Pasta with Pesto, Chicken, Mushrooms and Cashews

"Chicken Pesto" has been one of our favorite meals for over 25 years. Actually, when the kids were young, just the smell and sight of it made them sick, so it was our dinner we enjoyed fixing for ourselves after the kids had gone to bed!

I have enjoyed adding extra things that have caught my fancy through the years, but this is our basic recipe. This is easy to make and can be on the table in less than 30 minutes. I should say, it comes together quickly, unless the phone rings, the dogs need out, someone is at the door or you realize you don't actually have any pasta in the cupboard or refrigerator!

You will need: 

1/3 lb Whole wheat linguine

1-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped into bite size pieces

Garlic - to taste, I use at least 5-6 cloves

1/2 to 1 lb. Mushrooms, sliced

1-2 tbsp Olive oil - 1 tbsp if using 1 chicken breast, 2 tbsp if using 2 chicken breasts

1-2 tbsp Butter, same as above

Salt and pepper to taste

Pesto - see recipe below

Cashews

Parmesan Cheese, fresh grated

In a skillet, add a tablespoon of water and add the mushrooms. Saute for about 4-5 minutes, until they are about half cooked and have released their water.

Meanwhile, start bringing your pasta water to a boil in a medium-sized sauce pan.

Remove mushrooms and pour off liquid from the pan. Add the butter and olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add the garlic, chicken and mushrooms, stirring until garlic is tender and chicken is cooked through. 

Add pasta to boiling salted water and cook to al dente. Pour into a strainer, saving some of the pasta water.

Pour part of your pesto into your chicken and mushroom mixture and stir until well covered. Note: We prefer our chicken and mushrooms when they are covered with cooked garlic and pesto sauce before they are added to the pasta.

Place pasta back in sauce pan and add more pesto, to taste. Stir until linguine is covered with pesto. The pesto will stick to the pasta better when it isn't coated with oil or butter. 

Pour pasta mixture back into the medium saute pan and incorporate until everything has mixed together. At this point, if your mixture is too stiff, add a little of the pasta water and stir until it thins a little. You can also add more pesto if you want more. Do this until you have a consistency that you like. 

Note: You can keep them separate and place the pasta in a warm bowl and top with the chicken mushroom mixture if you prefer.

Using a pasta scoop or tongs, place mixture into a warm bowl. Top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and sprinkle with cashews.

 

Enjoy!

Chicken, Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Pizza

Our weekends are usually very busy, so we like to keep our meals very simple. We especially like "cook once and eat twice" meals on the weekend. I try to keep foods that make it easy to put a meal together without a lot of cooking. It had been a while since we had pizza, so we put one together for dinner the other night. This pizza takes a little time, but it is worth the effort!

The first step is caramelizing the onions. There are many versions on how to make them, but my version is very easy, if you have an extra hour. 

This is my version:
Slice two onions in half and cut them in slices. Next, put two tablespoon (approx.) of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter into a dutch oven. When the oil and is heated and the butter is melted, add the onions. Stir to coat all of the onions with the oil/butter mixture. 

Turn the burner down as low as it will go and cover dutch oven with a lid. Set the timer for 15 minutes and leave them alone. When the timer goes off, remove the lid and give them a good stir. Every 15 minutes repeat this process, about one hour.

Now, turn up the flame just a touch, and continue cooking the onions with the lid off. Every 5-10 minutes, give them a stir to remove the brownness that is coating the bottom of the pan. If it is too brown, turn the flame down. Continue doing this until the onions are a nice caramel color, but not burnt, about 20 minutes. Set aside until needed.

We used pizza dough from Trader Joe's, which is really good and so easy to use. Just let it sit out on the counter for about 20 minutes and it is ready to roll out. We don't actually "roll" it, we just stretch it out until the crust is evenly distributed around the pan. Easy!

Next, we put about 1/2-3/4 cup of Trader Joe's Alfredo Pasta Sauce on top of the crust. 

Next, we put a little mozzarella cheese on top of sauce. 

Next, we added cooked and cubed chicken breast. We cooked our but you can use any chicken. 

Next, we topped with Trader Joe's Quattro Formaggio, which is a combination of grated parmesan, asiago, fontina and provolone cheese. We then laid the caramelized onions all around that and it was ready for the oven.

Put it in a 450 degree oven. We baked it until the crust was crispy and brown and the cheese was melted, about 15-20 minutes. 

We removed the pizza from the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes. We cut two slices and topped them with a couple dollops of goat cheese. Wow, it is good. All you need is a nice crunchy salad and dinner is ready!

And yes, we had lots of leftovers, but it is great reheated for dinner the following night. It also freezes very well if you freeze the pieces individually. When frozen, wrap each piece separately and put into a freezer bag. 

Lytle Family Recipes

My mother-in-law, Dorothy and sister-in-law, Deanna are excellent cooks. Down through the years, they have both shared their recipes with me and given me cookbooks that I still have and treasure very much. Here are a few of their recipes that I have in my recipe box.

Great Grandma Paulsen was in her 70's when I first met her. I know that she was an outstanding cook for many years. She lived with her family on a working farm in North Dakota and she cooked many meals for her family and hired hands. She got up very early everyday to bake fresh bread and everything from scratch, including lighting the fire in the oven. Any time we think we have it hard in the cooking department, we should remember what our grandmothers and great grandmothers went through to get a meal on the table. Great Grandma Paulsen lived to be 99 years old. This is the only recipe I have from her in my recipe box.



I only met Aunt Emma Larson a couple of times. She was Great Grandma Paulsen's younger sister. One thing everyone said about her is that she was such a good cook.
I'm glad that I have this recipe from her.



My mother-in-law, Dorothy is one of my favorite people. I couldn't love her more! We have enjoyed so many wonderful meals around her dining room table. If you asked any of her grandkids about their favorite meal at Gramma's house, they would all say they wanted it to include her amazing hot rolls with butter and strawberry freezer jam. Here are her recipes that I have in my box.











My sister-in-law, Deanna is also one of the nicest people that I know. She is always so happy and kind and my kids have always called her "Auntie Dee." She always brought the best dishes to family gatherings. She probably got tired of me asking for her recipes. I'm glad I have these recipes to share from her.

Vintage Recipes

The first recipe cards I received were from a "Kitchen Shower" that great friends had for us before we got married. About thirty couples were there and every couple brought a recipe card with their favorite recipe, a spice, a can of food, plus many other kitchen type gifts. It was amazing! By the time we were married in November of 1972, we had lots of recipes, spices and our cupboards were filled with lots of food. Good thing, because we were as poor as church mice!! Actually, even poorer than church mice!!

Here are a few of those recipes plus some others that have been given to me during the past 37 years.

The Old Recipe Box

I'm guessing that not many of the new cooks have an old recipe box. It goes way back to the olden days when recipes weren't as available as they are now. Computers are great. We can quickly google and find a recipe we need in a flash. But, sometimes it's just fun to drag out the old recipe box and pull out a recipe written on an old fashioned recipe card. Every time I do, it is a trip down memory lane. Most of my card are stained with drips and specks, after years of use. Now more than ever, I appreciate the time each person took to write out the card specifically for me. It always brings back a good memory about a family member or a special friend and maybe a meal we shared or a baby shower we were at together.

In my recipe box, the majority of my cards have -  Recipe From: Mom.  I learned from my mom, how to cook as I was growing up, so when I got married and started my own family, I basically cooked what and how my mom had cooked for all 9 of us. The first time I made a pot roast with gravy for my new husband back in 1972, he looked in the dutch oven and said "What are we going to do with all that gravy"? It actually took me a while before I was able to cook for only 2 people. I'm posting these recipes in honor of my mom for all the food she cooked for us during the 50's, 60's and 70's. These are also for her kids, grandkids and great-grand kids to enjoy.