pasta, chicken and potatoes

What?  Another recipe post?  For real?  Yes, people.  It's rather simple and man, if I could do it, I'm sure ANYONE can.  Thanks to my sister for introducing me to the world of pasta-cooking.  It's odd really that I actually find myself at the kitchen.  My mother never knew it could happen in this lifetime.  But I guess the universe does perform miracles.  Or maybe because it's Christmas.  See the tree bokeh in the background?  *insert grin*

THE PASTA

What's in it: Olive oil, corned tuna (smallest can), 1 small tomato, 3-4 cloves garlic, basil leaves, a bit of finely chopped onions, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste.

• In a deep non-stick pan, sautee the chopped garlic and the onions using the olive oil.  In a few moments the aroma will fill the entire kitchen (in our case, the entire condo - mental note, keep bedroom door closed).
• When the garlic is on the road to browning, dunk the corned tuna into the pan.  You can try adding spicy corned tuna if it suits your taste.  After a bit, the chopped tomatoes could be tossed in as well.  Just stir them around the pan with a woden spoon, adding salt and pepper.
• Once you could smell the tuna cooking nicely, the noodles can come in.  Oh, lower the fire too.  Would suggest to include the noodles in batches, so you can tell if you have enough of the flavour to go around.  Unlike what happened to me, where I realized midway that I had too much noodle and too little "sauce".  Thanks Chips, for being overly excited about dumping all the noodles in.
• Anyway, if you go the careful route, you don't need to worry about adding and adjusting.  When the noodles are nicely coated and tossed around, drizzle parmesan and sprinkle the basil leaves (we chopped them too).
• Add salt and pepper if needed, and you should be all good.

THE PESTO CHICKEN

What's in it:  well, umm... just pesto, really.  We used thigh fillets.  I'm usually a breast fillet person, but they didn't have them in the supermarket.  Chips says the thighs have more flavor.  Anyway, what to do:

• Work in the pesto (it came in a bottle already, from the trusty supermarket) into the chicken with your hands.  Massage into the crevices.  Chips usually does this because my long nails sever the meat.  You can add salt if you want.
• Have this sit in a bowl for a while, in the refrigerator.  In the meantime, you can cook something else - like the pasta.  Or the potatoes.
• After the pesto and chicken's alone time, time to pan-grill it.  You can let them lie on a dry Teflon pan or for the yummier route, melt butter on the pan then cook the chicken there.
• Cook until brown.  Tada!

THE BOILED BUTTON POTATOES

What's in it:  the cute little button potatoes, pepper (not ground), salt, 1-2 cloves garlic.  Online, they recommend having a bay leaf as well (but I only realized that a bay leaf was the same as laurel, which we had, after I cooked it).

• In a little pot, submerge the button potatoes (wash them first! no need to peel) in water.  They don't need to be swimming.  Add salt generously, and a bunch of those black pepper round things.
• The garlic just needs to be chopped in halves or quarters, and plunked into the water. Toss together with the bay leaf, if you have such.  I didn't get to, but it turned out pretty fine.
• Bring it to a boil and just fork them once in a while to see if they've become softer.
• Once you feel it's done, drain everything.  It's actually ready to serve, but we chose to toss it around a buttered pan with more salt and some ground pepper.  You can make incisions so the butter could seep in.  Tada! another.

Yes, I proclaim myself as a domesticated goddess.  Haha.  Though I suck at cleaning the floor.  I'll just cook (omigod, I can't believe I just said that).