This recipe is easy and quick, and a good way to feed a pile of people.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1 lb. penne pasta
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tbsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2 tbsp. capers
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 stick butter (8 tbsp.)
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion or 2 shallots diced
• Grated parmesan cheese to taste

Directions

1. Fill a large pot halfway up with water. Add salt to taste. Cover and bring to a boil. Add penne and cook al dente.
2. Cut or break off tough ends of asparagus. Cut into angled slices, 3 or 4 per stalk, so they are shaped like the penne.
3. Dice up the onion.
4. Cut the chicken breast into thin, flat pieces. Try to cut crossways as many times as you can to get wide, long but thin slices. I can usually get at least five from each breast. It helps if the chicken is partially frozen.
5. Add 1/2 cup flour, salt and pepper to a large bowl and stir.
6. Dredge chicken slices in flour mixture until coated.
7. In a large pan, turn to medium-high and add olive oil. Once that’s hot, swirl in 2 tbsp. butter.
8. When butter is melted, add chicken slices in a single layer, covering the entire surface of the pan.
9. Brown for 3-4 minutes, turn and repeat.
10. Set aside browned slices and repeat until all chicken has been nicely browned.
11. Add 2 tbsp. butter to pan. Add onions/shallots and saute until soft. The pan should be really hot.
12. Pour in white wine to deglaze pan, scraping browned bits up.
13. Add the chicken broth and remaining butter.
14. Whisk in remaining flour. Add water/wine/butter/broth to build up a nice sauce.
15. Stir in the chicken, asparagus, and capers. Whisk remaining flour into chicken broth and remaining flour. Cover and turn heat to low.
16. Check occasionally. It’s done when the asparagus is bright, green and tender.
17. Serve with grated parm. I like red pepper flakes as well.

Just made this. It’s not quite bad.

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 jar salsa
• 1 can baked beans
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2tbsp paprika
• 1tsp cumin
• 1tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1 can beer

Brown and drain the beef. Mash it up with a fork or something.

Throw in the other ingredients. Simmer for an hour.

Ingredients:

1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces, or whatever bone-in chicken you have laying around

1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce

———-

Start the grill.

Dump the bottle of sauce in a pot. Fill the bottle with water, shake it up, pour into the pot.

When it’s boiling, add the chicken. Cook for 20-25 minutes or sostirring occasionally,  until the chicken starts to fall of the bone a little.

Throw the chicken on the cooler side of the grill, if you can do indirect heat, otherwise make sure the grill is on low. You don’t want it to stick.

Brush some of the sauce on the chicken and cover. Wait a bit, brush more sauce on, wash, rinse, repeat until there’s like 1/4 of the original sauce left in the pot, and the chicken has some nice chariness/crispiness to it.

Throw the chicken back in the pot to coat w/the sauce and serve.

Made this last night, easy and quick, mmm. This is a great way to cook shrimp as it’s hard to overcook them, and they absorb all the flavors of the rice. I call it “Dirty” rice because this batch ended up with a nice grey-brown color, but YMMV…

Ingredients:

• 1 bag frozen, EZ-Peel shrimp, 24-30 count (preferable western hemisphere like Belize)
• 1 cup rice (I used Jasmine, anything should work)
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 tbsp white wine
• 1 peeled carrot
• 1/2 peeled red onion
• 3-4 cloves peeled garlic
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 Jalapeño pepper
•  2 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1 tsp.  caraway seeds
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp. oil of your choice

Rinse the shrimp briefly under cold water and allow to thaw. The bag says run continuously under cold water until thaw. Great advice;  way to conserve water. When they’re ready, peel off and chuck the skins.

Dice the veggies into small pieces.

Mortar/pestle the spices into a coarse mixture.

Heat up the oil in a heavy pot on medium-low heat. Let the oil get really hot, then throw in the veggies. Stir them until they caramelize.

Pour in white wine to de-glaze. Add rice and continue stirring until wine is absorbed and stuff starts to sizzle again.

Pour the chicken broth slowly, a little at a time, stirring continuously, over a 15-18 minute period. Test the rice occasionally, it should get tender yet firm, creamy and maybe a little crunchy.

Turn heat on low, toss in the shrimp, and cover for 5 minutes.

Serves 4.