Favorite Dinner

One Sunday night I was looking for something quick but tasty to make for dinner, and was browsing AllRecipes.com (which is fantastic, btw), and came across this recipe.  I picked it because I happend to have all ingredients on hand and felt like having pasta.
It has been made so many times since then because it is my new fav, but has been heavily adapted to suite our tastes.

Lemon Pasta:

• Any type of pasta - I use penne, or linguini, usually
• Shrimp (optional)
• Mushrooms and other veggies (optional)
• 1/2 cup butter
• sprinkle of parsley
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

I put on a big pot of water to boil, as this always seems to take way longer than I think it will. 

While that is heating up I melt the butter in my largest frying pan, and add two (or more) cloves of minced garlic.  When the butter is all melted I then add the shrimp, mushrooms, and whatever else I want added.  Usually nothing, but a few times I have added zucchini from my mom's garden and that was good too. 

When the mushrooms, shrimp, etc are nicely browned I then add the lemon juice and chicken/veggie stock and make sure the heat is set to at least medium, maybe a bit higher.  I also sometimes add a sprinkling of cornstarch to help the sauce thicken, and sprinkle some parsley flakes in.  I stir occasionally until the sauce begins to thicken.

When the water boils I add pasta, and cook according to directions, and at this point if the sauce is thick I turn the heat to low so it can simmer.

When the pasta is done I strain and pour into a large bowl.  I then pour the sauce from the frying pan into the bowl and toss evenly to coat all pasta.  I dish it out and sprinkle with parmesan.

And then I eat...lots of it...and hopefully have enough for leftovers the next day.

Enjoy!