The First Supper!

Last week, out of sheer boredom and a recent inspiration to cook more adventurously, we attempted to create a delicious dinner.  After much debate over what to cook we finally settled on making Chicken and Asparagus Fettuccine with Olive cheese bread on the side, both recipes we found on Allrecipes.com.  As usual, we didn't quite follow the recipe and made our own innovative changes.

The original recipe:

• 12 ounces dry fettuccine pasta
• 2 cups 1 inch pieces fresh asparagus
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups half-and-half cream
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 pound cooked chicken breasts - cut into bite size pieces

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Add the asparagus during the last 3 to 5 minutes of cooking. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl.
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine butter and half-and-half. Cook until thick and bubbly. Season with garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Stir in Parmesan cheese and chicken, and heat through.
3. Pour sauce over pasta and asparagus, and toss to coat.

What we did:  We decided to add less cream & butter so that it would turn out less heavy & watery, since the reviews indicated that it would be.  It still didn't turn out creamy, as we thought it would be, but it had some good flavor.  In addition we added mushrooms to the recipe, which we decided was an excellent addition.

Our main complaint with the recipe was that it was too dry because the sauce would not stick to the pasta.  If we were to make it again, we decided that it would be better if we used heavy cream instead of half/half to thicken the sauce or a little bit of flour might have helped thicken it.  We would only give this recipe 3 out of 5 stars.

Next for the side dish! The Olive cheese bread was absolutely delicious, but of course we didn't follow the recipe.  We agreed this was the star of the dinner!

The original recipe:

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped black olives
• 1/4 loaf French bread, halved lengthwise

Directions

This recipe's Ingredients were scaled to yield a new amount. The directions below still refer to the original recipe yield of 8 Servings.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Stir together butter and mayonnaise until smooth and creamy. Mix in garlic powder and onion powder. Then stir in cheese and olives. Spread mixture evenly over French bread, and place on a baking sheet.
3. Bake in a preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Increase heat to broil, and cook until cheese melts and bread is golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.

 What we did:  the recipe only called for 1/4 of a loaf of french bread, we decided this wasn't enough bread.  Instead of doubling or tripling the recipe like any normal person would do we decided to just spread the cheese mixture over 3/4s of the loaf of bread and make a little bit go a long way.  And it most definitely did, the bread was amazing and probably less oily than it would have been if we double the ingredients in the mixture.  We gave this recipe 5 stars out of 5 and we definitely intend to make it again!
**For those of you who do not like olives, like Sam, the bread tasted very yummy with only cheese.  Next time we might put more cheese, and maybe a different vegetable**

After creating a delicious dinner we decided that this was something that we should do more often, and as a way to record what we make we will be blogging about our cooking adventures here!