{My only good recipe}

Ok...that's not entirely true. I do have one other good recipe, but it's a secret.

Anyway, the Mister and I honeymooned in San Francisco after our wedding. San Fran is one of the greatest places on earth as far as I am concerned, and one of the very best things about it is the food. Whenever we travel to another city, we always make a pact not to eat anywhere that we could eat at home--we want to try only new things. We both LOVE food; in fact, we probably spent the greater majority of our honeymoon just wandering around the city and picking up food any chance we got.

S.F. is particularly great because there are so many little niche areas of town that offer completely different kinds of food, and we ate at every one of them (and then stuffed ourselves with sourdough in between).

Anyway, the point of that tangent is this: One night, we stopped in this little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant at 10 in the evening SOMEwhere in Little Italy for a very late dinner. It was tiny, and dark, and I had the MOST amazing pasta I had ever tasted in my life--pure, home cooked goodness in a bowl. Sometimes, I have dreams about it.

For the last couple of months, I have been trying out every lemon garlic cream pasta recipe I could get my hands on, because for some reason, the urge to have that dish again is back. After a lot of trial and error (and some good, but not quite right, recipes) I have emerged victorious. I'm still not sure it is as good as my Little Italy fare, but it certainly satisfies. Even the kiddos gobble it up. For the record, it is very lemony and very garlic-y. But also very scrumptious.

So try it out (especially if you happen to, ahem, not be a fan of tomatoes in your family...I know you're reading this...)!

You will need:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 or 3 lemons (for juice and lemon zest)
4-6 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 cans of chicken broth (14 oz)
1 12 oz package of whole wheat pasta
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup melted butter

In a baking dish, lay out the chicken breasts. Squeeze half (or a whole, if you like more) lemon over the chicken breasts, sprinkle with pepper, and then mince 2-3 cloves of garlic and spread over the chicken. Bake the chicken in the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until cooked. (*Ok, just a note. Your garlic will turn blue. At first, I thought I was poisoning my family, but some smarty friends of mine  informed me that it's just reacting with the lemon juice...which I think is kind of cool...)

Once you get the chicken in the oven, pour the broth into a sauce pan and mince the rest of your garlic and add it. Once the broth comes to a boil, add the pasta and about 1/4 cup lemon juice (I just use the rest of the lemon and another...and sometimes another.) Let it cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is all absorbed (will take about 20-25 minutes).

Your chicken is probably about done now. If so, go ahead and take it out and shred the chicken. Then add it to the pasta, along with the milk and the butter. Grate about a teaspoon of lemon zest from the peel of one of your leftover lemons and toss it in for a little extra kick.

Mix it all up and serve pure deliciousness...

{Sorry I didn't take a picture of the finished product...turns out, I was too busy stuffing my face...}