Another Dish With Pasta and Chicken

You may have notice an overabundance of pasta with chicken recipes here at Cooking in Bush Alaska.  You may have also noticed an overabundance of Pioneer Woman recipes.  That's because I love pasta.  And chicken.  And Pioneer Woman.

This dish is yet another pasta with chicken dish.  And it comes from Pioneer Woman.  But it's good.  Worth trying.  Really.

My version has a few key differences from Pioneer Woman's.  I'm not cooking enough to feed four punks and a hungry cowboy.  It's just me and my hungry schoolteacher (our punk isn't ready for table food yet).  Also, I don't have a dutch oven YET, so I had to bake the chicken and tomatoes in a separate dish instead of putting everything straight into the oven.






Start with a little olive oil and butter in a pan.  (I took a picture of butter, but it was a really bad picture.  I decided to spare our dear readers.  You're welcome.)





I like to use chicken thighs for this dish.  Salt and pepper them, and brown them on each side.





I usually wimp out when it comes to browning things because I get scared that they're going to burn.  I actually did a pretty good job this time.






Remove the chicken.  Use some wine to get all of the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan.





Add some diced tomatoes...





Whatever herbs you have on hand.  (I happened to have fresh basil because the basil plants on my aerogarden were going nuts...)





And whole cloves of garlic, and bring to a boil.





Pour the tomatoes and garlic mixture over the chicken.  Cover and bake for about forty-five minutes.





Serve over pasta and covered in cheese.

Bruschetta

Whenever I get fresh tomatoes I make bruschetta.  It's one of my favorite things in the world.  My initial attempts at bruschetta were inspired by these recipes, but now I just throw the ingredients together without measuring anything.  I taste it and add more of whatever I think it needs.



For this batch, I used half of a large tomato.






Chop the tomato into small pieces.





Fresh basil (significantly less than we needed for the pesto).





I rolled the basil up and sliced it into tiny pieces with my kitchen shears.





If you don't have fresh basil, you can use the dried stuff.





One clove of garlic.  I like mine garlicky.  If you don't, choose a small clove of garlic.





I grated the garlic into the other ingredients.





Extra-virgin olive oil (use the good stuff because it's not going to get cooked)...





And two splashes of white wine vinegar.





Stir it all up.





Slice some baguettes (I'll post my baguette recipe when I figure out how to make nice looking baguettes. Mine are fine for slicing, but they're kind of ugly by themselves).  I used eight slices.





Toast the baguette slices lightly on both sides.  I used a toaster oven.





Drizzle the toasted slices with extra-virgin olive oil...





And top with the tomato mixture.  Sprinkle with salt, and you're ready to enjoy!  I eat these as a meal, but they're also great as appetizers.

Salsa and Fajitas

Steve had to go into Nome this weekend.  The reason he had to go had nothing to do with grocery shopping, but that was definitely a bonus.



I sent Steve with a list of groceries to bring home.  I thought we should take advantage of an opportunity to buy things we can't get in Shishmaref.





I was so smitten with the beautiful bottles of vinegar that I had to take some wannabe artistic shots.





It's fun to play with pretty bottles.






Steve also made some of his own purchases.   I was especially excited to see the cilantro (that's the green stuff on the left).  Cilantro is our favorite herb.





Steve also picked up some plain yogurt.  I've been dying to try some recipes with plain yogurt.  I'm especially excited about the prospect of making my own cream cheese and sour cream.





Our new ingredients freshened up our fajitas.  Fajitas make regular appearances at the VFN household.  Not to brag, but we make the awesomest homemade tortillas.  Our tortillas were joined by some equally awesome homemade salsa, which started out as the above pictured canned tomatoes.  (I would have loved to use fresh tomatoes, but the tomatoes at our store were all moldy.)





Then I added beans, corn, and lime juice





Then I chopped the cilantro with my ulu.  As you can tell, I got a little lazy with my chopping.





I added the cilantro and sealed the salsa in a tupperware dish.  Then Steve reminded me that I forgot to add the white wine vinegar.  (One of the reasons I wanted to make the salsa was because Steve brought home the white wine vinegar.  Duh.)  I sealed the tupperware again.  Then I had to open it to add the fresh onions.  Double duh.  I put the tupperware in the fridge for the third time.  Then I let it sit overnight so that the flavors could meld.




I also used cilantro to season the chicken for the fajitas.




This is how fajitas start Alston style.  You always put the sour cream on the tortillas first.





Then you add the meat stuff.





If your husband went to Nome over the weekend, you add your delicious homemade salsa.  The online recipe said that some people like to eat it with a fork straight out of the bowl.  I thought those people were weird until I tried it.  It is definitely worth eating with a fork.  In fact, I may do exactly that after I finish this post.  :)