Tuesday Suppers

So this is post #2... before I jump into the recipe for Semi-Homemade Pasta Vodka Sauce with Pan Seared Chicken let me recap the great weekend I had in Virginia Beach. Jon is really busy even at night and on weekends. His school requires a lot of work outside of the classroom so I decided to go down on Saturday. Well that and Northern Virginia traffic is murder on friday evenings! I was going down solo this time so Landon stayed with my mom who he affectionately calls Fifi... long story. Fifi is his favorite person in the world so I was so surprised when he said he wanted to come with me. All the times I have asked him if he wanted to ride down with me to Virginia Beach he has told me no in effort to stay with my mom. I was shocked! It was hard to leave him, but the waterworks lasted only as long as it took my mom to ply him with pancakes. See what I mean... my son sells me out for my mom and pancakes any day. I got down to Virginia Beach in only about 3 hours so I had some time to kill before I could meet Jon. I went the mall and walked around until I decided I better go to Starbucks and start my term paper before I didn't get anything done. I started to fall asleep so I left and read in my car a while where I promptly fell asleep... just as I was going to get out the car and walk around Jon called and I was on my way to get him. It was so good to see him I don't think I stopped smiling for a good 3 hours. After checking in at the hotel we got all dressed up went to this great restaurant in downtown called Sonoma.

I had every intention of taking pictures of the great food...but I was kind of wrapped up in the fact that I was with Jon so I only got one of the dessert which was a blood orange cheesecake, delicious! We always seem to find great restaurants together.

Sunday we went to a church where we have some friends and it was awesome to see them. Since Jon had to be back at base by 3 to get back to his work for school we grabbed some Chipotle and headed over there. I hated to leave him, but we only have 47 days left so time is dwindling. Oh and for the record I don't think Virginia Beach likes me very much because I had snow last time and monsoon downpours this time... go figure!

Semi-Homemade Pasta Vodka Sauce with Pan Seared Chicken

1/2 pound whole wheat penne pasta

1/4 pound of pancetta, diced

1 jar vodka sauce

2 chicken breasts

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp sugar

olive oil

salt

 pepper

grated parmesean cheese

1. In salted boiling water cook the pasta until al dente (with a little bite)
2. Slice chicken breast lenghtwise to make 4 thinner cutlets, season liberally with salt and pepper on both sides.
3. In a medium sized skillet over medium heat add olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add chicken breast and don't move for 4 minutes or until browned on one side. Flip back and forth until cooked through and skin is brown. Remove from skillet and set aside to rest.
4. In the same skillet saute pancetta and garlic adding olive oil if necessary to prevent sticking. Try hard not to brown the garlic.
5. Add the vodka sauce and sugar, stir to combine, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Toss the pasta with the vodka sauce.
7. Slice chicken breast and place on top of pasta.
8. Top with parmesean cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. Enjoy!