What Did You Eat?

Presto Pasta Night: Gemilli With Chicken Thigh Pasta Sauce

Someone is buying all the gemilli pasta in this town.  Well, they're doing that at the two grocery stores where I shop.  It's my favorite pasta shape, and someone else must feel the same way.  But they're greedy, taking every box of it, across three different brands!  Finally, I found one overlooked box of Barilla Gemilli, which had fallen down the back of the pasta rack.  I feel that the gloves are off now. I'm going to find out when the next shipment comes in and beat the gemilli hoarder to the punch.  I'm going to be like Elaine on Seinfeld, when she bought cases of The Sponge. 

Once I had my precious box of pasta, I knew the perfect sauce was Marcella Hazan's Chicken Thigh Pasta Sauce With Herbs, Tomatoes, and White Wine.  This is a wonderful sauce, simple to make and absolutely delicious.  It's sweetly tangy, with just the right mix of herbs and lemon peel.  The recipe calls for grinding up chicken thighs, and I urge you to go to that extra effort.  It tasted much better than the ground chicken or turkey available in the store.  This wonderful recipe is my last minute submission to Presto Pasta Night, which was created by the lovely Ruth at Once Upon A Feast.  Make sure to check out her site tomorrow, where you will find many fabulous pasta recipes.

WHB: Shrimp Salad Rolls With Tarragon Dressing

I think my Stomach Beast may be weakening.  And that is certainly a relief. He's still there, but a tamer animal.  Thank you to everyone who left such nice messages of support.  I'm ready to start reading all your blogs again and take part in the bloggy world.   I may even start to enjoy eating.  That would have been a good thing on Monday, when I grilled some shrimp and tucked them into rolls, slathered with tarragon dressing.  Bob assured me the shrimp rolls were delicious, but I couldn't appreciate them, due to my tender tummy. 

I do know that the tarragon dressing was wonderful and I'll certainly make it again to use with other seafood.  It reminded me again how much I love fresh tarragon, with it's mild licorice flavor.  For years I thought this herb was useless, because I had only tried the dried version.  But, fresh tarragon is marvelous and if you see any in the store, try it in a recipe and you'll be delighted.  By the way, tarragon is also good for an upset stomach, so maybe it has tamed the Stomach Beast? 

Last week I wasn't able to take part in Weekend Herb Blogging, which was very annoying, to say the least. But, this week I can and happily, it's when the lovely founder of WHB, Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen is hosting it.  Perfect!

First The Bad News........

Apparently, some sort of beast is living in my stomach, trying to claw its way out.  I'm a Wildlife Rehabilitator, but this is ridiculous.   In truth, I don't know exactly why my stomach hurts so much, but I'm beginning to suspect that it may be a reaction to a statin drug that my doctor prescribed. Since I see her this week, she may be able to tell me why I'm having these problems.  My stomach beast led me to forego taking part in challenge number 2 (for me) as a member of the wonderful Daring Bakers. And it was too bad, as the challenge devised by Helene, at Tartelette  and Anita at Dessert First was the iconic Gateau Saint Honore.  What a selection!  It had everything I love, cream puffs, puff pastry, caramel, and mounds of cream filling. However, my stomach beast became even more ferocious and making Saint Honore was just too daunting.  I urge you to check out all the wonderful efforts by the other Daring Bakers.  Just go to Tartelette and Dessert First where they  have assembled links to the very daring participants. Their efforts are amazing! 

There is some good news. Three of my Early Girl tomato bushes have fruit that look ready to start ripening.  I planted them weeks ago in a raised planter next to my house. It's a very sunny spot and the bushes were able to take off quickly.

WCB: I Made Sardine "Tonnato" Spread

Hey, this is a food blog, so I made something for this edition of Weekend Cat Blogging.  It's called Sardine Tonnoto Spread and here's the picture of it on a cracker that Mom made from a tortilla.  Then she stuck that spear of roasted asparagus on top, which was NOT what I wanted.  I don't eat asparagus.  So, just pick it off your cracker and toss it under the couch or in someone's shoe. 

This was pretty easy to make, just mash up some drained sardines with your paws, then add some mayo, minced capers, and parsley (or you could substitute catnip).  As I was making this, Sundance kept biting my tail, and while I was distracted, Mom added some lemon juice and grated lemon peel, which I hate.  So, keep you eye on the kitchen help because they will try to sabotage your culinary vision.  WCB is being hosted this week by House of The (Mostly) Black Cats, and those cool cats have a big party planned. So, head over there Saturday night for the Round-up.

Presto Pasta Night: Wagon Wheels with Broccoli and Parmesan Cheese

Sometimes fixings simple things is a matter of necessity, when you're very busy or don't feel like cooking.  Fortunately, sometimes the simplest things taste the best.  One of my favorite ways to eat good pasta is to simply toss it with butter, parmesan cheese, and freshly ground black pepper.  I still remember when my mother made pasta from scratch and served it that way.  It nearly caused a fight at dinner, with people vying for every last piece of linguine.  This dish isn't as delicious as my mom's pasta, but it's very fast and tastes good. It's also healthier too. I'm sure most people have made a version of this pasta. I liked this recipe because it's very quick, with everything cooked in the same pot.  It was listed as a Staff Favorite at Food & Wine magazine and that's usually a good recommendation.  This would make a good side dish, but we ate it as our main dish, with lots of cheese sprinkled on top.  I discovered that reheating the leftovers later seems to make it taste even better.  Not sure why that would happen. 

I always feel surprised when I see that another week has flown by. It also means that Presto Pasta Night, which was created by the lovely Ruth at Once Upon A Feast, is upon us. Please head over to Ruth's tomorrow and see the Roundup of other pasta bloggers.  And do try this very simple pasta dish when you want to make something quick, healthy and good tasting.

Cherry Muffins with Crumb Topping

Our harvest of cherries that seemed so big has nearly vanished--into our stomachs, which was my intent, of course.  I had a few cups left and wanted to bake something with them.  After considering different possibilities, I fell back on my tried and true baked item, muffins.  I love a good muffin because each person has their own easily handled, portable snack. Plus, they freeze nicely. I have family coming for a visit next week, so a batch of cherry muffins will be very handy.  The recipe that I used for these muffins comes from Food & Wine. I have fairly strong opinions on how I like a muffin to taste. That is, I don't like them to be miniature cakes. I grew up eating muffins that had a stronger crumb and this recipe reminds me of those muffins from my childhood.  Plus, it doesn't become soggy as the juice from the fruit seeps out during the baking, often a problem when making berry muffins.  The outside of the muffin looks quite dark, and I was afraid I baked them too long. But, the picture in the magazine showed the same appearance, and the inside was moist and delicate. The top and sides have a slight crunch that Bob and I enjoyed very much.  Try this with any fruit and I think you'll be very happy.  We were.

Mother's Day Cheese Potatoes

If you may remember, I was given a wonderful gift of cheese for Mother's Day. One cheese, called Berkswell, was new to me. It's made from sheep's milk, with vegetarian rennant, in the village of Berkswell, England.  I had a few thin slices, and loved the flavor, which was a bit like manchego cheese, but with it's own character.  As I read about this cheese, it was always mentioned that it goes beautifully with potatoes. And being a potato lover, I decided to use the cheese with some spuds.  Yesterday, I baked red skinned potatoes with the cheese and, as promised, these two are perfect together.  I think the cheese tastes best when it's cooked, but it would also be very good served as part of a cheeseboard.  I always enjoy meeting a new cheese, and Berkswell and I will be good friends from now on.

Simple Things

Today we picked the cherries from our dwarf cherry tree. Well, it was a dwarf tree when we planted it, but grew taller than I expected.  It's still not a huge tree and we often have a meager harvest.  This year the tree was full of beautiful fruit, a sight that made me feel so happy I did a little dance.  I ate all the fruit on the lower branches, then watched the crows and scrub jays feast on the cherries high in the tree.  At first, I felt generous, but then decided we needed to get serious about cherry picking. So, Bob hauled out the ladder and we picked about 3/4 of the fruit today. I left the rest for the birds, because I don't want my harvest next year to be jinxed by greed.

When I offered some cherries to my neighbor, he gave us freshly picked strawberries. These were small, sweet berries, totally unlike the bland monsters sold at the store.  Some were as small as raspberries, with an intense sweet odor that clung to my fingers.

I still have plenty of cherries left and I may bake something with them.  But, today we had strawberries and cherries, unadorned, straight up.  It was so simple.  And I felt grateful.

WCB: Squirrel Alert!

Wow! We are really late this weekend with our post for Weekend Cat Blogging, which is being hosted this weekend by Astrid, Kashim and Othello at Paulchen's Food Blog. Go see the cool kitten pictures of Kashim and Othello. They sure were cute.  And they are so organized, they already have the Roundup started over there.

This week we had a lot of excitement, because the squirrels have moved outside to their big cage. 

WHB: Salmon With Thai Red Curry Sauce, Cabbage Salad, And Jasmine Rice

Several years ago, I bought a wonderful cookbook called Terra, Cooking From The Heart Of The Napa Valley, by Hiro Stone and Lissa Doumani.  As often happens, I've enjoyed reading this book and imagined cooking several of the recipes, but never did so.  One dish in particular has appealed to me, a fillet of grilled salmon on top of rice, surrounded with a lovely red curry sauce, and topped with crunchy cabbage salad.  It's exactly the kind of dish that appeals to me.  So, I decided the time had come to make this dish, and I was not disappointed. The sauce is slightly nippy, but not overpowering, and absolutely delicious. The cool, crisp salad is perfect with the soft and succulent salmon.  The dish looks impressive, but is actually quite easy to make. It would be perfect for a dinner party, because you can prepare the rice, sauce, and salad in advance, leaving the salmon, which takes less than ten minutes to cook. 

This recipe is full of herbs and spices, which makes it a noble candidate for Weekend Herb Blogging,  created by Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen.  This week WHB is being hosted by Rinku at Cooking In Westchester-the practical, spicy, flavorful Way.  Check out the Roundup of herby recipes at Rinku's site, you'll be glad you did.  It was quite easy for me to choose my herb this week. Look at the lovely cilantro gracing the top of the dish. My favorite herb is cilantro, hands down.  Some people hate it, which is unfortunate.  But it appears that this dislike is genetic, so why torture yourself? If that's the case, you could just use the mint.  This was one of my favorite meals this year, so I recommend this to those who like this type of cuisine.   I also recommend the cookbook, Terra.