Sunday, March 21, 2010

Pea Parley Pesto Pasta....Please

(Pictures to be added soon)

After a weekend spent gardening and running a gorgeous 10K, I should be finishing up the work I was too mindless to finish Friday afternoon, proofreading, oy. If it’s waited this long, why not let it sit til morning, I’m sure my boss will understand I was busy cooking and blogging.


Before my love for Martha Stewart turned into pure hate after botching batch after batch of her dainty little delicious looking cookies, I subscribed to Everyday Food. 2 months after said incident, I have finally decided to give some of her recipes a try, today’s being: Pea and Parley Pesto with Pasta (Linguine to be exact but wanted to continue with alliteration of P). So I gathered my ingredients, put on my apron, cranked up my Pandora (an entire station dedicated to the sound of Harper Valley PTA) and got to work.

After processing the Pesto ingredients in my Magic Bullet I took a big heaping spoonful and remembered what it was like to be a child of one eating that jarred mush for the first time. Man oh man did I cringe.

Pea and Parsley Pesto with Linguine: From Everyday Food
I halved this recipe because one can only eat so many leftovers, the recipe shown has not been halved

-2 cups frozen peas
- 1 cup fresh parsley leaves
- ½ cup walnuts, toasted (I didn’t see the toasted part until just now, mine weren’t toasted)
- 2/3 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for later
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper
-1 package Linguine

1. Cook 1 cup of peas according to directions on package. In food processor, or Magic Bullet if you’re lucky enough to own one, combine cooked peas, parsley, walnuts, Parmesan, garlic, and 1 tbs water (not listed in the ingredients, I assume you do have water). Pulse until a paste forms, add oil, salt, and pepper until you’re satisfied with texture and taste.

2. This is where I forgot I even had instructions to begin with, so yours will no doubt turn out that much better than mine, although mine was pretty darn good. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to direction on package, unless you’re Jeralyn from Glorified Lunch Lady and you’ve made your own pasta. Add 1 cup of peas 20 seconds before end of cooking. Drain pasta and peas reserving 1 cup water. Return pasta and peas to pot, toss ¾ cup pesto adding enough to pasta water to create a sauce that coats the pasta. Top with more Parmesan.

Eat up, remembering to pour yourself a glass of wine first.

Since I wasn’t in the mood to work or watch the boilermakers get destroyed and my bracket fall to pieces, I decided to go ahead and roast some garlic and whip up the ingredients to make pizza. Now that I’ve finally begun the art of freezing, it’s super easy to make the dough and sauce ahead of time, place it in the freezer, and have it ready for any pizza craving that may pop up.

Roasted Garlic:
- Chop heads of garlic off, sprinkle with salt, pepper, your favorite Italian seasoning and drizzle with a little olive oil. Place in roasting pan and top with foil. Roast at 400 for about an hour. Store in fridge for up to 2 weeks. Use on toasted french bread, crackers, or eat it by the spoon. I just might.

Pizza:
- Scroll down and read previous pizza blogging. Both Megan and I have some good, easy recipes.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Winter Crafts, Spring Produce

Cooking...and Crafting with Cocktails, I'm so happy to be back. Winter was a rough one in the cooking world, but boy oh boy did I bust out some crafts. Megan did also. I guess we could official change the name of this blog because like cooking, the crafting was indeed done with cocktails in hand. Shouldn't everything be like that?

I've been hibernating all winter long not cooking one lick of wholesome goodness. Instead, I've been knitting and sewing up a storm. Not one, but two sets of pillows.

It all came to an end Thursday, when Megan and I needed a cooking/crafting night. Since Easter is right around the corner, what's more cheerful than grilling and coloring Easter eggs. No real recipes on this one, just thrown together delights.

Bruchetta:
Spray bread with oil and place on grill being careful not to get sidetracked. It took two tries. The first was so blackened the birds turned their noses, err beaks, up. Top with tomato, basil, garlic, and feta. In this case, lots of feta.


Grilled Vegetables:
Drizzle your choice of fresh produce with olive oil and basil. In this case, I chose broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onion, garlic, and red pepper. Wrap in foil and place on grill for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and continue to grill for 5 more minutes. Enjoy.


Grilled Pineapple:
My favorite and a last minute addition to the dinner. Slice and grill. We were going to add brown sugar but it's sweat enough on it's own.


Post grilling, color eggs!



I've been pondering the idea of using nothing but items which can be purchased from local farmers this spring/summer/fall. I think it would make for some challenging eating, but with the abundance of local markets held various days of the week, it can easily be conquered. Expect many many more posts.

If you're feeling up to a real cooking challenge, check out my friend Jeralyn's blog, Glorified Lunch Lady. She too is quite funny, although not quite as funny as Megan and I, but man can that girl cook.