Spaghetti with roast chicken, cashew basil pesto and cherry tomato

This is one of my favourite dishes to make, easy and can feed a family. I make it when I have people coming over for lunch or as a side at barbeques. Can be eaten hot or cooled. Unlike most pesto pastas I don't use a lot of oil or any cream. I prefer mine herby rather than oily.

Ingredients:

1 shredded roast chicken -  I usually by mine premade at Costco or Coles. Remove all the chicken off the bone, pull apart into little pieces with your hands. Discard the stuffing but keep the skin and the juices from the bag or container it comes in, it adds a lot of flavour.

1 red onion thinly sliced
1 bunch of basil - leaves only, large stems removed
1/4 cup of cashews
1/4 cup of finely grated Parmesan (the powdery stuff works well)
5 cloves of garlic
Olive oil - about 3 tablespoons
Mushrooms - about 200g
Freshly ground salt and black pepper to taste
1 packet of spaghetti
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes cut in halves.

Method:
Put spaghetti on to cook as per instructions on the packet, while preparing the sauce.

In a food processor add garlic cloves, cashews and basil, blend until finely chopped. Transfer to a bowl. Add salt and pepper, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and the parmesan cheese. Mix together.

Brown onions and mushrooms in a pan with some oil.

Add chicken to the pan, add about a 1/4 cup or boiled water or chicken stock liquid and heat until reduced. Add Cherry tomatoes. Add blended basil mixture.

Combine together. Stir into pasta.

Aunty Ruth's Rock Buns

My Great Aunty Ruth is the greatest. This is one of my favourite biscuit recipes of all time. Simple and tasty, the name makes them sound hard but they are actually melt-in-you-mouth buttery. At 89 years of age, this recipe has been around for a long time, it was passed down from her mother. No one can make them quite as good as her but we always try.
 

Ingredients:
225g Self-raising flour
110g Salted butter
1 egg
80g Sultanas
110g white Sugar plus more for dusting
Tablespoon of milk

Sift flour into a bowl, rub in butter. Mix in sugar and then sultanas. Beat eggs and a very small amount of milk (probably only about a tablespoon) together then mix into the dry ingredients. Add more milk if necessary to make a dough. Place spoonfuls on greaseproof pater on a baking tray. Sprinkle with plain white sugar. Put in the freezer for a few minutes. Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees if fan forced, 220 if conventional) for about 8 minutes. Cook until lightly golden.

Enjoy with a cup of tea.