A Lovely Lark: Birthday Dinner

You may have noticed that I don't do a lot of food-related posts around here, and for good reason. Food is not my forte. Don't get me wrong - I love to eat it! But when it comes to preparing a meal, I am definitely cooking-challenged. Although I consider myself a creative person in many ways, in the kitchen it's give me a recipe or give me death!

Lucky for us, the Hubster is a regular Picasso when it comes to all things tasty. Even his failed experiments taste about a billion times better than my best meals, so needless to say he makes most of the meals around the H-Haus. I thought I'd share my birthday meal with all of you, because, well, it was just too good not to! Here's what my hubby whipped up:

Hi there with two cats readers! I'm here to share my 'recipe' with you at the request of my lovely wife. I never actually seem to follow a recipe - I tend to go by feel. In any case, I will do my best to describe the process I followed. Cooking is always an experiment for me - usually it works out (after putzing around for awhile trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing).

Here's what you'll need:

Lauren's Birthday Pasta

Ingredients

Bow Tie Pasta
Two Chicken Breasts
Season All Salt
Paprika
Dry White Wine
Mushrooms
Diced Tomatoes
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Sour Cream
Onion
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Taragon
Asparagus
Parmesan Cheese

Sauce
I began by coating my frying pan with olive oil along with a few splashes of lemon juice. Next, I combined chopped onion, sliced garlic, and mushrooms and simmered them for a few minutes before adding a dry white wine (about 3/4 cup - I used Sauvignon Blanc). Next, I added a dollop of sour cream to thicken it slightly. I let the mixture cook for a few minutes while adding salt and pepper, allowing the wine to cook off a bit. Finally, I added diced tomatoes (minus the juice) and mixed it all together.

Chicken
Rub the chicken with season all salt, paprika and tarragon. I cooked it on the grill because it is fast and I prefer the texture. We keep our grill in the garage, so I use it pretty much year-round. I just open the garage door, wheel the grill over, and fire it up!

Finishing Touches
I steamed the asparagus separately, then cut it into short lengths and tossed it with the pasta. The chicken was cut into slices and served over the pasta, and the whole dish was then topped with parmesan cheese.

I also mixed olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, Italian spices and dill weed for dipping bread. We had the remainder of the Sauvignon Blanc with the meal and it paired quite nicely. So there you have it - Lauren's birthday pasta. - Kevin

Thank you to the Hubster for not only preparing me an amazing meal, but for also taking the time to take notes on his cooking genius! I'm always bugging him to write down his recipes so that (maybe) I can copy them. We ended the meal with a beautiful flower cake sent to me by my sister (no it wasn't edible, which was actually a good thing as we had NO room left for dessert after that delicious meal!)