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Thursday, April 19, 2007Ban Me From the KitchenI have a new warning for pregnant women: Don't try new recipes until after the baby's born. Because we all know that those hormones drain the thoughts out of your brain like a sump pump in overdrive. I had a hankering for a nifty pasta and spinach salad. My usual trying-new-recipes method is to do a brief search online to get some good ideas, and then come up with my own recipe. It didn't take me long to concoct a passionate conglomeration of ingredients in my head, and I headed to the grocery store after dropping off my daughters at ballet. Who could resist a spinach-and-wagon-wheel-pasta salad, redolent of fresh lemon juice and minced garlic, tossed gleefully with grape tomatoes, black olives, red onion, marinated artichoke hearts, grated Parmesan, crumbled Feta, and -- as a special tip of the hat to my husband -- pine nuts. So I doused the pine nuts with olive oil and slapped them under the broiler while the water boiled. Then I promptly forgot about them. In the midst of grating cheese and slicing olives and stirring the boiling pasta, it occurred to me that something smelled odd. I thought maybe it was the permanent food crust that lives on my stovetop. But no. It was Blackened Pine Nuts a la Jillian. I was devastated. They were expensive. Eric is going to tease me mercilessly. And the entire downstairs smells like the residue from a kitchen fire. Still, I quickly regrouped and continued to toss the remaining ingredients in the bowl. I sliced open the container of Feta -- ah, I love Feta! -- and it looked blueish-green. This wasn't a good sign. In a fit of panic, I read the lid to confirm my suspicion. Yep. I had accidentally purchased crumbled bleu cheese. Two whole containers of it. Ask me if my children like bleu cheese. Now ask me if I'm going to tell them that the cheese in their pasta salad isn't Feta. Overall, the salad is beautiful, and even pre-soaking time, it tastes pretty darn good. Still, I think I would have been safer putting this one off. I think tomorrow night we'll order a pizza. |
About Me
I am: Mother to five stunningly individualistic children... Writer of young adult fantasy... Passionate advocate for Women At Home... Madly in love with my husband... In need of Organic Gourmet Chocolate on a regular basis. I've got a Paypal account if you'd like to contribute to the cause....
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11of my readers are feeling chatty:
You shouldn't be eating feta, should you?
I love that one salad you made when we visited! It had orzo pasta and huge olives...and veggies....mmmmm
Ask me about the Tuna and orange salad I made. >>shudder<<
Dave
Jill, you have my mouth watering! Is the burnt smell gone yet?
I wish I could say the cause of my poor cooking attemps were due to pregnancy. :o( Then my family would only suffer in nine month chuncks instead of all of the time. LOL
I have burned many a thing by forgetting it in the oven. I now toast all my nuts in a skillet on the stove. I don't usually put oil in with them though. Does that make them better??
Dramamama -- oh, YES, it does! But it has to be a good, healthy oil, like extra virgin olive or coconut. Tastes awesome and provides you with those good fatty acids.
Debz -- I owe you an email!! Yes, the burnt smell is finally gone. :)
Dave -- Tuna and oranges? But...why?? LOL
Leese -- (((hugs))) That was my "famous" orzo salad, which is also my own creation. Except there's nothing to BURN in that one!! :|
"I thought maybe it was the permanent food crust that lives on my stovetop."
Ummm... if I ever make it out to visit you let's go out to that Irish pub for dinner, I'll treat!
;-D
Kerrie, ever since I learned that you MICROVACUUM your toaster every day, I decided that you would never step foot in my kitchen. Never. As in, never.
McCreary's sounds PERFECT!!
;D
Tuna and Orange
By Dave Hanks
I was but a wee lad of the Third Grade ilk, and ordered a recipe book from those famed chefs "The Peanuts".
I rushed home to try the sumptious dishes spread before me in those pages of pure gold.
Ahh yes! The tuna salad with apples seemed to be just the thing to show my family my culinary brilliance.
I mixed together the tuna, the mayo, the celery, the... CRAP! we didn't have any apples.
Undaunted I sought for a replacement.
Searching...
AHA! I spotted another of God's wonderful fruitacious creations, and thought, 'Tis the thing!
Peeling...
Stirring...
Tasting... HOCK!
'Tis not the thing!
But alas, Mother of Thrift insisted that I not waste the food, and I was forced at parent-point to eat the vile crap.
Which reminds me of the sugar and salt debaucle while making my ever-so-famous Orange Julius, but that is a different story.
-- Cheez
It is so frustrating when cooking does not go the way we want it to...
What's a recipe?
and....kitchen?
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