Sunday, February 24, 2013

Dinner!


Tonight was a lazy dinner; I'll admit though, it didn't seem lazy with how it tasted!!  A couple nights ago I made pasta and asparagus; it was tasty.  Unfortunately I was overzealous with how much pasta I made, and overly ambitious thinking I would eat a whole bunch of asparagus.  I had about six cups of pasta/asparagus in the fridge begging for something. By chance I was flipping through an excellent cookbook looking for dinner ideas for the week and I found a recipe for Lemon Asparagus Pasta.  Luckily for me, the recipe called for asparagus and pasta cooked first.  I'm also on a mushroom kick right now, so I decided to add those too.

"Nom" is an understatement.  It was incredibly easy, and even modified it was super awesome.

If you have asparagus, give this a try; my changes are in purple.


Lemon Asparagus Pasta



  • 8 oz angle hair pasta (3 cups cooked penne)
  • 2 1/2 cups asparagus chopped to 1 inch
  • 1 TBSP butter
  • 3/4 cup Mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 TBSP butter
  • 1/2 cup green onions
  • 1 1/2 tsp lemon peel
  • 3 TBSP lemon juice (I used the juice of a whole lemon, and I thought it needed a little more)
  • 3/4 cup milk (I used soy milk)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 TBSP fresh dill (or 1 tsp dried)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg


1. Cook paste for 4 minutes. Add asparagus and cook 2 minutes longer or until tender. Drain.

2. While pasta cooks, melt 1 tablespoon butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and saute until butter is absorbed.  Add second tablespoon butter to the skillet.  Add green onions and lemon peel, saute 1 minute. Add lemon juice and cook until liquid is almost gone.

3. Beat eggs and milk together. Then add it with the cooked pasta and asparagus to the skillet with green onions. Cook over low heat until milk mixture is slightly thick, about 4 minutes. Do not boil.

4. Stir in seasonings and serve immediately.



Thursday, February 21, 2013

2013 and New Beginnings

Happy New Year!


I know, it's nearly March already.  Where did the time go?  I've kept cooking despite my lack of blogging.  I've decided I'm back in a place in my life where blogging is an option.  We moved to a place where the dog is much happier, and we are too.  With a new place came a new kitchen...one with a gas stove!!  I also have a better countertop layout, so cooking is easier and faster.

In addition to this, I've given up dairy from cows altogether.  I'm much happier; I'm also happy I can keep having goat and sheep cheese in small quantities though.  While vegan cheese is a good alternative in some cases, it's just not the same as the real stuff.

Imitation food


Speaking of real stuff, the 2013 resolution that tops my charts is to go natural: cut the processed stuff and eat only natural food.  If I can't pronounce it, and it can't be eaten as is (as in: can this individual component be eaten?) then I won't eat it.  For the most part it's been relatively easy.  By avoiding milk, that reduces quite a bit of processed food.  Where I get stuck is chain restaurant food and my "drug of choice," Coke Zero.  I'll get there though!!

If you're wondering where my "immitation food" reference is coming from, check out Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food.  I'm almost through it, and it has been a fascinating read.

Cookbook


I haven't had as much time to read as I would like; part of that was my OCD project to enter all of my recipes into Living Cookbook.  It's been fun!  I love my cookbook system (Levenger Circa), and plugging all of my handwritten recipes and random print offs and scraps from documents long since lost seemed like a good idea.  I can back them up, and I can print them...which, if anyone has really used a cookbook, you know the pages you use the most usually end up covered in gunk.  It's nice to know I can just reprint those pages when they become illegible.

I'm going to finish getting the recipes I use out of the books the most into Living Cookbook, and then I'm going to have it printed.  I'm so excited to have a table of contents!!

So about food...


With my contents organized I'll have an easier time finding fun recipes to cook and share!  I've kept up with my strange habit of taking pretty pictures of my food, and those pictures have even ended up in my cookbook.  Next entry will have some of the food I've been making lately and some recipes.

Until next time....Eat Happy!!