August 28: Father of the Bride II

Day 110

For most of my life, I've believed that my best friend's birthday is August 28th. However, I'm usually wrong about birthdays and it might be August 26th or 27th. Ergo, Happy Birthday Caroline! This salutation may be belated or I might be dead-on, either way I hope you have the happiest of years ahead of you and I'm so glad that we've been friends for the last 15! years. We have so many great memories together and I know there are more good ones in our future. I hope you enjoy much cake this week.

On to the purge...

My purge today is a VHS movie I picked up at a thrift shop last year when I found out I was having a baby. I watched is multiple times during my pregnancy to the point where my husband can no longer tolerate it. :) This is the sequel (obviously) to Father of the Bride, and involves a mother and a daughter having a baby at the same time. What would be nightmarish in real life is clever in the movies.

Every party has a pooper.

Last night I made a fairly spectacular dinner from items I mostly already had in the kitchen. I am going to describe the meal, as I rarely think to take pictures of my food. I had defrosted chicken breasts, which I quickly seared in skillet with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I then put the chicken breasts in a foil pack with more oil and vinegar and then put them in the oven to bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Baking the chicken in foil made it nice and tender. Using the same skillet as I had seared the chicken in, I added more olive oil and butter. When that was sizzling, I added garlic and whole cherry tomatoes from my plant. Once everything was roasted, I added half n' half and stirred until thick. The sauce turned a sort of burnt-orange or brownish color due to the cherry tomatoes and the remains of the browned chicken. I added salt and pepper and once the sauce was almost done, I added some grated Parmesan cheese, which made the sauce even thicker. While the sauce was cooking I boiled some Farfalle (bow-tie) pasta and then added it to the sauce once it was cooked. The sauce was just enough (I didn't use specific measurements) and it stuck well to the farfalle. We added green beans for a vegetable and viola! a delicious dinner from ingredients I already had lying around the house. Clint loved the meal and kept asking me how I made everything. He couldn't believe I had just made the recipe up. I love it when he loves my cooking.