Recipes for a fabulous life

I had such a good meal tonight I had to write about it.

Main course: Good Lovin' Noodles
Side dish...maybe more like an appetizer: Probably Bad For You Dip

Good Lovin' Noodles
So called because if you served them to a significant other, you would get the good lovin' that night.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic
6 or so medium sized leaves of FRESH basil
3 tablespoons FRESH parsley (or so)
1/4 c to 1/3 c. red wine (I used dry Marsala)
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1/8 c. to 1/4 c. feta cheese (cubed by whatever means you want)
cooked chicken strips (cut up a grilled chicken breast or something...not like fried chicken strips, that would be gross)
some noodles (I used rigatoni...or rotelle, I don't remember which. Both would be fine, I'm sure)

Make the noodles according to package directions.

While you're waiting for the noodle water to boil, pour the olive oil in a small skillet and heat over medium heat. While you're waiting for that, chop your garlic clove as fine as you can (this is really just a me thing, I don't like huge chunks of garlic but whatevs).

When your oil is ready (by which I mean, when you're done chopping your garlic clove), add the garlic to the skillet and saute over medium heat until carmelized (note: this means kinda brown, but more golden than chocolate-y). By the way, when your noodle water boils, you should add your noodles. But that's just package directions.

Cut up your basil and parsley. Best method? Scrunch it up in a ball and chop the ball. Then, once your garlic is golden, add the herbs to the olive oil. Let them cook for a minute or two, until they smell good, and then add your wine and your butter.

Turn up the heat so you get it to a slow boil and then let your wine reduce (otherwise you could have just poured your wine over noodles and gotten almost the same result). After it's been about 3 minutes (I'm impatient, you could probably actually wait and get a thicker sauce), add your chicken strips and cook for about a minute more. Then pour the wine mixture over your noodles and add the feta cheese (hopefully you can time this so the noodles will still be steaming hot. I couldn't so my feta didn't melt. I was impatient...see above...but if I had more patience, I would have microwaved it so the feta melted).

You can garnish this with a basil leaf or some parsley if you want to be a fancy-pants. You also may want to double the recipe if you want to serve more than one because when I made this, it was just enough for me plus a little more. If you are serving a salad or bread, the sauce with the pasta may be enough for two.

Probably Bad for You Dip
So called because while yogurt is good for you, brown sugar is not so much.

1 carton vanilla yogurt (individual sized, I think those are called cartons)
*you can also use plain, it would be less sweet, which might be good
1/4 cup brown sugar (less if you are so inclined)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
apple slices (or whatever fruit you want)
lemon juice

Mix the yogurt with the brown sugar and vanilla until it's a uniform color. Add a few drops of lemon juice to taste (I would have done this to cut the sweetness a little but we didn't have any lemon juice). Dip apple slices in it. Enjoy the calcium.


So that is what I had for dinner tonight. It was good. I originally planned on using white wine in the sauce but then I accidentally opened the wrong bottle and was momentarily dismayed when my "white" wine was very red. But it turned out so good. The noodles would also be good with goat cheese or mozzarella (but fresh, not the not-as-good other stuff). Also cherry tomatoes. But I don't like them.