not much time today to cook -

[Kitchen Witch]

Thursdays are a nice day to do your grocery shopping. It seems to be the day the butchers have the best cuts out, produce seems fresher, fish for our Friday meals has just come in and the store shelves seemed to be stocked best on Thursday - waiting for the Friday and Saturday shoppers to strike!

So having to do my grocery shopping after the busy morning I had - I needed to make something good and quick.

Yes - it's Thursday in an Italian household - so of course there is a pasta dish.

Using my Kitchen Witch's Meat Paste (nice to have handy in the pantry!) I rubbed chicken thighs with the paste this morning, covered and refrigerated.

(The recipe is in the Favorites forum).

Using my electric grill, I grilled my thighs (chicken thighs that is! LOL) while boiling water for my pasta (adding salt to the water when it started to boil - waited for the water to return to a boil and then adding my pasta). I used penne; cooked al dente; drained. Using the hot pasta pot, I added olive oil to the pot with minced fresh garlic, sauteeing for a bit. Toss pasta in pan, turning to coat; fresh ground black pepper, a bit of salt, fresh minced parsley and grated Pecorino Romano and served with additional grated Pecorino Romano on the side.

Added a side salad - romaine lettuce, cukes, tomatoes, red onion, pepperoncini with an olive oil/lemon dressing (salt, pepper, basil) - and we enjoyed it!

[Kitchen Witch]

I made dessert the other day! LOL! Hey - it's a frozen dessert and you can make it a day or two ahead! But we had this after dinner:


In bowl, combine 16 oz. sour cream with 3/4 c. sugar with 4 t. fresh lemon juice; set aside.

I used a muffin tin with liners for this as well as a rectangular pan. (The muffin tin I used only makes 6 muffins - that is why I also used a pan. You can used either - it's your choice.)

In bowl, combine and mix well - 2 cans (15 - 16 oz. each) fruit cocktail and one 10-oz. jar maraschino cherries, drain the cherries not the fruit cocktail; cut cherries in half. Sprinkle with 1/c chopped walnuts and 2 bananas sliced; combine. Add sour cream mixture; blend gently. Transfer to freezer proof container, lined muffin tin or rectangular/square pan; cover and freeze.

Cut into squares if using a pan and let thaw a bit before serving. I love frozen fruit and I eat it still frozen!

I have substituted chunk pineapple or diced peaches for the fruit cocktail. Red and green maraschino cherries halved make a nice presentation during the holiday season too!

NOTE: A shallow pan works best.