What Did You Eat?

Presto Pasta Night: Ravioli With Vegetable Puree And White Herb Sauce

This weekend I harvested the last of my fava beans.  Last year, I had a spectacular, almost mind boggling, harvest.   This year, as if to rectify things, the amount of fava beans was modest.   I decided to use my last beans as a filling for ravioli, using won ton wrappers in place of regular pasta dough.   Quicker than the traditional way, it won't supplant regular ravioli, but it's a delicious substitute.   For my filling, I made a puree of asparagus, potato, fava beans, thyme, and scallions.  I also cooked a rich tasting herb white sauce from 1% milk.  Altogether, this was a very nice meal, and lower in calories than you would expect.  I think this would be a very nice meal when you want ravioli, but don't have time to make it the traditional way.  Kids enjoy making it and the wonton dough is available in most grocery stores. 

Presto Pasta Night is upon us, which was created by the lovely Ruth at Once Upon A Feast.   Every week you can find wonderful pasta dishes at Ruth's. So, go to her site tomorrow and see the pasta bloggers from around the world.

Ceci Bean Soup, For The Sleep Deprived

What are Ceci beans?  They're chickpeas, if you're in Italy. Since I dream about visiting Italy quite a bit, I enjoy using that name.  Wait, did I say that I dream?  Not for some time.  Today was yet another day dealing with the effects of sleep deprivation, a fancy way of saying that I normally get less than six hours of sleep a night.   I usually spend the early morning and afternoon feeling like death. Then, as evening approaches, I'm wide awake, totally unable to sleep until well after midnight.   

This Ceci bean soup was perfect for my exhausted state of mind earlier in the day. All the ingredients were in my pantry and it took very little time preparing the final dish.  I used canned chickpeas and used a stick blender to puree the soup right in the pot.  The soup is thick, but not heavy, with a fluffy texture.  The chickpeas and tomatoes gave it a lovely sweet flavor, with an assist from sage and rosemary. 

The little chicken was a Mother's day gift from Upsie and Sundance.  He was hand carved in Mexico by an artist named Antonio Xuano (the name is written on the bottom of the chicken's feet).  Beautiful work Antonio. 

Big Burger Ballyhoo 2007: Bacon Cheeseburgers With Thousand Island Dressing

Even though I have a very nice, but basic, Weber Kettle grill sitting on my patio at my beck and call, it's been well over six months since I used it to make a burger.  I love burgers, but don't make them very often. Odd.  So, I was very happy to see Big Burger Ballyhoo 2007 over at Writing At The Kitchen Table.  There's always something interesting going on there with the adorable Freya and Paul, and the latter's idea of people making their best burger recipes is a great way to get me outside flipping a disk of meat over hot coals. 

At first, I thought of fish, lamb, or mushroom burgers.  But, my favorite way to eat a burger is pretty simple. I like them with cheese and bacon.  And tomatoes.  But, the tomatoes I'm growing are still green, so I did without that ingredient.  My burger is made with organic beef (not required, but it's a good brand), homemade thousand island dressing, boston lettuce, red onions, and applewood-smoked bacon, on a sesame  seed bun.  It wasn't fancy, but it was delicious. I controlled myself and had just one, but Bob eagerly scarfed down two of these bad boys with gusto.  By the way, you can't see any bacon in the photo, because I forgot to put it on.  After I took the picture and began to eat it, I realized it was missing and corrected the problem.   This was a wonderful burger.   

WCB: Roundup!

Oh dear!  What a hectic day I had. The Round up is quite late, past the bed time for people who don't live on the West Coast like I do. We had so many great WCB participants this week. I counted 18 great submissions. However, Typepad seemed to go a little crazy today and jumbled my comments. So, if I left anyone out, please let me know and I'll put you in the Roundup in a jiffy.  You can e-mail me at upsiefan (AT)yahoo(DOT)com.  Thanks to everyone for participating. Hope you all had a great weekend with your furry friends.

Please go to Astrid, Othello, and Kashim's site at Paulchen's Foodblog where Othello gives a very moving memorial to Teacup, who passed away recently.   You will be able to see what a special cat Teacup was, from a video prepared by his mom, Megan.  And there is a remembrance of Paul, Othello's brother and Astrid's soulmate.

We are very honored that the usually elusive, and adorable, Claudius decided to pose for a very pretty picture.  Please go see him in all his glory at Pages Turned.

Well, I must say that I was thrilled to see pictures of the amazing Kamikaze as a tiny kitten over at I Got Two Shoes.  It's part of a meme telling 7 Random Things about Kami.  Very cool!

Over at Chat Katze, Sebastian has found his resting spot and don't you dare try to use it for anything else but him!  I think he makes the most adorable centerpiece I've ever seen!

Amar and Luna at CatSynth.com also have some wonderful words for Teacup and his family, as well as a CD sale to benefit the family. I was also happy to see a nice picture of Amar and Luna together, quite a happy team!

I loved reading Kate In Kitchen's poignant salute to the "kids" that bring meaning to her life--and a shoutout to all mom's everywhere.  Those are three great looking guys you have there at your house, Kate.

It was very nice getting a link from Lucky and Charmed at my old home, Illinois.  Princess Mina has a lovely (and very funny) salute to her mom, Lucky. It's obvious that Mina has Lucky very well trained!

I just have to say that Aloysius at Catymology should do shampoo commercials. Look at the gorgeous fur!  He's got those skinny human models beat in the looks department. I'm just saying.   You be the judge.

You will be very entertained if you go to The World According To Pia  and see how Pelle and his daughters Siri and Solbritt have their best paw forward, so to speak! 

Over at Jelly Pizza, the very cerebral Taboo, is conducting research on capillary action in water. She has almost managed to produce fusion energy from salt water, according to her mom.  Can you say Nobel Prize?

You can always count on Fridolin at Rosa's Yummy Yums to give you a chuckle. And he certainly did it for me this week. Look at him snooze in an impossibly cute and contorted position. Could you do that?  Of course not!

How much do cats love catnip?  Go over to Sammawow and see China Cat and Willow under an herbal spell!   Hey, it's legal!

Well, Barrett is off entertaining the masses, so darling Shannon and Colin are left to their own devices at The Westering Hills.  So, go over there and check out the hard partying! Shocking! 

Want to see a kitty who has a trick up her sleeve?  Go see Puddy over at A Byootaful Life.  She likes to play the old hide and sneak attack, as her mom walks by.  I can almost hear her giggling!

Another great meme is over at Kitikata-San's Blog. I love the answers. She's one of those cats that like to stick their head in another person's glass.  Sundance does that too.

Catch Diva Kitty over at Diva Kitty and The Fluffies planning her day, which seems to include a nice walk--and Mother's Day celebrations!

Oh my! Molly is looking quite fierce as she battles a knitted mousie at Nina's Books 4 Israel Project.  I think she's actually friends with mousie.

Over at God Is In The Potatoes Button Cat is celebrating his fifth birthday!  Well, Happy Birthday--you sure look adorable.

And last, but certainly not least, we have a marvelous post from Belly Timber (Angry Cat Blog) written by the departed Audrey.   What a great soul you are Miss Audrey.  I can see why you are so missed.  Visit anytime, and bring us your savage wisdom.. 

WHB: Strawberry Coffeecake

The fabulous Butta Buns has once again shown her fearsome courage.  First she made a towering Dagwood Sandwich, after some fiend Triple Dog Dared her to do it.  Now she has posted a different cake five days in a row.  After reading about the popularity of her Strawberry Coffeecake, so good one friend described it as "strawberry crack," I knew I had to make it. It seemed perfect for a little Mother's Day get together today.   

This is one of those recipes that's easy to prepare and great fun to eat.  How could it miss, with fresh strawberries on top of the batter creating little lakes of juice as they bake?  One of the ingredients in this recipe is cinnamon, which gives the cake a sweet floral flavor, but doesn't overwhelm the berries.  I used my wonderful Penzeys Vietnamese Cinnamon, which gave the batter a faint tan color.  Although cinnamon is, in truth, a spice, I have deemed it an herb this week, to qualify for Weekend Herb Blogging, the marvelous event created by Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen.  This week WHB is being hosted by Patl at Up A Creek Without A Patl.  Stop by her site and enjoy all the other herby recipes from around the world.

WCB: Be Good To Your Mom!

Hey, I'm hosting Weekend Cat Blogging this weekend. So, please join us here by leaving a WCB link to your blog in the comments section of this post. Oh, and please link our blog to your post, because we love that! Also, you might want to check out the party at Friday Ark.  I'm posting early because this weekend is Mother's Day.  Remember to be good to your mom. She's the one who cleans your litter pan, gives you treats, and combs your fur.  Your dad does that too, and he will have his own special day in a few months.  But right now it's about your mom.  I ordered my Mom a special cheese selection from a place called Cowgirl Creamery. Mom is nutty about it.  Cheese is her trigger food. Don't really know what the heck that means, but she gets passionate about a good chunk of cheese, I must say. 

She ate this entire cheese, called Constant Bliss, for dinner.  It's made in Vermont and they play jazz and classical music for the cows there, to make better milk I guess. Mom made so many weird noises as she was eating the cheese, you would have thought she was making out with George Clooney.  Embarrassing! 

Presto Pasta Night: Gemelli with Sweet Sausage and Spinach

I never knew "pasta" existed while I was growing up.  I grew up eating noodles, macaroni, spaghetti, and canned ravioli, but no one ever called them pasta.  My mother hated buying the canned Chef Boyardee, but I would plead for it relentlessly.  By the time I was in my 20's, I learned there was a huge variety of pasta, in different shapes and sizes.  When Bob and I eloped and were married at a small Justice of The Peace in Indiana, our celebratory meal afterwards was at a small Italian restaurant where I had moscacholli, and he ordered Spaghetti a la Caruso.  Frankly, I haven't seen moscacholli on any menu for years, but I have fond memories of it's tubular shape.

I still have a tendency to stand transfixed in the pasta aisle, looking at all the different shapes.  A well stocked pasta section is downright intoxicating to me.  The shapes delight the eye, and it's fun to discover which one tastes the best.  One of my favorites is gemelli, which looks like little pieces of twisted rope to me.  In this very fast and delicious recipe,  it's combined with sweet Italian sausage, grape tomatoes, onions and fresh spinach. It a very simple dish to prepare, but it has big flavor and is the type of comfort food that makes you feel that all is right in the world.  It's the perfect dish for Presto Pasta Night, which is the brainchild of the lovely Ruth at Once Upon A Feast.  Head over to her site on Friday and you will find other terrific pasta dishes from bloggers around the world.

Dilled Salmon With Spinach Sauteed With Pine Nuts And Raisins

My friend Nancy has been asking me when I would post the meal of salmon with spinach I prepared over a week ago.  Like me, she loves that combination.  So as requested, here's the post Nancy.  I have to take my hat off to her, because she uses my blog for menu ideas, and prepares most of the things she sees here.  It's a huge relief when she and her family like the recipes. You never know if someone will hate something you recommend. 

I do like the combination of salmon and cooked greens. The slightly bitter taste of cooked greens paired with the sweet salmon is always terrific.  Frankly, if you have a good piece of salmon, you don't have to do very much with it. Here, I dusted the fillets with some grated lemon rind and chopped dill, and pan grilled it. Very simple and quite good. The spinach has raisins, onions, and pine nuts in it.  This was a fast, healthy and delicious meal.  Hope you agree Nancy.

Tamales And Rice With Herbs

Yesterday was Cinco De Mayo, so I decided to celebrate by going to the Davis Farmer's Market to buy one of my favorite things to eat in the whole world, a chili-cheese tamale from Pilar's Homemade Tamales. They make different types of tamales, but the chili-cheese usually sells out first.  Obviously, many people share my view that it's a standout.  I'm told that the owners wake up at 4 a.m. to start making the tamales from a trusted family recipe. Not a fiery tamale, it has a delightful tangy, creamy taste, with one of the best recipes for masa that I've ever tasted.   

When I got home I looked into my fridge and saw a large amount of herbs, left over from the different recipes I made this week. In particular, there was quite a bit of dill left from a massive bunch I bought at the grocery store. Despite using it in two other recipes, there was still a lot left.  And there were the other herbs I'd bought, resigned to their fate of becoming withered castoffs. Well, enough of that. I was determined to let them fulfill their culinary purpose by going into some sort of dish. And so, I made green rice full of  cilantro, dill, parsley and watercress. It was very, very good, and all the herbs were used up. 

WCB: Happy 100th For Weekend Cat Blogging!

Can you believe it?  This is the 100th anniversary for Weekend Cat Blogging.  Time sure goes by fast since mom started sticking a camera in my face and forcing me to look cute.  To mark the occasion, she opened one of her precious cans of Italian tuna and stuck a candle in it. And she actually let me and Sundance eat it.  Have I ever told you how selfish she is with her Italian tuna?  Well, she is!!  By the way, I'm totally disgusted that she didn't comb me before taking this picture.  I can look so much better.