http://www.foodrenegade.com/giveaway-grass-fed-sausage-sampler/

The Soy Decoy: Don’t Be Deceived

Though we rarely eat out, my husband just finished his semester last week and wished to go celebrate. Whenever we eat at a restaurant, I’m always on the watch for new dishes to make at home. I ordered a delightful little entree called simply “Chicken Ravioli.”  It turned out to be so much more than chicken ravioli. The ravioli were filled with chopped chicken and bacon and then smothered in a smoked gouda sauce. YUM!!! Even while I was eating I was dissecting the dish in order to reverse engineer the recipe. It was really quite simple but so scrumptious. I changed it a bit and made it with bowtie noodles instead of making ravioli. I have made ravioli once from scratch and it is so not worth the effort.

The players:

1 lb bowtie noodles

2 Tbsp butter

2 heaping Tbsp flour

2 cloves crushed garlic

2 cups WHOLE milk

Coarse salt

2 cups cooked chicken breast, chopped

4 strips cooked bacon, chopped

And the main attraction:

2 cups grated Smoked Gouda, mmmmmm!!!

Cook the bowties, drain, add back in the pot.

Add the chicken and bacon to the pasta.

Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, melt butter over low heat. Add garlic and stir until it smells amAzing, being very careful not to burn the butter nor the garlic, this just takes a few moments. Please don’t walk away to get the camera as I did. I almost had to start over.

Whisk in flour and cook for a minute until flour and butter are well mixed and there are no lumps. Add salt (start with about 1/2 tsp – you can adjust it later.) Pour in all the milk at once and whisk constantly over low heat until the sauce is nice and thick and bubbly. Mix in the Gouda and let it cook for another minute or so.

Check for salt. Pour over pasta mixture and mix well. So sorry, I was too excited to take a picture of the finished product, but I assure you that not only was it tasty, it was pretty, too. Eat and delight your palette!

When we bought our home in May 2002, there was much work to be done. One really lovely thing about the house was that it was filled with “treasures” that the previous owner had left behind. Much of it was thrown away immediately. Some things were kept, reassessed later and then thrown away. Then there were the real treasures. Maybe treasure is too strong of a word. How about things that weren’t total garbage and could possibly have some purpose. One of these things was a little corner table/stand type thing. I’m sure you’ve all seen these around.

It has lived these years behind our front door not really serving any purpose. But one day I walked past it and thought, “I am going to paint it black!” So I did. Then it once again lived behind our front door looking fabulous but still serving no purpose. Then one day (another day) I realized that I needed something in the empty corner of our school/family room. I also needed a home for our “new” globe which would live near the wall map. This is what I ended up with:

Yay! I love my little map/globe corner. Everything is right there and easily accessible to my little student. I found the globe at Goodwill for $10. It’s in perfect condition, but the metal part was brassy. I popped the globe out and spray painted the brassy part with Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint. Ahh – much better.

I’m linking up to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land and Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage.

Please leave me a comment letting me know what you think!