February...an exciting culinary adventure awaits!

In just 5 days (give or take) Aj and I will be on our way to Japan to see the glorious sights and, first and foremost, to eat. I've been raving about Kansai food for years and years, and finally he will get to experience the delicious street foods, Japanese takes on American dishes, and to taste so many dishes his head will spin just trying to remember the names of them. We're going for 7 days, and 6 nights, and we couldn't be more excited. Excited to get out of these cold, cold temperatures and bask in the sunny 50 degree weather that is Osaka and Kyoto. Sweet escape!

Of course, any time you are about to go on an extended vacation...you start to get creative with what you have in the house. "Oh well I don't want to go buy groceries we're leaving in 5 days it won't get eaten!" (Actually I've been saying this for about a week now and we still have a week to go...) So when the food variety gets low...you start to get creative with what is in the cabinets and fridge.

Sometimes, you know, these meals make the best new things - things you add to your culinary repertoire and continue to make for years. That's how a lot of casseroles get started...Or so I assume. It's how I'd come up with a casserole if I were going to come up with a casserole. This time around, though, I chose a pasta dish. We had an old, opened bottle of yummy Chardonnay on the table with about 3/4ths a cup left in it, some veggies on the brink of going bad, a little heavy whipping cream left from my whipped cream experiments, angelhair pasta, a can of super low fat veggie soup, cheese, assorted dry sundries, and some boneless skinless chicken thighs that had been defrosting for about 2 days. Hmmm....

A pasta dish seemed to be the answer... A pasta dish made with a creamy white wine and tomato sauce, with stuffed mushroom chicken breasts perhaps??? Ah, indeed. I kept thinking it sounded like a delicious and dynamite idea!

Aj says that the days when I make random foods off the cuff are some of his favorites, because they're (in his opinion) usually really good. I am a harsher critic of myself. I don't like a lot of things I make...but that's part of being a cook! This... this turned out pretty good! The pasta sauce was so delicious I only wish I had made more. It was savory, thick and rich. I did have my qualms though.

I didn't love the chicken thighs - the chicken would have been better if it were breast meat. I can't help but think the whole thing might have been even better if it were stuffed mushroom caps instead of chicken all together. Yum! Either way I'd try some different renditions of this for sure! The only problem here is that when I cook like this I don't measure...so translating into a recipe is a bit harder... We'll see what I can do for you!

Creamy Grape Tomato Pasta

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded thin with a meat mallet, or stuffed mushroom caps.
• About 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 cup of white wine
• 1/4 cup some kind of savory vegetable soup broth
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese, if you have it
  
• 1/2 a package (about 4-6 ounces) of grape tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 cup roughly diced/chopped mushrooms
• 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup white cheddar or other savory cheese, grated (like parmesan)
• 3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2-4 tablespoons olive oil
• Oregano
• Salt
• Angelhair pasta
  

When making this, keep in mind that it's a "What you have" type of dish. Use what you've got - don't go out and buy a bunch of stuff to make this! If you have regular tomatoes, seed them and dice them. If you have light cream instead of heavy, it's ok! If you have regular breadcrumbs - no big deal! Use what you've got! The wine is important, so maybe you should get a bottle of any nice white wine...you know... and drink most of it.

1. If you're using chicken, pound it flat and sprinkle it with salt and oregano on one side. If you're using mushrooms, remove the stems and lightly rinse the caps - mushrooms taste better when they're not rinsed so don't feel you have to.
2. Put 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a large nonstick skillet (butter will work in place of olive oil) and saute the garlic for about 1 minute. Add in the diced mushrooms and drizzle a little more olive oil over the mixture and a splash of white wine and saute for another 2-3 minutes or until mushrooms are starting to shrink and cook. Remove from heat and divide the mixture between two bowls.
3. In one of the bowls of mushrooms, mix the bread crumbs, grated cheese, and a sprinkle of salt and oregano and mix until well combined.
4. Put 1/4th of the breadcrumb mixture onto one side of the chicken and fold over the other side, pinching the chicken shut as much as possible. Do this for all 4 pieces of chicken.
5. Heat up the other 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the skillet and sear the chicken on both sides. You are not cooking the chicken all the way through you are just browning the outside. Remove and put on a plate.
6. In a separate pot, bring water to a boil to cook the pasta. Heavily salt the water.
   
7. Combine the wine and cream and bring to a rolling simmer. Reduce heat to medium and put the chicken into to the skillet with the sauce mixture. Add in the rest of the tomatoes and the rest of the mushroom mixture from the second bowl.
8. Cover and let cook without interruption 10-15 minutes. You do not need to flip the chicken.
9. By this time your water for the pasta should be boiling, so put in the pasta and let it cook 3-5 minutes depending on how firm you like your pasta. When the pasta is done, pour it into a colander and lightly toss with olive oil or pam-spray.
   
10. Take the lid off and mix in the cream cheese for an extra creamy sauce. Let the cream cheese melt and stir it around to mix it in the sauce. Replace the lid and let cook a few more minutes.
11. If the sauce is not thickening, take off the lid so some of the water can boil away, but make sure your chicken is almost done. If your chicken is not close to done, don't remove the lid.
12. Dish the pasta into 4 portions. Place one chicken piece on top of the pasta and scoop and drizzle the sauce across the pasta. Voila. Done. Under 30 minutes. Delicious!
    

I hope you'll try some kind of variation on this recipe, let me know how it turns out!

I doubt I'll have time to update before we leave for Japan but I will return with some fun photos of things we ate while there! In the mean time, here's some photos of things I've cooked during the hiatus of the last post to this one.