Dinner Time(See Recipe Below)

One of the traditions we have adopted when we started living together is to have a family dinner every night at the dining room table and some of you reading this have even broken bread with us on a few occasions. This is a strong departure from my prior ritual of making dinner and sitting down to watch whatever sporting event, game show, entertainment news program, MTV reality show, or Seinfeld episode caught my eye on that particular evening. I can now count the number of dinner we’ve eaten in front of the TV on one hand and I’ve even resorted to eating at the table when I’m home alone. Normally, we plug in the iPod and enjoy our dinner while catching upon the events and news of our days.

In addition to spending time dining together we also employ the team method to making our meals. This procedure takes many different forms as it varies as to who will be in charge of the main dish or the sides and the role of leader can even flip around over the course of one food preparation. I think we have several delicious options to choose from out of our house cookbook and I would like to share one with you now. It’s a fairly simple pasta recipe you can locate at most restaurants, but now you can make it in the comfort of your own home. I also must add the disclaimer that do years of working in a restaurant I no longer measure anything which usually works out except for the fact I am now forbidden from making StoveTop, but I think I calculated amounts correctly. It also helps to entertain yourself by doing your best Emeril impression while working over the stove

Pepper’s Pasta

1 Chopped Clove of Garlic
1/2 Cup Of Butter
1/2-Cup Wine
1 Sliced Yellow (or your favorite color) Pepper
1 Cup of Chopped Onion
1 Cup of Peas
2 Sliced Portabella Mushroom Caps
1/2 Cup Sun Dried Tomatoes
1/2 lb of Penne Pasta (Feel free to Substitute)
1/2 Coffee Mug of Chicken Broth (Heat in Microwave)
1/2 Pint of light cream
1/2-Cup Parmesan Cheese

1. Add Pasta to boiling water and set timer for 10 minutes
2. Sauté the garlic and butter for 1 minute
3. Add all the vegetables and the cooking wine to Step 1 and cook for 2 minutes while being sure to stir the vegetables every 20-30 seconds. The basic point here is to try to keep the vegetables on the bottom burning and sticking to the bottom
4. Pour the Chicken Broth into the vegetable mixture and cook until broth has boiled off while continuing to stir vegetables every 20-30 seconds
5. The cream can now be added to our pan. Once all the cream begins to boil pull it off the heat after 20 seconds or the sauce may break. It helps to save a little cream because you can save a cream sauce by adding more cream. Right before you remove the pan from the heat, add the remaining cream for 10-20 seconds.
6. Strain the cooked pasta and add it to the pan with the vegetables/sauce along with the Parmesan cheese. Mix everything together and you’re ready to serve in your favorite bowl.

Enjoy and please feel free to substitute in all your favorite vegetables. Also, add a little water to the bottom of your pan to help with the after dinner clean up.