The Flow of Consciousness

I went into tonight’s dinner primarily wanting chicken alfredo. After discovering that my jar of alfredo was a little, well, old, I decided to search the cupboards for alternative ingredients to match the chicken.

The result will go down in history as one of the most delicious dishes I’ve ever concocted. Now, I’m sure someone has done this at some point, but I’ll humor my ego and continue thinking that I’m somewhat original.

Has the picture already activated your salivary glands? It should have. Huzzah.

Here’s my recipe:

• 1/2 pound diced, pre-cooked filet chicken
• 1 can of olives
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
• 1 cup of sliced/diced sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil and basil (I got it at Costco)
• ~1/4 pound of pasta (I used capellini, but farfalle or fettuccine would work well, too)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Cook the pasta and drain it separately. You’ll eventually mix it with the rest.

Heat the chicken over medium heat in a large skillet until it’s fairly hot, then add the olive oil. Adjust the temperature slightly higher, but no so high that the olive oil fries the chicken. Add the tomatoes. Stir. Add the olives, crushing them by hand as you drop them into the skillet. Stir. Add the feta cheese. Stir. Heat for ~5 minutes until feta is slightly melted, stirring occasionally.

Taste it here to see if you want to add more tomatoes or oil or basil. I didn’t.

Once it’s sufficiently hot, mix with the noodles however you’d like. I mixed my capellini in the skillet, but the chicken mix could also be served on top of the noodles.

If you mix in the pasta, stir it thoroughly to coat it in oil and melted feta. Serve! I have enough to two large portions.

It’s probably quite possible to add some pine nuts, spinach, parmesean cheese, and/or additional basil.

As for a beverage pairing, stick to a berry fruit juice, lighter beer, or white wine. I had a Cerveza SOL (wp) with mine. It wasn’t ideal, but it sufficed.

If you try out this recipe, let me know in the comments how it goes.

I love sushi.

I love cheap sushi.

I love Giant Eagle sushi.

Giant Eagle sells rolls (maki-zushi) for about five dollars per dozen and filets (nigiri-zushi) for about ten dollars. I prefer the rolls, but for no reason other than cost. They’re tasty and make for a decent meal, especially when you’ve eaten lightly during the day (I find sushi to be fairly filling, but I may be weird like that).

Ben and Jerry’s has let out news of a new flavor: Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream. It’s vanilla with fudge-covered vanilla cone pieces and a caramel swirl. Delicious.

Stephen Colbert’s ever-growing popularity never ceases to amaze me. Maybe I’ll name my first son Stephen Colbert Dean.

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