Slow it down...

Have you ever felt like you thought you understood the passage of time and then something happens and it all goes out the window? Time, your understanding of it, how much you need, how little you have, how you wish you could stop the clock? Like how I thought it was September and was enjoying the onset of fall and now I look up and what?? It's November?! And it's halfway over! What is happening? People always say time goes by faster when you have children and I never got that. But now I do.

It has been a super fun time with Junebug lately too. She is walking, running, talking a LOT (she has the vocabulary of someone twice her age we think) and is the world's happiest baby. We've done some really fun things with her over the last few months like trips to the Nashville zoo, a road trip to Kentucky to visit her great-aunts, a Dia de los muertos and scarecrow exhibit at Cheekwood, a fun Halloween party and kids' parade, taking her out on Friday nights for dinner and letting her eat everything we're eating (loving this), and lots of stories and puppet shows at the library. She loves books and her dolls and her "nuggy" (a sock puppet owl given to her by her uncle Chris that she takes to bed with her every night). Her teacher at her mom's day out program said she is doing great, she's very smart and also very visual.

She said, unlike a lot of the other children, June actually likes to sit still during story time and look at the book. Imagine that.

And as for the diet and I, well we broke up. But I did do the cleanse pretty strictly for two weeks and felt the effects of all the good it was doing. I should have kept it up but I felt like it was getting to be too hard. And, no excuses--I just didn't have the resolve. I solved one health mystery, though, and I don't think I am gluten-intolerant. And I discovered what can happen when things get out of balance so in the future I know when and with what things I need to tighten the reigns. I also know I can't live without coffee, at least not right now when I have a baby who naps little and likes to get up at 5:30. I know I can live on butternut squash and quinoa, brown rice and veggies and that anything sprinkled with Gomasio tastes a hundred times better. And I quit drinking beer every night and that in itself has made a huge difference.

I still have been trying to cook in a healthier way and to that end have made a lot of things with the produce of fall: squash and cauliflower, brussels sprouts, pumpkin and kale. Like this roasted cauliflower and butternut with bread crumbs; and a brussels sprout and cauliflower pasta recipe from Marc Vetri with toasted bread crumbs and anchovies. It was delicious. Find the recipe here.

Instead of pasta lately we've been eating more brown rice. I love it. It such a deep and nutty flavor that, unlike white rice, I could eat it just on its own or with a fried egg on top, some scallions and a dash of soy. Here is a great primer I just came across in the dining section of the NY Times on the many ways to prepare brown rice including some recipes.

Oh - and I almost forgot to mention one of the few things I baked last month, which was also one of the best things I've ever made: pumpkin whoopie pies from the Baked cookbook. OMG. They were sick. In a good way. No one could believe how moist and yummy and pop-four-in-your-mouth good they were. And pretty cute too, don't you think?

In other news, I applied for a job in a far away place --a place which I love and in which it would be amazing to live for a while. It's a long long long shot for me but I couldn't not apply. I'll be looking for more opportunities like this one in the coming months and, who knows? We could end up doing something really adventurous really soon which would be just what the doctor ordered.

Sweet corn pesto pasta

It is a delight to be back in the kitchen at the same time as my CSA basket is overflowing with the abundant produce of summer. We have more corn, summer squash, basil and fresh herbs than we know what to do with. Tomatoes are still at a premium and we've lost 100% of ours to the squirrels in the backyard, but I've managed to get my hands on a few heirlooms here and there.

Because of the generosity of so many of our friends and family, we enjoyed many great meals dropped off at our house in the weeks following June's birth. Now, though, I am craving some of my mainstay dishes, like pasta with fresh summer veggies.



As we've had more than 50 consecutive days of 90+ degree weather this summer, cooking has of necessity become quick sauteeing, blanching or cold, fresh ingredients only. This pasta dish was a perfect example. I made a batch of pesto first, then sauteed fresh corn in a little olive oil and added red onion and a bunch of herbs from my garden: thyme, basil, oregano. After combining the corn and the pesto and adding a little of the pasta cooking water to thin it out, I added some fresh tomatoes to give it color and grated fresh pecorino cheese on top.

Simple, summery and delicious served with a cucumber salad on the side and a big glass of cold white wine.

Sweet and spicy penne with cauliflower

I found this recipe on a really cute blog called Pink of Perfection. I love her tagline: "A thrifty girl's guide to the good life." I admit I have had to be much more thrifty than usual lately. So much so that my dinner parties have almost ceased to exist. But I got the idea from her to do a dinner for 8 people for $50. That's right. $50. Tips she shared and implemented were not going too heavy on the apps and asking guests to bring the beverages. And it worked! I threw a birthday dinner for my friend and 8 others (okay, so I went a little over with the guests) and spent around $60 total. I made spaghetti with meatballs, a big spinach salad and two kinds of cupcakes for dessert. People could not have been happier. So, thanks, Pink, for the inspiration and the tips on how to scale it down. After all, comfort food is always a winner and so is keeping things simple.

Thus my new favorite pasta dish, also from Pink of Perfection by way of How to Cook Everything. If you don't mind linking away (but not yet!) you'll find the recipe here.



I've made it twice and not only is it really economical (a $5 dish), it's really tasty too. There is nothing better in winter than the spicy zing of red chili flakes, garlic and oil, combined with mashed anchovies, cauliflower and golden raisins thrown in for a little sweetness. These flavors really do something to lift the mood in winter, while showcasing a great (and under-appreciated) winter vegetable like cauliflower. Recently I've been seeing this curious yellow cauliflower in the grocery store and I'm hoping it didn't get that way because of some weird genetic engineering. I like the way it adds color to an otherwise boring palette and the taste is somehow milder than regular cauliflower.

I've made this dish once with whole wheat pasta (originally called for in the recipe) and once with regular pasta. We preferred the regular pasta but the whole wheat made us feel more virtuous. I figure, with the amount of pasta that we eat in my house, it wouldn't hurt us every once in while to switch to a whole wheat version. But the only kind I like and buy is Barilla brand. In my limited experience with "healthy" pastas, I like theirs the best.

Feel free to kick up the dish even more and add more anchovies, more chili flakes and lots of fresh-grated parmigiano at the end. And, for another recipe using this combination of garlic, oil, chili and anchovies (and cauliflower too!), see my "orecchiette from Puglia" post. There's nothing like Southern Italian flavors to spice up the middle of winter.

August = Tomatoes!

August is always a mixed bag for me. This is because it brings all kinds of contradictory emotions wrapped up in one month. Maybe because I have spent the better part of my life until recently working in the academic world, and as soon as August rolls around the dread of going back to school creeps in and makes me realize that summer is almost over. On the other hand, I was always a very eager student who actually looked forward to going back to school and couldn't wait to show off her new school clothes and meet her new teachers. (I know, geek alert).

Now that the academic calendar no longer rules my life, I still have remnants of the mixed desire/dread that plagued me for so many years. It's like a learned reaction that I can't quite kick. I dread that summer is almost over and I feel like I haven't done enough canning, preserving, traveling, swimming, biking, etc. And pretty soon it will be winter. I mean, it's almost Christmas! (can you see where this is headed?) On the other hand, I love the month of August for its mixture of carefree summer days and the promise and potential of new beginnings that lie just around the corner.



Oh, and what would August be without those beautiful, shiny, irregular homegrown tomatoes? I am lucky to live in a place that not only prides itself on its tomato crop, with many different heirloom varieties in all of the farmer's markets right now, but it seems that every single person in my neighborhood has a few tomato plants in the backyard. One cute elderly woman even sells hers on a folding table in her front yard. The sign reads "homegrown tomatoes for sale." Even if there is no garden to speak of, there are a few tomato plants in everyone's backyard off in a sunny corner, promising a tasty month of homegrown goodness.



We even have our very own Tomato Festival in East Nashville -- the premiere neighborhood event of the year. It's next weekend and I can't wait!



So what do I do with my tomatoes? I posted about the soup last time, but usually I do something much simpler that involves no cooking. A simple caprese salad if I can find fresh mozzarella, because together with the tomatoes, I have basil coming out of my ears right now.



Or, I boil some water, throw in some thin spaghetti and toss the hot pasta with roughly chopped fresh tomatoes, basil, two cloves of minced garlic, some capers and a few black olives if I have them, a splash of balsamic vinegar and the best olive oil I can find. It's my man's favorite use of tomatoes. I have to agree.



I can honestly say that if it weren't for Tennessee tomatoes, I would be rather blue this month. There is something missing in my life and that may be the student/teacher in me speaking. But, if I can't go back to school, I can at least get into the fun that August always brings and be grateful for the celebration of a perfect fruit.

So...tell us. What do you do with your tomatoes?

spaghetti al limone

This is a recipe from the Amalfi coast that my friend Peggy brought back from her yearly culinary odyssey which takes place in June.



The Amalfi coast is renowned for its lemons and they produce many wonderful things there with the citrus fruit, including Italy's best limoncello (nothing other than vodka steeped in lemon rinds and sugar, but the highest quality Amalfitani lemons must be used).

I like this recipe for spaghetti al limone because it feels right for the season. To be sure, lemons are in season here in winter, but mainly because we are getting them from far away, warmer locales such as Florida and California. But they are available year-round like much produce, only they aren't as beautiful and fragrant as when you buy them in winter. So I've been making a lot of recipes using lemons lately, and this one seems like a perfect dish for now as we transition from Winter to Spring and the weather is 80 degrees one day, snowing the next! It's light and easy and not too heavy on the sauce and reminds me of a simple summer meal on a boat in Capri (I wish).



In fact, there is no sauce, just as there is no boat. But I can dream. Just the juice of one perfect lemon, the best you can find whether it's a Meyer lemon or just an organic one. You don't want to use a conventional lemon for this recipe as the zest is a big part of it and they tend to be laden with pesticides if not organically grown.

Spaghetti al limone

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of fresh Italian parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup of fresh lemon juice
pinch of coarse sea salt
1 cup of pasta cooking water
1 lb spaghetti
1/2 cup parmigiano (optional)

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add salt and cook pasta al dente. While pasta is cooking, simmer on low heat 1/4 cup of olive oil, garlic, and half the parsley, for three minutes.

Add half the lemon juice and the drained pasta to the sauce immediately, toss. Add a bit of the reserved pasta water if needed to elongate the sauce and keep the pasta fluid. Add the rest of the lemon juice and the zest of one lemon. Toss again gently in the sauce pan and add some parmigiano cheese if desired. Serve immediately.

Brighten with last bit of parsley and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil.

The best bolognese

I have always loved a good bolognese sauce, ever since I first tried it in a little trattoria in Ferrara.

I was studying in Florence that year and I had taken a train northeast to Bologna and stopped along the way in this beautiful town in the Emilia-Romagna region to see the Castello Estense, a famous brick castle in the center of town surrounded by a moat.



The 14th-century castle is certainly impressive, but what I remember being most impressed by were the well-dressed Ferraresi of all ages choosing bicycles over cars... and their famous Bolognese meat sauce.


(foto courtesy bikeabout.org)

The residents of Ferrara, as I learned, are as enthusiastic about biking as they are about homemade pasta. Located in the heart of Emilia-Romagna, the region made famous by parmigiano, prosciutto and salumi, the city's inhabitants are known all over Italy as the experts in stuffed pastas (ravioli, tortelli di zucca, tortellini) and the all-important ragù, indispensable for lasagne.



If you've never learned to make a real Italian ragù, now is your chance. I never thought much about it, I admit, for many years traveling and eating throughout Italy. It is not as prevalent in the places where I've spent a lot of time, like Rome and Tuscany. But in Central Italy and the cities of Bologna, Parma, Ravenna and Ferrara, it is essential to the local cuisine. And to know how to make a good, versatile ragù is to know how to do just about anything.

Called "bolognese" after the city of its origin, whenever a menu lists pasta alla bolognese, that means it is served with ragù. This is the meat sauce that is preferred in the region for homemade pasta. As Marcella Hazan notes: "a properly made ragù clinging to the folds of homemade noodles is one of the most satisfying experiences accessible to the sense of taste."



I happen to agree. And, as Marcella says, the key to a good ragù is in the long, slow simmering of the sauce. The minimum is 3 hours, she says, but 5 is better. Now, before you run away thinking this is something you will never do, remember that the sauce just needs to be left alone to cook at the merest simmer for all that time. Once it's on the stove you are free to do a million other things. I even ran to the airport and picked up friends while mine simmered on the stove the other day, in preparation for my lasagne bolognese. I don't recommend leaving your stove unattended, but I had no choice. My friends were early and I was not going to mess with my ragù.

Here is the recipe I learned while in Italy from Carla, the cook at Fattoria degli Usignoli. The only difference between hers and others I've seen (Marcella's of course, and Tyler Florence actually makes a good one, if a bit heavy on ingredients) is in the addition of milk or not. Marcella maintains that the meat, after just barely losing color, but not browned, must be cooked in 1/2 cup of milk before the tomatoes are added. This, she says, keeps the meat creamier and sweeter tasting. But I made it without and it was pretty sweet and creamy anyway. You should also use at least two types of meat, one of which, like pork, has a high fat content.

For one large lasagna or enough sauce for pasta for 6 people:

1 large red or yellow onion
1 large carrot
1 large celery stalk
3 T olive oil
3 T butter
1 T diced pancetta
3/4 lb ground beef, preferably sirloin
3/4 lb ground pork
1 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup milk (optional)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 15-oz can whole-peeled tomatoes

Tips: Make this in a large cast-iron enamel or earthenware pot. And, this is one thing that I like to use the food processor for --to chop very, very finely the carrots, onion and celery --so that they make almost a puréed 'sofritto' to start with.



After chopping the veggies, heat oil and butter in pot and add the pureed veggies and cook for at least 10 minutes until they begin to soften and give off moisture. Then add the pancetta, let brown, then the ground meats, crumbling in the pot with a fork and cook only until the meat has lost its raw color. Add the wine and turn the heat up to medium high, and cook, stirring occasionally, until all the wine has evaporated. (Add the milk and nutmeg at this point and cook until the milk has evaporated). Stir frequently. Add the tomatoes and when it starts to bubble, turn down the heat and let the sauce cook at the lowest simmer, uncovered, for about 3-4 hours. Taste and correct for salt.



Ragù can be made ahead of time, but do all the cooking in one day. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or frozen, and reheated.

cooking class

I had a really fun time cooking with my new friends, Ross and Jimmy, in their beautiful kitchen. It was a cooking class (with me) for a few of their friends --a gift for Jimmy's birthday.

Having grown up in Florida, Jimmy loves seafood and wanted to make that the basis of the dinner. Having grown up in Colorado, I am not a seasoned seafood cook, but I have spent a lot of time in Italy where seafood is plentiful. I find that the best recipes, which happen to be mostly Italian in my world, are the ones that are the simplest to prepare and highlight the quality of the minimal ingredients.



With this is mind, I chose to do a first course of spaghetti 'allo scoglio'. A seafood pasta eaten all over Southern Italy, it is named after the rocks that jut out from the sea, containing lots of tasty creatures clinging to their surface--clams, mussels, shrimp and squid... I could not get mussels that day, so I settled for shrimp, littleneck clams and bay scallops.



The sauce is a simple red sauce. Start with onions and garlic and sautée in olive oil, then add 1/2 cup white wine and let it reduce a few minutes. Then add tomatoes -- fresh or canned - or a combination of both, plus 1/2 cup of clam broth (I purchase this and it comes in a bottle found in most grocery stores). Let the sauce cook for a bit over moderate heat.

A key ingredient in this sauce which I think is key for any seafood pasta is the heat that a hot oil brings, either added directly into the sauce, or afterwards when serving --or both, which is what we did. To make it, simply mix 1/2 cup of olive oil with 1/4 cup of chopped parsley, 2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper and 2 tsp of sea salt.

For our second course, I had picked up some beautiful swordfish steaks at the market and knew that would be a treat. We made a lemon-oregano-olive oil marinade for the fish that gave it just the delicate flavors it needed. This light, lemony sauce for fish comes from Sicily where lemons are a prized fruit and sometimes reach the size of small footballs. They are gorgeous! But lemons in our market now, while not the Sicilian variety, are still big and fragrant. It's the perfect time to use them.



We let the fish sit in the marinade for an hour before broiling it alongside some simple yellow potatoes, roasted in olive oil, sea salt and rosemary. That's it! As you can see, these classes are not about learning fancy techniques or secrets --just simple, everyday dishes that most people can prepare using high-quality, seasonal ingredients.

For dessert: a cake. Again, a simple cake, but one that tastes and sounds like it took a lot more work: Almond cake with pears and creme anglaise, from a F&W recipe I found around the holidays. It's like a spongecake, light and airy, only made with almond flour which gives it something special. Substitute pears for anything at other times of the year--raspberries, apricots, apples or lemon custard--and it's your go-to cake!
(see a picture here)



What a fun night! I loved this class--good people, good food and great conversation. Being in the kitchen together with friends is what it's all about. Thanks to all of my new friends: Ross, Jimmy, Katie, Susan and Beverly. I hope to see you in the kitchen again soon!

ps: A thank you to Jimmy for the photos!

Winter blues no more

Now here's something that makes me happy. It's a chocolate-raspberry ganache cake that I made recently for my boyfriend's mom's birthday. Composed of two layers of moist chocolate cake (the secret ingredient being sour cream), with a layer of raspberry jam and ganache in the middle, smeared with more ganache and dotted with fresh raspberries, it was a heart-warming thing to make. I'm not talking about how it made me or anyone feel when eating it (that was good too). No, I'm talking about what it does for me to bake a cake.

Nourishing the soul and calming the nerves. These are the direct results of baking for me. Or cooking. Or anything that involves me in my kitchen alone or with my best guy and our sweet dog who likes to assist from her perch on the floor in front of the sink.

In this, the middle of winter (6 weeks to go until Spring!), when we've had very cold weather for weeks and weeks, and the days are short and often dark, it's baking and cooking that lift my spirits, not to mention filling our bellies.



Take this weeknight mac n' cheese, for example. It took nothing to prepare. Just cook some macaroni. Toast some bread crumbs. Melt some butter, cheese and milk. Add a little nutmeg and salt and pepper and combine with pasta. Throw in some wilted kale for green, fill a baking dish with this goodness, sprinkle the top with the toasted bread crumbs, more cheese and bake for about 20 minutes. Oh, it's yummy and warm and sure, it'll cost you some calories. But whatever. It's the middle of winter, like I said.

Here's something else that warms my soul: a simple roasted chicken over roasted root veggies for an easy and delightful mid-winter meal.



And, for something to pick me up in the afternoon when all I want is to curl up with a good book next to the fire but work keeps me at my desk: a shot of espresso with a homemade biscotti.



It's all good. It's winter. And it'll soon be Spring. So stop complaining and get in the kitchen (I tell myself) and don't forget to breathe.

PS: Happy one-year anniversary to me and to the Joy of Cooking!
Two things I'm thankful for: 1) I still have this blog name and no lawsuits and
2) this song: "the times they are a'changin" (bob dylan, covered by mason jennings on "I'm not there" soundtrack).

What's a CSA?

I am so excited about produce! We joined a CSA (Commuity Supported Agriculture) for the first time and this is our first week.

It means that every week we get to pick up a basket full of organic produce straight from the farm, and not just any farm. Jeff Poppen, a.k.a, the Barefoot Farmer, has been doing biodynamic farming on his Long Hungry Creek Farm, one of the oldest organic farms in Tennessee, for 3 decades and is considered a leader in the field (literally). (You really have to see him to believe him so click on the link).

It means he doesn't use fertilizers or pesticides and talks about his humus-rich soil and "friendly bugs" and what he can learn from them.

It means he gets to farm all year--in the most sustainable and beneficial way possible while operating an independent and economically viable farm because every CSA member pays a monthly fee from June to Dec. to receive his high-quality, organic veggies.

It means that we get to learn about what's in season in this part of the country when and experiment with all of the many ways to cook greens and beets, and anything else we get in our basket. (For a list of what we got, see side bar at right; I'll keep updating as we go along).

It means the idea "from farm to table" can be a reality: striaght out of the ground, bring it home, clean off the dirt and go to work preparing a fresh meal whose provenance is less than 100 miles from your door. No trucking, no freezing, no supermarket hassle. And so much cheaper!



And, most of all, it means we get to make things we've never made before: like garlic scape-cilantro pesto.

Garlic scapes are the curly green things that come up just before the garlic bulbs. They have a very intense flavor, very spicy and most farmer's just discard them. But they are really very cool. I just don't know of that many ways to prepare them. So a search led me to this recipe for a non-basil garlic pesto.

It was very tasty and not quite as strong as a typical pesto, but with a different sort of pepper finish. I used olive oil, about 3 garlic scapes, cut in 1/2-in. pieces, 1/4 c of cilantro, chopped, and 1/4 c of pine nuts (processed in the F.P.) and then stirred the freshly grated parm in by hand. It was a bit thick, so I added some lemon juice and a bit of the pasta cooking water to thin it out, salt and pepper to taste. Served with a salad of fresh mixed greens and ricotta salata, it was a very satisfying way to cook a meal.

PS: If anyone has any other ideas for garlic scapes, I'd love to hear them!

linguine with clams in broth

On Saturday night I hosted a dinner party for my friend Jenny. She celebrated a big birthday the week before while I was away and I missed her party, so I wanted to do something for her. I told her to invite some friends and I would do all the cooking as a gift.

I thought I would make homemade pasta. The last time I did it was for Thanksgiving when I made tortellini di zucca --pumpkin stuffed tortellini with butter and sage. It had been way too long. So I broke out the pasta machine having recently been inspired by Claudia's unbelievably good spaghetti with clams, by way of Thomas Keller.



I decided to try my own linguine with clams. For the pasta, I combined Claudia and Tom's with my old trusty Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking recipe. I know a thing or two about making pasta and Claudia's was super good, but for my money Marcella is the hands down expert on old school Italian and I had to go to the source.

I used about 3 cups of flour (2+ cups a.p. and almost 1 of semolina because I wanted that particular texture, but usually I don't use semolina), 1 whole egg and 6 yolks. The ratio of flour to yolks is up for debate, but if you want that eggy, bright yellow color and smooth texture, the more yolks the better. Marcella says 2 whole eggs for every 1 3/4 c. flour.

I also added a drop of milk and a few glugs of olive oil --not recommended by the Master but this dough was really dry at first. After a solid 10 min. of kneading (and a little cussing) it came together just like it should.



I wrapped it and let it rest for about 15 min. before cutting it into sections, folding each one and putting it through the machine a couple of times.



After drying for a bit, but not too long or it will break in the rollers, I put it through the attachment for wide, flat cut pasta. I guess it was technically fettuccine, not linguine, but who said anything about a pasta quiz? Don't even get me started. In Italy I have seen pasta of countless shapes and sizes with names like "strozzapreti" ('strangle the priest") so don't slag me off. My machine has only two settings.



My sauce was simple and inspired by something I saw in bon appetite this month--just a broth really, with sauted onions and garlic in butter and olive oil, a couple of chopped tomatoes and lots of white wine and 1 cup of water. This simmers for 20 min. and then you can turn off the heat and finish when ready to cook the clams, so this can be done ahead of time.

When you add the clams, also add a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes, 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsely, 1/4 c chopped fresh oregano and thyme. I cooked the pasta in the same broth after lifting out the clams and setting them aside. Then I threw them back in with the pasta to heat them again and that was it. Just be sure and serve it up with extra fresh parsley and some toasty warm bread for soaking up the broth.



Now, don't get me wrong, the spaghetti with clams and a ton of butter that I had chez Claudia was rich and dreamy and soooooo delicious and I would love to eat it again someday. But I was cooking for a crowd of people-- most of them unknown-- and I didn't want to unintentionally cause someone to have a coronary at my house due to the insane amounts of butter AND yolks I'd be serving in this dish.

This way, I reasoned, I could kill them with the dessert, a dessert so good I can hardly wait to tell you about it... in my next post. It's too good to leave til the end at the end of long day, so stay tuned.

jalapeno primavera ?

I think I may have accidentally created a new (and improved) version of Pasta Primavera. You know the one that's often served up in poor excuses for Italian restaurants, with all kinds of vegetables, even ones not even close to being in season in Spring?

Well, I had nothing prepared for dinner and no desire to go to the store. It was a lazy Sunday (except that we went on a 35 mile bike ride with really fast boys from eastside cycles) and all I had the energy to do was grab what I saw in the fridge and make something up. So that's what I did.

[By the way, I highly recommend doing this once in a while, not only as a way to clean out your refrigerator, but also to get your creative juices flowing. I am as gulity as anyone of clinging to my cooking magazines, my cookbooks and my tried and true recipes as if without them, I would be nobody. Well, I would at least not know how to cook. But that's not true, I am learning. Sometimes you just have to put down the cookbook and walk away. And then see what happens]...

So I took out some little spring onions, some spinach, a bunch of baby arugula, some snow peas, and a jar half-full of capers. Then I grabbed a lemon and a couple of roma tomatoes (which I usually don't have this time of year but there they were) and a box of linguine. Oh - and a random jalapeno pepper.

I first made a 'gremolata' of capers, arugula (because I didn't have any parsely) and grated lemon zest and mixed it with olive oil, then set it aside.

Then I sauteed the onion and some garlic in olive oil, then added the diced jalapeno pepper. Now here's where it gets wacky. I usually don't mix that kind of thing with my pasta sauces, but for some reason it sounded good. See? This is what I mean by getting the creative juices flowing. Before I started this cooking and blogging thing, I never would have had the confidence to put a jalapano pepper in a pasta dish and there I was--living on the edge.

When they were softened, I added the diced tomatoes to my pepper and onion mixture, boiled my salted water, added the pasta and reserved a cup of the cooking water. After draining the pasta, I added the onions and peppers, then the water and the spinach which wilted from the steam, and a few glugs of olive oil and fresh grated parmesan cheese. It was starting to come together. Although I thought, "This may be weird," I was excited at the prospect of a new Pasta Primavera, invented by moi.

And when I tossed it into a bowl and topped it with the gremolata and another glug of olive oil, it looked downright delicious. And, you know what? It was! We loved it. Here's to mixing things up in the kitchen. Go ahead. Give yourself permission. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Dinner on the couch again?

I haven't updated you since Monday, I know. And it hasn't even been a particularly busy week so I have no excuse. Except to say that after last weekend's baking marathon, I guess I needed a little down time away from the kitchen. So, what have we been eating?

One night it was sandwiches on the couch. The night after Easter was a big green salad and nothing else, a day of cleansing after all that baked stuff. And, last night we went out. We went to a little neighborhood place called Eastland Cafe.

(http://www.eastlandcafe.com/ can someone tell me how to insert a link in the text here? thanks)

I love the atmosphere--and the location several blocks from home--but the food is not as good as I always hope it will be. I'm not in business of giving restaurant reviews (unless of course I am asked to) so suffice it to say, our dinner was average and it was just nice to get out and share some time away from our kitchen with Daniel.

And, there was this little pasta dish thrown together one night at the last minute with ingredients on hand and an excuse to use up the sample sausage I had been saving. I got this at work --one of the benefits of working in a restaurant. It was a handmade rope sausage, labled 'mild' from a company out of Chicago called Fontanini. (http://www.fontanini.com/)

If I could find it in the stores here I would buy it everytime I needed Italian sausage, which is pretty often, as it was the best Italian sausage I've had in Nashville. It was mild but also very flavorful and well spiced, and it gave an extra something to this Italian meat sauce--something new and different--that kicked it up several notches.



I started by browning the sausage, then took it out, added onions to the oil and browned them too, added some garlic, some tomato paste from a tube (the kind I used to get in Italy; this one probably came from W.F.) and seasoned it with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and a little oregano. Then I threw in some mushrooms I had lying around, put the meat back in, and I let that cook and develop some flavor for 2-4 minutes before adding a can of diced tomatoes.



I let that gently simmer while I cooked my pasta: little 'chiocciole', comma-shaped guys. Capisci? They were actually big, over-sized commas, perfect for holding the sauce in their caves, and are my new favorite pasta. They came from the W.F. megastore, the brand Bionaturae, an organic semolina pasta from Italy.



Fresh-grated parmigiano sprinkled on top and a few leaves of fresh basil and parsley for color finished the deal.



If you hadn't noticed, pasta is my go-to meal when I haven't gone to the store or given much thought to dinner. But this one was so meaty and spicy and wonderful, it deserved much better than a last-minute meal eaten in front of the tube. But sometimes those are the ones that satisfy most.

I'll be getting back to some 'serious' cooking next week. Maybe. Not making any promises. I'm not good at that. Spontanaeity is more my style these days...