THE PARTHENON!!!

alright, ladies and gentlemen...
this is a recipe i'm holding near and dear to my heart.
when i was in college at the greatest university in the world,
my dear friends and i would order this massively delicious
pizza from avers with breadsticks and loganberry drink.
just thinking of it makes my mouth salivate.
so clearly i decided that i needed to try and make this pizza.
i needed to recreate it since they don't deliver to indy....why not???

so...here it is....homemade parthenon...

THE PARTHENON

for the sauce
3/4 cup olive oil
garlic
flour
Parmesan cheese
red pepper flakes
parsley
oregano
salt

for the pizza
a pizza crust
green pepper
tomato
black olives
feta
purple onion

how to make
i used store bought thin crust pizza crust, but if you're really
martha stewart-ish make your own!

in a food processor combine all of the ingredients for the sauce.
as for everything other than the olive oil, do it to taste.
how much oregano do you like?
are you a huge fan of Parmesan? i don't know!
i personally put in a lot of parm, a decent amount of red pepper,
about 2 tsp of flour (to thicken it up), 1 1/2 tsp of garlic,
and lots of shakes of everything else.
but those are my tastebuds.
after you've added all of the ingredients,
mix well in a food processor and let sit while you chop everything else.

chop 1 whole tomato.
dice 1 1/2 cups of black olives (or however much you want
to cover the pizza)
dice 1/2 a green pepper
dice a bit of onion.

spread all of the sauce over the crust.
spread all of the chopping ingredients over the crust.
spread lots of feta cheese over the pizza.
and bake!!

then, pop in some felicity, get your best friends together, and enjoy...
(i wish!)

too bad someone can't figure out how to recreate loganberry...

tennessee girl cooks louisana food? you betcha!

As you can see, the idea of this blog has kind of turned into a cooking blog. But it's more than that! It's a cooking blog run by all of my friends from home (and we all now live all over the states...) so this is a way since we can't eat dinner together, we can share our recipes that work and are delicious with each other!

so today's recipe comes to us from the deep south...from ms. pretty bride herself! enjoy!!

louisana chicken pasta

found here

When I first saw this recipe I knew I had to make it. After all, it had our favorite menu items (peppers, onions, and cayenne pepper) but was in a pasta dish. Normally these ingrediants are used in all of our mexican dishes, most casseroles, hell, we even put them in our burgers. Anyway, the only problem was that I am trying to make the commitment to being healthy, without going to extremes, because that would never work. I edited Annie's recipe a little to make it a little more healthy. Instead of using 1/2 cup whipping cream and 1 cup half and half. I used 1-1/2 cups fat free half and half. To thicken the consistency a little from the absence of whipping cream I used 1-1/2 Tbsp of cornstarch mixed with 1-1/2 Tbsp of water (instead of 1 tsp of each). I also only used olive oil (no butter). And of course whole wheat pasta. I prepared garlic bread by broiling whole grain bread sprayed with spray butter, garlic salt and parmeson cheese. So, while it still isn't the healthiest of meals, it was great to have a creamy pasta dish without all the fat. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
For the chicken:
1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
Salt and pepper
Cajun seasoning

For the pasta:
8 oz. bowtie pasta - whole wheat
Kosher salt

For the sauce:
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. Cajun seasoning
1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
1-1/2 cups fat free half-and-half

1-1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
1-1/2 tbsp. water

Directions:
To cook the chicken, heat a small amount of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, and a generous sprinkle of Cajun seasoning. Add to the skillet and cook until lightly browned and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain the cooked pasta and set aside.

Meanwhile, return the skillet to medium heat and heat the olive oil until the butter has melted. Add the bell peppers and onion to the pan. Mix in the salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning and cayenne pepper. Cook until the vegetables are tender, about 6-8 minutes. Add the fat free half-and-half the pan and bring to a simmer. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water, and add to the skillet once the cream mixture has started to bubble. Allow to cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.

When the sauce has thickened, add the cooked pasta and chicken pieces to the pan. Stir well to combine and cook at medium-low heat just until the chicken is warmed through. Adjust the amount of Cajun seasoning if necessary to suit your tastes. Serve immediately and top with additional Cajun seasoning, if desired.

So we asked a genuine Louisana boy what he thought of it, Mr. Kyle Hornsby, and he said, "you give that girl a high five, wooooohooo!!!"

my best friend's wedding!!

i met ms. christina when i was 10...
over the past 16 years we've shared countless
stories about possible suitors
(over more laughter than you could imagine)
a little over 2 years ago, she found her perfect match.
and this past weekend we celebrated (and jaq and i cried)
with the best wedding weekend ever!

congratulations, matt and christina!! love you both so much!!

(and yes, i know, i have damn good looking friends!)

with spongebob

yes this is an image of a pregnant woman with spongebob painted on the belly.
and there are two reasons this made me laugh:
1) the caption from jezebel: I know I want my child to be
the infant version of a sponge on quaaludes.
2) this is something i would do because i thought it would be hilarious and my great friend would hang her head in shame that she knew me and say, "my god, jenny..."

for another equally disturbing story courtesy of jezebel, click here.

happy birthday to me :)

sorry i've been MIA lately. work has been insanely busy. and this weekend has been my BIRTHDAY weekend which has been absolutely delightful....even though i've gained back all the holiday weight that i had worked off the past 3 weeks...oh well...


so in honor of my birthday, i post these cupcakes that my friend prettybride found posted on annie's eats and i wish i had devoured :) i love cupcakes, i love twilight, i love edward.

and with that, i must head to work (on my day off...blech) for about 2 hours before heading to a movie w/ LPH and his momma.

a post just for spina rooney

while i was home this past weekend, i had to force myself to get some studying done and finish editing my law review note. so of course i was looking for anything to distract me. about 15 minutes after i sat down at my desk, i started digging through the drawers to see what fun i could find. first, i found my favorite card game ever, phase 10. i used to play it for hours when i was in high school at this little diner that served the world's best biscuits and gravy. this is also the location my affinity for black coffee started (some is brewing for me right now :) ). so of course, i laid them all out to ensure i had a full deck. i was missing a blue 7...but have no fear, i had 2 decks of phase 10 so i stole one from that deck to make a whole deck in which to play this delightful game all summer long...

then i came upon this: This, my friends, is a collage christina made for me. we were doubles partners in high school and of course laughed just as much as we played. for example, one day we played an entire match pretending christina was a foreign exchange student from london. this is also the fated day of "bo" which i will not go into (to protect the "innocent") but damn...it is a good story. you will see christina memorialized this day with the word "bo" on the collage. funny funny girl.

anyways, i posted this purely for christina's enjoyment. i hope it makes you laugh like it made me laugh. then i told logan several stories when i showed it to him last night; needless to say, he thinks we're funny too. and that i haven't changed from high school...weird.