80's movies queue

august has been a rough month in the decarlo home.  mike has been sick for well over half of it, with me sick almost as much.  because most (read here, "all") of our friends would prefer not to get The Summer 2012 Plague, we've had to cancel oodles of plans.  a month of sniffles, cramping each other's space, and dragging ourselves to work to count down until it's time to go home (and go to bed ridiculously early).

it's ok, you can put away the world's saddest song on the world's smallest violin you're playing for us in sympathy.  because our world has taken a turn for the more cheerful!  see our happy little faces??

here's why: we've rediscovered 80's movies.

last night, we started "ladyhawke"......if you haven't watched it, you should!  via tweets exchanged with becca, "conspiracy theory" has been moved to the top of our list, closely followed by "willow."  a coworker urged me to add "don't tell mom the babysitter's dead" to our queue.  mike has said that we will NOT, however, be watching "the fly."

in a comment below, please add the 80's movies you believe we need to watch.  or avoid watching, if that's on your heart.  please remember, the more dramatic, the better.  laugher has healing qualities, people!

rotisserie chicken pasta

we buy a rotisserie chicken almost once a month.....in addition to being a wonderful meal to eat after our large shopping trip (and one that we smell the whole way home from the store!!), it gives us bones to make chicken stock from.  double win!!!

but even after we've eaten our fill of the fresh chicken that first day, we have extra meat left-over.  i've tried different uses for it, but because it starts with a strong flavor, it's been hard to work it into pre-existing recipes.

no more!  the recipe below has more gentle flavors in the garlic, rosemary, and thyme, that complement the rotisserie flavor rather than competing with it.  at least, we thought so!!  :-)  enjoy!

rotisserie chicken pasta

1 - 2 cups of rotisserie chicken (as much as you have to use!)

1 cup frozen corn
1 16 oz box of bow-tie pasta
2 1/2 T olive oil
2 T garlic
2 tsp rosemary
2 tsp thyme
3 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

parmesan cheese (optional)

- cook pasta al dente (my box said to set the timer for 11 minutes)
- while the pasta is cooking, crush the rosemary and thyme with mortar and pestle (optional step)
- when the pasta is almost done, heat the olive oil in a separate pot. once it is hot, add the garlic and cook for ~2 minutes at medium heat

- drain the pasta

- add the pasta to the oil and garlic, and mix well; decrease the heat to low

- sprinkle the rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper on top of the pasta, and mix well

- add the rotisserie chicken and corn; continue stirring gently until both the chicken and corn are heated through.  i found that with gentle stirring, the larger pieces of chicken fell apart into bite size pieces.

serve with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.  this recipe makes approximately 6 servings.

notes: 

- the left-overs tasted great cold!  if you reheat the left-overs of this dish, i suggest heating on the stove-top, so you can stir the oil into the mixture as it heats.  in a microwave, i think that the oil could just sink to the bottom of the dish.

- i made this with regular pasta, but plan to try it with whole grain next time.