Oh, honey, you really do go on everything.

I'm working on an all honey menu.  I have the great fortune of knowing some lovely people who keep bees and share their honey with me, so it seems only natural to try all kinds of delicious things with their amazing honey.  I recently cooked up some of this and tossed it with some olive oil:

What does that have to do with honey, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  First I heated a bowl of water in the microwave, spilled out the water and ended up with a warm bowl.  In it I put some blobs of goat cheese.  I also crumbled up some walnuts and put them in.  I then placed my olive oil tossed lemon pepper pappardelle on top, and mixed it together.  The goat cheese becomes a rich sauce when it melts on the warm pasta in the warm bowl.  The best part is next: I drizzled it with a little honey and tossed in the tiniest bit of fresh thyme.  

This is my new favorite pasta dish.  Creamy, crunchy, nutty, citrusy, sweet.  Perfection.  I must get myself to Trader Joe's post haste, as I've eaten all the pasta I had.

Chickpea, Spinach & Squash Gnocchi

I made Eating Well's Chickpea, Spinach & Squash Gnocchi a few months ago and have been wanting to make it again for a few weeks. (Yes, sometimes I make a meal, take pictures of it and don't tell you right away.  It's crazy, I know.)

Now that everything is settling down (and I've had pot roast for two nights in a row and really need to Not Eat Meat tonight), I think tonight might be the night.  I'm venturing out to the store in the snow this afternoon, and will be getting the ingredients and cooking this as you read about it.  Very meta.

Getting my greens. Now with bacon!

I made some awesome pasta the other night.

1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed in microwave and squeezed dry(ish)

About 1/2 cup milk (ok, there was a tiny bit of whipping cream left, too - I used that and 2%)

Cook it down, down, down till it's creamy. 5 - 10 minutes

Add to cooked pasta, sprinkle with crispy bacon and parmesan.

You're welcome.

My continuing love affair with carbs.

Oh, pasta.  I love you.  Now that I know about things like quinoa pasta and pappardelle exist, I really could include you in a meal every day.  

I recently made EatingWell's Creamy Garlic Pasta with Shrimp & Vegetables

The vegetables in this dish are so fresh and delicious (love the pop of the peas!).  The pine nuts give it just the right texture and nuttiness (I actually managed not to burn my first batch this time).  I served the kids this dish, deconstructed, with no sauce - (love it when dinner is easy like that).  I also used cooked shrimp (on sale at the store) and just popped them in the water at the end long enough to warm them up, but not so long to make them rubbery.  I also used linguini instead of spaghetti and loved the texture of it.

I liked the sauce, but it was a little strong to eat the next day for leftovers lunch.  I think doing this same thing with half the garlic and dill in place of the parsley (and maybe an adjustment of the lemon juice to balance it out) would be a great variation.  I love the technique of yogurt as a sauce and will definitely use it again.

You say Rabe, I say Rapini.

We went a little Greek last night.  Some parts of the meal were more successful than others.  The menu was grilled salmon with fresh oregano and lemon, topped with a cucumber, red onion, tomato salsa, and Broccoli Rabe and Orzo Salad.

The salmon left a lot to be desired.  It was an impulse buy, and I should have taken the impulse to another store and gotten a nicer piece.  It was fine, really, but I love salmon so much that I hate to eat a mediocre piece, you know?  The salsa on top was just to try to tie it in to my salad ingredients and use up the stump of English cucumber and six cherry tomatoes we had laying around.

I've never had broccoli rabe.  It is, apparently, not a popular ingredient in my suburb, as I found it in ONE of the four grocery stores I've tried in the past few weeks.  (Yay, Byerly's!)  It is also called broccoli rapini, if you're looking for it.  And it's totally worth looking for.  I made extra orzo, as I knew I was going to have to fish some out without greens in it for my kids, and the picture above shows that even my portion is a little heavy on the pasta. Not that I minded.

The flavor of this green is really great.  It's broccoli-y and green leaf-y, and blanching it in the water with the pasta really takes the bitterness out of it.  I'd go easier on the feta next time, as every once in a while I got a big chunk and it overwhelmed the dish, and I'll also make sure to take out all the big stalky stems.  The leaves are especially wonderful.  Chop them up and put them all in.  This is a great way to get all those fabulous dark green leafy vitamins.  It will definitely hit our table again.  I may even add more garlic and omit the cheese next time, giving me more leeway with my protein. I really felt they had to tie in, so I used the feta as my inspiration for the Greekness of the salmon, and I think this can be a more versatile side dish.

What have you been eating?

This week we had  the Cheddar Cauliflower Soup and  Inside-Out Lasagna from my new Eating Well recipes list.

The soup was surprisingly good!  I really enjoyed it for dinner, and the recipe makes "four servings" that are very generous.  Unfortunately, I'm not a natural left-overs person, and now that it's several days later, I think the fate of our soup is to be a one serving meal.  Pretty specific and surprisingly strong (but good!) taste.  I'm not sure I can convince my taste-buds to go for it again.  Our 4 year old (who loves broccoli) ate half her bowl.  2 year old brother did not, but tried it twice, so there's some hope there.  I think the fact that I used Cracker Barrel Vermont Cheddar, and he got to sprinkle some on top helped my cause with him.

The pasta was not our favorite.  I have to admit, I'm not a fan of mushrooms to begin with, but I was willing to try them again.  I also wanted to introduce our children to something new, wrapped up in some of their favorite shaped pasta.  This was not a success.  The sauce was bland (it's a can of Italian Diced tomatoes, really), and the 3 TBS(!) of ricotta blopped on each serving looked pretty, but made the pasta cold, gritty and unappealing.  The kids fished out the pasta, the adults grimaced through the meal.  Dinner Fail.  Oh well, can't win 'em all.

On a happier note, I grilled hamburgers outside again last night.  Ate them so quickly, I didn't even get a picture, but, boy, that goes a long way towards fighting off the Mid-Feburary in Minnesota Blues.  It didn't even bother me when the propane tank ran out just as I was putting the burgers on.  I had an extra, and the grill was still hot.  I also had to laugh at myself a little bit when I realized I  was out on our deck, standing on the ice, in my tee shirt, grilling.

So - What have YOU been eating this week?  Any successes this week? Anything require a #dinnerfail on your Twitter feed like me?

So, what did you have for dinner?

Sunday 2/7/10:

Leftover Pot Roast.  

I didn't have any carrots (What?  Who doesn't have carrots?), so I used what I did have: a turnip, half a rutabaga, a parsnip and some onion.  I let the vegetables caramelize in the pan, then took them out and browned the meat, returned the veggies to the pan and added the wine (a half a bottle of a great red called Big Ass Zin), some water and beef bouillon and 2 TBS tomato paste.

I served them with a new recipe for CreamyMashed Cauliflower .  I used jarred minced garlic and it totally overwhelmed everything else.  [Fail] We threw it out after two bites.  But the Pot Roast was truly wonderful.  I ate it for three days.

Monday 2/8/10:

Pork Roast with Teeny Tiny Potatoes and Roasted Brussels Sprouts.

Tuscan Pork Loin recipe found here.

I only had time to marinade for 30 minutes (read the recipe first, Virginia - not just the ingredients!).  I liked it fine, though, I have to say, I would prefer a smaller portion of this with the fat left on, than to do it trimmed and turning it twice while cooking.  The meat was a little rubbery (though I may have over cooked it by two minutes).  It's becoming stir-fry in it's next incarnation.

Teeny Tiny potatoes (sold as such at Trader Joe's) were cooked for seven minutes in the microwave, then put on a baking sheet with halved Brussels sprouts.  I rendered the fat that I trimmed off the pork loin, and drizzled it on the potatoes and sprouts instead of olive oil and salt.  They were cooked at 375 for the last 15 minutes of the pork's time, then I upped the heat to 400 for the 10 minutes the meat was resting.  I like a little more char on the spouts, and could have used 5 more minutes, but my husband said they were perfect.

Tuesday 2/9/10:

Leftover Pork Fried Rice, Pot-stickers, Tempura Vegetables and Edamame.  
Thanks again, Trader Joe's!

Wednesday 2/10/10:
Eating Well Fish Sticks and Cheesy Broccoli-Potato Mash

These were both on my list of new Eating Well recipes for the month.  Recipes are found  here and here.

The fish sticks were really delicious!  Light, easy, moist on the inside, the right amount of crunch on the outside.  I used all bread crumbs, as all my flake cereal had dried fruit in it.  I can't imagine why a person would need a whole cup of bread crumbs and a whole cup of flakes for the breading for this recipe, though.  The other breading ingredients were right on.  Here's what was left in the bowl after I'd breaded everything.  Yikes that's a lot of bread crumbs.  And hardly any egg white left.

Next time, I'd peel the potatoes.  As you can see, when I quartered the potatoes to make the mash, the skins are left whole.  Maybe a smaller dice to steam them, to preserve some of the nutrition, but the skins were super big and a little unwieldy.  Kids loved the fish sticks.  The one who likes broccoli ate the mash, the other couldn't be persuaded, even though his favorite color is green.  Sometimes you just can't make the sale.

Thursday 2/11/10:

Bobbie's Chicken, Lemon Pepper Pappardelle, Asparagus Spears

Oh, Bobbie's Chicken, you're my favorite roast poultry.  Yes.  I love you even more than a perfect salt and pepper chicken. Yes. I pick at you even more than Thanksgiving turkey.  You are wonderful, succulent, flavorful.  Your bones make really really excellent stock.  I love you, Bobbie the sculptor (and Bert, too!).   Thank you for perfecting this recipe.  Found on page 403 of The New Basics, this is one of our favorite standbys. We rave about it every time.

I served this with Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper Papparadelle pasta and asparagus with butter and lemon.  Our four year old liked the pasta until the pepper kicked in.  Then she ate the egg noodles I'd made just in case.  Our two year old ate the lemony, spicy pasta like it was going out of style.  And no asparagus is safe for long at our table.  Mmmm!

Weekend Meal Plan:

We've been invited out tonight (Friday) with some preschool parents and their friends.  Can't wait to meet new people and I'm so grateful to my parents for taking the kids overnight.  Twice this weekend!!

Saturday we'll have chicken leftovers.  I made some acorn squash with lots of butter and salt to make it extra sweet and delicious for just such an occasion.

Sunday is Valentine's Day.  We have reservations at Piccolo.  Last time we were there (for opening night), we ordered and ate the entire menu.  We have two fewer people in our party this time, and I don't know how I'm going to edit my eating.  Everything was amazing.  I hope/bet there will be some new items and specials this weekend, and cannot wait for Sunday to come so I can eat there again.  Please.  If you live in or near Minneapolis, or if you know someone who does, make a reservation on their site or at Open Table and go as soon as possible.  Little bites, huge flavors, great prices, nice wine list, amazing front of house, and exceptional talent in the kitchen.