It’s like a steady breath in for the week to come and a relaxed and contented breath out.
And while I usually dread Mondays, I love rehashing the weekend with Roni on our Sunday night evenings and then watching the Netflix movie that’s come in, or trying to (I recently fell asleep during La Dolce Vita and returned it without ever seeing the end. Woopsies.)
Once in a while though, I break out of my mold. I refuse to wait for Sundays. And sometimes, I stumble onto something so easy, so good, and so very worth your time that I just have to share.
In this case, my Wednesday meal (several Wednesdays over…once I started, I just couldn’t stop sharing) was inspired by my waking up one morning craving, almost as soon as I opened my eyes, a pasta with asparagus and goat cheese that I had seen in my Bon Appetít. It was really only a thumbnail of a picture, but dang if I haven’t been on a roll with actually MAKING the recipes in my magazines, and I thought I’d give it a try. Only after I decided to try it did I realize that not only my friend Erin had made it (and blogged about it) but so did Smitten Kitchen! What the heck! Either my subconscious is working overtime, or a lot of us just have really good taste (I lean towards the latter reason).
So, before my first test subject came over, my old friend Erik from AZ, I quite literally threw this dish together. No joke. I did the whole baddaBOOM thing with the mint and swirled things around and tossed the pasta and it was a dish that was more like mixing than cooking. Basically, if you can boil water, you can make this dish. Yay, you!
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| From new year, new food |
I rocked out for a bit to The Format (which always reminds me of driving through Phoenix on a summer day), and this is all you do: boil pasta, add asparagus to the pasta water as you boil, and boil some peas that might be hibernating in your freezer too. This all sounds like a good and boring boiled mess, but trust me here… its worth it. Plus, I don’t like peas alone and have to mix them with things, and my mom always said I should eat more of them.
While pasta and said veggies were cooking away, in a big bowl I put a healthy glug of olive oil salt, pepper, chopped mint, the zest of one lemon, and an entire small package of goat cheese that I had scooped out in chunks.
I then drained the pasta, asparagus and peas and reserve some of the cooking water. I added all that to the big bowl of olive oil, goat cheese, mint and lemon and tossed it about, added some hot cooking water, a healthy dose of salt and pepper, a squeeze of lemon and HELLO dinner is ready in like, uh, ten minutes. Maybe fifteen if you chop asparagus slow, or have the slowest stove top ever, which you might, so I feel bad for you, but not that bad, because I just gave you a pimp daddy recipe that will impress your friends. Also, it’s affordable, relatively healthy, filling, delicious, and summery. If you like that sort of thing.
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| From new year, new food |
Oh, and I gave my Aunt Deb the recipe, and she oooohed and aaaaahed over it the next day, and some more friends that came over for dinner the next week liked it, as did some other friends who have since tried it, so I know its pretty legit. The original recipe didn’t call for peas or mint, but I added the peas and substituted tarragon for mint and that’s about it. I’ve since heard the tarragon is pretty awesome too, so maybe next time I make a go of it I’ll really branch out, be all experimental, and try tarragon.
Also, I apologize for the lack of blogging in this last month. Work has just gotten pretty crazy, people have been coming into town, and I truly hope to be a bit more regular about this.
Please take this peace offering in the form of one of my favorite Format songs, which is also kind of like a musical welcome song for my friend Annie who I volunteered with in Santiago, Chile a few years back. We would have dance parties to Michael Jackson and The Format, and she’s coming to DC next week! Joy!
(Disclaimer: this is honestly the best version of this song on Youtube. Um....)
