Garlic Scape Pesto

Tweet

Garlic Scape Pesto

Warning:  For garlic lovers only...all others beware the deliciousness!!!

It's garlic scape season again!!!!!!  Run, don't walk, to your nearest farmer's market and pick up some of these green beauties while you can, because their season is very short, too short, only 2 - 3 weeks in duration short.  I get a bit freakishly excited when I see garlic scapes at the market.  For example, my friend texted me that she picked up some garlic scapes and my reaction was 'Jealous!'  I've been known to buy armloads at at time, then go back for another bunch, then talk about it to whoever will listen.

Garlic Scapes !

Garlic scapes are one of the best kept secrets in the world of produce, and I'm here to out them.  The garlic scape is the long, bright green, usually curly stem that grows out of the garlic at the plant's maturity.  The closest thing that they resemble visually is a green onion, but they are hard to the touch unlike the soft green onion, with the stiffness of the stem of a daisy.  Their season is very short, from late June to early July (where I live anyway), and they can typically only be found at your local farmer's market.  Garlic scapes range in price from $1 to $2.50 a bunch - cheap, cheap, cheap - so get out there and support your local farmers.  They taste is exactly like garlic to me, which since I'm like very into garlic, works for me.

Butternut Squash, Italian Sausage, and Spinach Pasta

Tweet

Secret:  The butternut squash is the sauce.  No, like it actually is the sauce.  Like, there's no tomato sauce, and instead it's butternut squash.  Does that mean it's healthier?  I have no clue.  But tasty?  Oh my gourd, yes!

But, first things first (and I know I'm a little late)...WAY TO GO TEAM CANADA!

This is what Canadians live for!

We had 26 people crammed into our tiny living room to watch Canada win gold over Sweden in Men's Hockey in the Sochi Olympics.  And with a 4am game start time, why wake up early when you can stay up partying all night long?  We didn't crawl into bed until close to 8am, but it was worth it.  Well, except for The Hubby who was sawing logs by the end of the second period after doing a well-executed 'classic slip-out*' exit from the party.  He was discovered minutes later, in our bed, with drool already on the pillow...it was too late to drag him back to the party.

*During a classic slip-out, you must tell no one that you are leaving, and 'slip out' of the room without saying goodbye, for fear of being told by anyone in the room that you are actually, in fact, not allowed to leave because leaving would be super lame.

So, Pinterest is awesome and something I could become easily obsessed with.  Just kidding, I already am obsessed with it.  You can follow me here if you like.  Actually, I have pinned something like 1500+ recipes (with probably a lot of duplicates, because with 1500 recipes who could remember which ones you've laid eyes on before), and have only made a few things.  A couple of weeks ago I challenged myself to make something, anything, from one of my Pinterest boards, and that's when I stumbled upon the Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage, and Baby Spinach from the Skinny Taste website.  It looked like exactly what I was going to need in my life that night, so I went to my favourite store (COSTCO!!), and picked up some butternut squash, 18 other things that I didn't plan on buying (48 granola bars!  16 cans of soup!  6 boxes of crackers!), and Italian sausage.  I changed up the recipe a little bit, with one of the main differences being that I roasted the squash instead of boiling it in water, which I felt would help to retain more flavour.

Turkey Meatballs in Coconut Curry Sauce

Tweet

Happy new year everyone!  Also happy November and December, seeing as it's been awhile since my last post.  The reason for that...well, I'm going to blame our Netflix subscription.  I've become super well acquainted with Emily and Daniel from Revenge, Jess and Nick from New Girl, Mindy and Danny from The Mindy Project, and seriously, why didn't anyone tell me how awesome Grey's Anatomy is like ten years ago?  I'm now hopelessly addicted to it, and have a long haul of ten 27-episode seasons (quick math: 10 x 27 = 270 episodes) to catch up on, and apparently I've given myself a deadline of about four weeks to do this at the rate I have been going at.  No one tell me, but are McDreamy and Meredith going to stay together forever?  Because I seriously can't handle it if they don't.  And no one tell me, but what's going to happen with Addison and McSteamy, and with Izzie and Alex?  They can't get back together, can they?  So many questions, so little time for anything but getting all of the answers!

So, things that have happened in the real world for me in the past few months, at least food wise...

Pasta With Arrabiata Sauce

Tweet

This was my my favourite pasta sauce to eat when I was in Italy last year.  When I wasn't gluten-free yet, aka the good old days.

 

And now, here it is, in my kitchen in Canada, on gluten-free pasta.  But I have to say, the quinoa/corn blend pasta that I use tastes fairly identical to wheat pasta, and this sauce recipe tastes fairly identical to what I became slightly obsessed with in Italy.  I hear that Costco, my favourite store in the world, is now selling a gigantic bag of quinoa/corn blend pasta...looking forward to my visit there this weekend!  Woo.

'Arrabiata.'  It means 'angry' in Italian, and the reason for the sauce being labelled with this name is because of the spice of the red pepper flakes.  At the restaurants that I ate at in Italy, Arrabiata meant a spicy red sauce with chunks of pancetta in it.  Back home, it seems to just mean a spicy red sauce, and an Amatricana sauce is the one that has the pancetta chunks.  I was happy when I stumbled across this Giada de Laurentiis recipe for Arrabiata sauce from my copy of her Everyday Pasta cookbook, because it combined both the spice of the red pepper flakes and the pancetta like I remembered.

Basic Marinara Sauce

Tweet

Here is a simple recipe for a basic marinara sauce that I made from my Giada De Laurentiis 'Everyday Pasta' cookbook.  This is a great cookbook that I highly recommend for the simple and delicious pasta recipes.  The marinara sauce is great as a base for Giada's Arrabiata Sauce recipe.

Yum.  Salivating.  Sexy.

 

Greek Yogurt Tzatziki

Tweet

Yeeeeeesssssssssahhhh I love tzatziki.

I have made tzatziki a few times in the past, and my attempts have been so-so, but I think that I have now finally discovered the best tzatziki recipe known to man.  It's sooooo good, and really easy too!  I found this recipe on Food.com, and made it as an accompaniment to my spanakopitas for a recent Greek-themed Supper Club night.

It's seriously a must-try recipe!  Do it!

Crispy Chicken with Green Curry Sauce

Tweet

Something you should know about me is that I have an unhealthy obsession with cookbooks.  I love them.  I want more of them.  I need them.  I'm a cookbook hoarder.

Ask The Hubby, there probably isn't any night of the week that while we are sitting watching TV I am not flipping through the tattered, stained pages of any given cookbook.  If you and I are talking on the phone, and I end the sentence with the word potato instead of whatever you were expecting, you know what I was really doing while we were chatting.  I usually even have a cookbook on the passenger seat of my car so that I can sneak a peek at a red light on my long drive home from work.  And what makes it worse is the suffocating feeling that even if I cooked one new thing every day for the rest of my life, I would never ever be able to make all of the recipes that are out there in all of the cookbooks!  It's bad.  I'm an addict.

So, imagine how excited I was on Christmas Eve when I got to open my stocking from my mother-in-law (yes, I am 30 years old and still get a stocking from both my mom and my mom-in-law, and I LOVE it!), and inside was a brand new copy of Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes!  So many new recipes and pretty pictures and yummy things!!!  Pure bliss!

So, I decided to finally put the Meals In Minutes concept to a test this past Friday.  A whole delicious meal in just a few minutes?!  Um, yes please.  With my new cookbook on the car seat beside me, I decided during my commute home from work that Crispy Chicken with Green Curry Sauce was going to be the object of my affection that day.

Off to the grocery store I went.  The recipe called for some ingredients that I have never cooked with before, namely lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.  The lemongrass part wasn't hard to find, but after going to two grocery stores and having a few awkward conversations with the 17-year old produce department employees about what I was trying to buy ("Lime leaves?"), I opted out of the optional lime leaves.

Then I had a stroke of genius!  Since it was only 6pm on a Friday night, and since this meal was literally only going to take me a few minutes to construct, maybe The Hubby and I should invite some friends over for dinner and cards!  The Hubby's brother and his fiance were totally in.  Sweet...last minute dinner plans!