Fettuccin' me

Fettuccin' Me

There are a few things a girl needs as staples in her life. An amazing best friend, a little black dress, a comfortable pair of heels, her favorite lip stick (gloss or balm will do), a good book or movie and a stack of recipes sitting around for those spontaneous moments where you want to show that special someone you can cook.
They always say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. You can ask any and all of my ex's how well I cook, as for most of them this is how they landed in my lap. From desserts to main dishes, learning their favorites was always a fun pass time. For instance, I have an ex who's favorite is good old southern cooking or another who is utterly in love with cheese cake. Learning those little things not only expanded my cooking, but landed me with a second or third date. Not all of which where bad, horrible or down right what the heck was I thinking.

As a matter of fact, there are a few in there that land on my "smile every time I make their dish" list. I don't name the dishes after my past, I name them after the experiences and stories that come into my head when cooking.

I call this dish Fettuccin' me, because after all that's what the whole dating world is about. Fetching ourselves someone who can put up with every quirky habit, know our past horrors and still at the end of the day want to come over "just because."

This is a simple dish, one that you can modify to whatever you have in your fridge or cabinets at the time. I just so happen to have tomato's, broccoli and left over chicken sitting in the fridge, but you can use whatever you have if you don't have the above. (A good alternative to the chicken would be shrimp.)

Here's a little spin on Fettuccine Alfredo.

Recipe

Prep time: 5-10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Serves: 3-6

Ingredients:

 

1 box of pasta

1 jar of Alfredo sauce

1 cut roman tomato

1 head of broccoli

Pinch of black pepper

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

2 chicken breast (or thighs)

 

 

If your chicken is not cooked, cook to desired tenderness.

 

Add water to a pot and bring to a boil. Once water is boiling add noodles and let simmer.

 

Chop the tomato and broccoli into desired size, I choose quarters for the tomato.

 

In a separate skillet add together the Alfredo sauce, tomato, broccoli and cooked chicken. Stir at intervals. Once the sauce starts to boil add a pinch of black pepper and the Parmesan cheese and let sit until pasta is done.

 

Once the pasta is to desired tenderness drain, here is where you can decide to either add the pasta directly to the sauce mixture or let your guinea pigs opt for their desired amount of sauce.

 

I choose to let the guinea pigs decide.

 



Blonde Sided

Sifting your way through the dating world isn't always fun and games. Not so long ago the plan was to meet at a local book store coffee shop. We had a lot of things in common, he was nice and endearing, but I was still standing in lukewarm water on where I stood with my feelings. As I stood in the middle of the coffee shop it became clear this wasn't going to go well. There were no tables available, despite many tables only holding laptops, books and jackets with no owner. With food and drink in hand we made our way to an empty aisle in the back of the store as not to disturb anyone, the self help aisle at that.

I had my guard up, arms crossed, body positioned three feet away from him and yet he thought it would be fun to caress my arm and when my hand was free hold onto it. I felt awkward and embarrassed, I'm not a girl for PDA and this was pushing it for me.

I tried my darndest to avoid the idea of PDA, but just as I let me guard down and I reached to take a bite of my snack I found myself being pulled into his arms his lips hitting me smack where the sweet blondie, I had been enjoying, was suppose to be.

I thought to myself how in the world did this just happen? I went for the blondie and wound up with a smooch. As I let reality set in I stood there with his lips on mine scanning the titles of the self help books no less then a foot away. I found no help in the titles on my escape plan, but I found out I really liked blondies (Starbucks for the win!). So the whole date wasn't a loss.

In the end the relationship didn't work and I'm not disappointed about it at all. I was blind sided by his moves and taken a back into boiling water on the relationship front when his lips hit mine.


Tonight I decided to re-visit the memory of the date and celebrate my single hood with making blondies. My guinea pigs sat in wait, begging before they even hit the oven to know when they where done. What they didn't know was that they too where going to be blind sided by the blondie experience, just in a more pleasant way. I opted to split the required M&M's and add Peanut butter M&M's (my favorite) with original. The end result is a second batch laying in wait for tomorrows round two of guinea pig opinions.

Recipe

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Serves: more than 1

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup vanilla or white chips
1-3/4 cups plain M&M’s, (I used half original and half peanut butter)


Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix softened butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla to the sugar mixture. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together and gradually add to the sugar mixture. Stir in the chips and desired M&M's, leaving some M&M's to top the dish.

Spoon evenly into a greased pan.

Place in oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

Let cool and enjoy!