The Miracle of Penzey's

I got home from work last night at 6:30, thanks to some rather bizarre traffic, and did I just stop at McDonald's for dinner and shove french fries into my mouth? No, sirree, I actually cooked! Not only did I cook, but I used a RECIPE and everything!

It was a recipe that I found in a Penzey's spice catalog about six months ago. I'd made it once before, but the weather has finally cooled off enough so I can cook it again.

Greek chicken and pasta. Simple, fairly quick, and really really good! Tomatoes, mushrooms, lemony herby goodness. And look at how pretty it is!



It also made a LOT of it, so I have it for a couple of days.

I even made it my own a little bit. It calls for chicken broth to deglaze the pan, but I used white wine and I used cremini mushrooms instead of button. (Wild girl!) And, craziest of all, it calls for thin spaghetti, but I used linguine. Woah, slow down there, Bessie!

So, here's a toast to tasty food on a Tuesday night and plenty of leftovers.

Tasty Peachy Goodness

Now that I have my camera with me, I can show you the gorgeousness that was my contribution to Chick Day!

I found the recipe on Epicurious.com and thought it sounded perfect. After all, this is the exact time of year for fresh peaches.

Peaches and raspberries in spiced white wine. There was also a version for red wine, but I preffered the lightness of the white with the peaches.

And I still made it in my kitchen when it was 105 degrees outside. Insanity.

You can see how good it looks, but I wish you could have smelled it. Something must have happened chemically, because all those good things together smelled even better than you can imagine.

I even ran out of sugar and had to use half brown sugar. Do you think it hurt it? No way! Hell, it may have made it better. And I ended up, completely by mistake, with two different kinds of peaches. Also, probably improved it!