Of cravings, pasta, passion and quick preparation...

Recently, I have regular cravings for a taste just like this. I guess mine is more of a penchant for the combination of olive oil, butter, herbs (or Italian spices) and parmesan cheese. My passion for cooking has made me come up with two variations from the chicken-shrimp pasta that was served first. The second one was added with salmon and instead of using butter when I sauteed the ingredients, cheese was used. My third variation was served last night. I went to town and decided earlier that my husband and I take care of our own dinner - he would buy on the nearby store in our apartment compound while I choose where to eat in town. The choices I had include McDonalds, Yoshinoya, Moss Burger and Kohikan - all of which are fastfood chains. I was not really hungry and thinking of the choices mentioned didn't boost my appetite anyway. Then came the urge for "that" taste. I thought my daughter could have finished her dinner already by the time I arrived home so she could have settled by then and not be catching my attention while I cook, and Dennis is there anyway. When I got into the bus bounded for home, I called him and asked him to cook the pasta so when I get there, I would only be cooking the rest of the ingredients.

I dropped by the grocery, passed by the vegetable section first and thought adding brocolli would be nice so I grabbed one, headed to the meat section and picked up a packaged boneless chicken. I also grabbed a bottle of orange juice on my way to the counter. That's all I got from the grocery. I checked on Jade for few minutes and without even changing clothes, I started to quickly prepare the stuffs I needed - diced onions, (I left out the garlic this time but I used the powdered one instead), diced chicken, sliced brocolli and... tadah... I started the cooking. In a span of 30 minutes, the dish is ready to be eaten. I forgot to mention that the pasta was timely cooked when I got home so all I did was to drain it and coat it with the butter that I intentionally mixed in the saute for quicker preparation. I guess it was the quickest pasta preparation I ever did. The result was great. Adding the brocolli made it even better. I had a second serving at 10PM as I needed to put our daughter to sleep right after I ate my first platter. Moreover, we had a packed pasta for breakfast at work.

The following are photos from my second variation - chicken, shrimp and salmon.

the buttered pasta

the concoction

the mixed concoction and pasta

the dish - served and ready to eat