Pasta and More!

So I made a really good dinner tonight. Not to brag, but hey, this is my blog. I'm going to brag a little. I made stuffed chicken breasts with pasta, and poached pears for dessert. I actually made the pasta--like with flour and eggs and kneading. That was so fun! We got the pasta maker attachment for the KitchenAid mixer as a wedding gift, and I had never used it. So tonight we did! Pasta is so easy to make! You make a dough out of flour and eggs (I used whole wheat flour), run it through the roller until it's your desired thickness (or thinness), and then use the cutting attachment to cut it into strips (or whatever you're making). I made a fettuccine shape because it seemed the easiest. I think next time I'll roll it a little thinner, but other than that, it turned out great! And it cooks so much faster! Just a few minutes in the boiling water, and it's done!

The chicken breasts were pretty simple too. I mixed together spinach, diced apples, chopped up prosciutto, parmesan, garlic, and some herbs and seasonings with a little olive oil, cut a slit in the side of chicken breasts, stuffed it in there, and away we went! I started them in a skillet on the stove to brown them on both sides, then transferred them to the over to finish cooking though. Partially because it saved time, partially because I needed that burner! I used chicken stock to deglaze the skillet and start making a sauce. I added a little bit of garlic, a bay leaf, salt and pepper, dijon mustard, and a little butter to the pan and let it reduce down while everything else was cooking. It was a little thin, so I'm going to have to play around with that, but the flavor was good.

I think dessert might have been C's favorite part. I heated a bottle of red wine, some sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, vanilla extract, and some black peppercorns over the stove until the sugar dissolved. Then I added in pears that had been peeled, halved, and cored. They simmered for roughly 20-30 minutes, long enough to get nice and tender and soak up some great flavor. If only I had some vanilla ice cream to go with them! That would have been perfect. I think if I make this for company, I'd serve the pears with vanilla ice cream and reduce the poaching liquid to make a thick, pourable sauce over the top! Yum!