dish- this time a Thai influenced peanut noodles dish.  This originally came from Joe's mother, Sarah, who is a magnificent cook. You can dial up the heat by adding red pepper flakes, but I am a total wimp when it comes to hot and spicy, so Joe took mercy on me and made it nice and mild.  But as with most things this can be easily adjusted to be more sweet or salty or spicy, depending on how much you add of each ingredient so don't hold back from tasting as you go.