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I've been a little bit incommunicado recently, and it's time for some true confessions. First, I've given in to the hype. I am reading New Moon, and I am loving it. Although the first 200 pages do make you revisit a traumatic break-up or two. "I don't want to break up with you, I just want a hiatus for ski season" is one zinger that pops into my mind (and that person knows exactly who he is although he is most likely not reading this blog...his loss all around).
Second, I've been busy perfecting what I like to call The Best Recipe Ever, pictured here:
This recipe hearkens back to another recipe that was featured on True Blue Media Gal last May. I spruced it up a little and now it's even better, so simple and tasty:
- Sautee a chopped onion in butter and olive oil
- Add a jar of prepared pesto
- Crumble in a log of goat cheese and stir until it starts to melt
- Stir in any leftover marinara sauce (at this point the recipe will briefly look quite gross but persevere!)
- Stir in as much chopped spinach as you can fit into the cooking vessel, and cover so that the spinach wilts from the heat of the sauce
- Stir in some cooked, peeled, de-veined shrimp (it's not really a vein, you know, so the removal of said "vein" is key)
- Heat through, invite the neighbors, and enjoy!
Third, I've been trying to figure out when My Beloved James Franco will start appearing on General Hospital. And thanks to the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, I have a date: Monday, November 23, 2009. He's going to portray a mysterious artist named ... (my beloved) Franco. Let's show him some love!
I recently prowled my pantry for any malingerers, and came across a bag of egg noodles that never fulfilled its original purpose: a tuna noodle casserole. So I decided to adapt Doug's recipe for creamy pesto sauce (my devoted readers may recall that it involves a jar of pesto blended with a crumbled log of goat cheese ... and that's about it!). I added a bag of baby spinach and a couple links of vegetarian sausage, and topped it with a parmesan cloud (how pretentious is that expression?). Luckily it was delicious, because it made about eight portions and I am loathe to waste even a bite of food. I hope you get a chance to try this one out - it is so easy and reheats really well. Side note: I Y parenthetical comments!
All winter I anxiously awaited the return of Trader Joe's "Chard of Many Colors." The chard is chopped, triple-washed, and ready to be used straight out of the bag. The Trader Joe's sample counter featured a fabulous vegetarian recipe that I've been hoping to recreate. It includes fava beans, which they sell seasoned in vacuum sealed packages, but canned cannellini beans (rinsed and drained) work just as well, if not better. This is the recipe, as closely as I can remember it:
Sauté 2 cloves of minced garlic and some chopped green onions in olive oil for a couple of minutes. Add the bag of chard and about 1/4 cup of veggie stock. The stock will wilt the chard as it cooks down. Stir in the beans, sprinkle with red pepper flakes, and top with fresh parmesan shavings just before serving.
This recipe is fresh, light, and delicious.
One of my favorite things about being between semesters is having time to cook meals from scratch instead of falling into the old "boxed dinner with a sauce packet" trap. I'm revisiting some old cookbooks, photocopied recipes, and Vegetarian Times in hopes of reviving new recipe night. And by reviving I mean beginning ... it was always more of a good idea than a reality. Anyway, on a recent visit to the library I discovered Giada's Kitchen, the new cookbook by Giada de Laurentiis. Giada was never a particular favorite of mine when I had access to the Food Network, but the recipes in this new cookbook look phenomenal. Particularly tempting items include Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato Corn Muffins, Butternut Squash and Vanilla Risotto, and Baked Orzo with Fontina and Peas. Almost all of the recipes are also on www.FoodNetwork.com. It looks like the Baked Orzo will be the first item on the New Recipe Night Menu next Sunday ... at long last I have a use for that container of Panko breadcrumbs languishing in my cupboard. And peas are chock full of F-I-B-E-R!
This recipe hearkens back to another recipe that was featured on True Blue Media Gal last May. I spruced it up a little and now it's even better, so simple and tasty:
