Sweet Home Quilt Co.

For months and months I’ve been searching for a recipe for Chicken Artichoke Pasta that I had made earlier this year. It is so unlike me to “lose” a recipe, especially if it is a keeper, but I’ve looked high and low and could not find this recipe any where! I have a major cookbook collection, probably close to 200 books, and I am an inveterate recipe clipper so there was plenty of recipe fodder to wade through trying to find this particular recipe. I’ve searched online recipe sites and badgered my friends, thinking that I must have shared it with someone since it was so incredibly good! No luck.

For some reason, the thought that the recipe came from a Thimbleberries book kept nagging at me, but it wasn’t in any Thimbleberres book that I had in my quilt book collection, nor was it in any of the Thimbleberries books I had in stock at the shop. I came really close a couple of times to contacting Lynette Jensen to ask if the recipe was hers, but I just never did it. I was almost giddy with excitement when I read a reference to the recipe on Carrie Nelson’s blog over the weekend. I knew it had to be the same recipe because Carrie acknowledged that it was originally from Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries – see, my memory isn’t entirely gone!!! But Carrie didn’t repeat the recipe, just made a reference that she had posted it several months back. Thus, began the great dig through Carrie’s blog archives to find that recipe!

The last time I remembered making the recipe was in late February when I took it to Pat and her family after her knee replacement surgery; so at least I had a starting point. I started with December 2008 and worked my way forward, re-reading every post as I went. SUCCESS!  Carrie’s post from January 17, 2009 has THE recipe – oh my, I was doing the slappy, happy dance!  I have all the ingredients on hand, and it’s what’s for dinner tonight! Yummo, I can hardly wait!!!

Here’s the recipe, and I agree with Carrie, substitution of low-fat ingredients is the way to go.

Artichoke Chicken Pasta

3 cups cooked diced chicken or turkey
1 can artichokes in water ~ drained and cut up
1 tsp. minced diced onions
¼ tsp. Tabasco
¼ tsp. marjoram
1 – 10 oz. can cream of chicken soup
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
1 – 13 oz. can evaporated milk
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 – 12 oz. package bow-tie pasta, prepared according to package directions and rinsed under cold water
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Mix all ingredients reserving ½ cup parmesan and 1 cup cheddar cheese.  Place in a greased 9” x 13” baking dish.  Sprinkle parmesan and cheddar cheese over the top.  Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees or until hot and bubbly.  Garnish with paprika and parsley.  Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Photo shamelessly plucked from Carrie's blog!

I know this seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through for a recipe, and I admit I’ve had somewhat of an obsession with finding this exact recipe, but this dish is soooo worth it! You must try it – go now and get all the stuff to make it – I promise you will not be disappointed. And if you do try it, leave me a comment on how you like it, or if you think I’ve finally gone off the deep end!  Oh, and thanks, Carrie, for pointing me in the right direction; I will be forever indebted to you!!!

Tags: Carrie Nelson, LaVieEnRosie, Lynette Jensen, Thimbleberries

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 6:08 PM and is filed under Recipes, Stray Threads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.