Chicken and Pasta with Parmesan Cream Sauce

all yee Cheerwine Fans!!

you need not drive all the way South to find this beverage for making Cheerwine Cake. See recipe posted April 10, 2014 http://sockfairies.blogspot.com/2014/04/its-southern-thing.html

I found Cheerwine at my local World Market store in the Twin Cities. What a find!

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Chicken Pasta with Parmesan Cream Sauce

Cook's notes: I was inspired by a recipe I found online by Chelsea. With a few modifications the tasty dish made a flavorful dinner for 4.  The cream sauce is the same one I used making Baby Hot Kentucky Browns recipe posted April 27, 2014.

Ingredients:

• 1-3/4 cups penne pasta or shell pasta measured when dry
• 3 cups cooked chicken
• 8 oz. white button mushrooms, cleaned and diced
• 2 cups torn leaves baby spinach (remove stems)
• 1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes and/or 1/2 cup sweet red peppers, diced
• 1/2 cup sweet onion, chopped
• 2 tsp. Italian herbs 

Parmesan Cream Sauce

• 1 TB. olive oil
• 1 TB. butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2-1/2 TB. flour
• 1 cup low sodium fat free chicken broth
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Cook pasta, drain, set aside to keep warm
• In a large skillet heat olive oil and butter, saute onions, mushrooms and garlic
• Add in flour coating onions, mushrooms and garlic, slowly add in broth and milk
• Bring to a boil, whisk until mixture starts to thicken
• Add in Parmesan cheese, peppers and/or tomatoes, cooked chicken, spinach leaves, Italian herbs and pasta  
• Cook on low heat 15-20 minutes and serve immediately

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As National Poetry month winds down I thought Lea Johnstone's poem titled "Poems Wander Shyly" was a fitting tribute to the joy of reading a poem and passing it along. This poem comes from her book Autumn Drew Its Bedtime Bath.

Check out Lea's website www.leajohnstone.tateauthor.com for more information about her book and gallery that features her paintings.

On August 18, 2013 I posted a blog Bringing The Arts to Life. Lea was featured with other authors at the Northwoods Book and Art Festival who were selling their books.

http://sockfairies.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-08-19T21:07:00-07:00&max-results=7

Poems Wander Shyly

Poems wander shyly, like a stream

Meandering here and there

Their journey, forever unfolding

Some know their place and tell their story

Others drift without a care

Words, aligned in fluid rhythm,

Make the rivers flow

But while sumac can only look with wonder

Go, be a sojourner along that stream

For poetry is the vessel that holds one's soul