Easy peasy asparagus

I have accomplished everything for Sammy's birthday party except for purchasing the balloons and making the appetizer. Not bad for my procrastinating self. 

Yesterday and today have been awesome! The little boys and I have stayed busy getting party supplies, and we also got to meet up (twice!) with someone I have been friends with since junior high. Deb and I went to junior high, high school and college together! We now live in different states, so I was thankful to be able to spend time with her and her awesome little family.  

I dropped the boys off at daycare for a few hours today so I could come back home and get some things accomplished. Like finishing this post! A friend of ours at the dropzone shared this super simple method of cooking asparagus with me a few weeks ago. Dan and I tried it out the other night, and it was delicious! Thanks, Jim!

In a skillet, heat 1/4 cup of olive oil over medium heat.

Add 1 large chicken-flavored bouillon cube to the oil. Using a spatula, break the cube up and stir it into the oil.

Add 1 large bunch of asparagus to the skillet.

Cook, flipping occasionally, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the asparagus is bright green in color.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Transfer the asparagus to a serving platter and drizzle the oil from the skillet over the top.

Next on my list....dishes, laundry, salsa! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Printable recipe: Easy peasy asparagus

Smoky Glazed Asparagus

This is Week #43 of my 2011 cooking challenge! Click on the above graphic to view all P&TC recipes. All recipes created for this challenge come from the Food and Wine Annual Cookbook 2010: An Entire Year of Recipes.

My sleeping/non-sleeping continues this week, if that makes any sense. One of these days I will get ahead. I have two more weekends sans-husband and after that the little boys and I get six months worth of weekends with him and his beard! Have I mentioned my husband's beard? The beard that has its own Facebook page (not kidding)? Every other year, he grows a beard from October to December that makes all men jealous. We are currently in the middle of Beard 2011. Most people find it impressive. I find it...well, let's just say I can't wait to see his face again! 

Enough about beards, let's get to this delicious asparagus recipe! I made it during our Crazy Hour the other night and didn't lose my mind, so that is saying a lot. It was super simple and I loved the flavor, as well. If you love asparagus, you absolutely have to give this a try.

Light a grill.

In a shallow dish, whisk together the following ingredients:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tablespoon sweet smoked paprika

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Add 1 pound of trimmed thick asparagus. Toss and let stand for 30 minutes.

Grill the asparagus over moderately high heat, turning, until tender and blistered in spots, about 6 minutes.

Serve immediately! Yum!

Click here for a printable recipe!

Penne with asparagus, sage and peas

This is Week #39 of my 2011 cooking challenge! Click on the above graphic to view all P&TC recipes. All recipes created for this challenge come from the Food and Wine Annual Cookbook 2010: An Entire Year of Recipes.

This time of year I am all about comfort food. I have gotten into a routine of making a giant batch of something involving cheese and pasta and then eating it over the course of a few days. On the days when I have a container of comforting yumminess sitting in the fridge at work, I obsess about lunch time. Is 10:30 too early to eat lunch? There is something about crisp fall weather and cheesy pasta that go so well together.

I have been so excited to make this penne dish. I basically kept the entire batch to myself, and I think my family was fine with that. The whole vegetable thing must not have been super appealing to them, which I think is just plain weird.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add 1/2 pound penne pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Add:

3 medium garlic cloves, very finely chopped

1 pound asparagus, cut into 1-inch lengths

Cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Add 2 cups of chicken stock and boil over high heat until reduced by half and the asparagus are tender, about 5 minutes.

Add:

2 cups (10 ounces) shelled English peas or frozen baby peas, thawed

1/4 cup heavy cream

Boil over hight heat until the sauce has thickened, 3 minutes. 

Stir in the penne and and cook until heated through. Remove from the heat and stir in:

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Transfer the pasta to bowls and serve immediately, passing additional Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese at the table.

A couple notes about this recipe:

I love the addition of sage.

It was super easy to make.

Did I mention it was comforting?

Click here for a printable recipe!

Grilled flank steak with corn, tomato and asparagus salad

This is Week #32 of my 2011 cooking challenge! Click on the above graphic to view all P&TC recipes. All recipes created for this challenge come from the Food and Wine Annual Cookbook 2010: An Entire Year of Recipes.

My husband is an extremely thoughtful gift-giver. Without fail, I am pleasantly surprised by every gift he gives me. Have I mentioned the spice rack he had a friend make for me for our anniversary this year? The one made out of black walnut? It was perfect. I totally love it. But it has nothing to do with this post.

Another of his recent thoughtful gifts was a bowl full of food "goodies," including a package of dried morel mushrooms. If you are not a crazed foodie like myself, you are probably laughing. If you are a crazed foodie like myself, then you completely understand my excitement. And you will also understand why I was so excited to make this recipe! 

In a large baking dish, whisk together:

1 1/2 cups dry red wine

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

8 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled

3 large shallots, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon thyme, chopped

1 tablespoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Add one 1 1/2-pound flank steak. Turn to coat. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours or refrigerate for up to 8 hours.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together:

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

Add:

6 ounces cherry tomatoes, quartered

1/4 small sweet onion, thinly sliced (oops, forgot this! please forgive!)

Toss. Let stand for 1 hour.

Light a grill. Coat 6 ounces asparagus and 2 shucked ears of corn with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill over moderately high heat, turning occasionally, until tender and browned in spots, about 3 minutes for the asparagus and 6 minutes for the corn. Transfer to a work surface. When cool enough to handle, cut the asparagus into pieces and cut the corn from the cobs. Add the asparagus, corn and 6 finely shredded basil leaves to the tomatoes and toss.

Remove the steak from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Grill the steak, turning once, until medium-rare, about 10 minutes total. Transfer the steak to a work surface and let rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Add 6 ounces of fresh morel mushrooms, cleaned and halved if large (or 1/2 ounce dried morels, reconstituted in boiling water for 10 minutes). Cook over moderately high heat until browned, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Thinly slice the steak against the grain and transfer to plates. Season the tomato salad with salt and pepper and spoon alongside the steak. Top the steak with the morels and serve!

Click here for a printable recipe!

Spring linguine

Over the weekend I became enthralled with a woman I never even knew existed until a few days ago. Penny De Los Santos is amazing! Her food photography class on creativelive.com held me captive for three straight days.

Penny is a fabulous photographer and a beautiful person. I love her sense of humor, her style, the way she gets right in there for the perfect shot. And she’s so easy-going. I’d love to spend a day peppering her with questions about the places she has traveled, the people she has met and the photos she has made. Her talent and eye for beauty have inspired me in so many ways. What a fabulous way to live…doing what you love day after day. Penny’s passion shows through in every story she tells, every picture she makes. She’s the real deal, in my opinion.

Her best advice? “If you’re not doing what you love, why not? Whatever you want to do, you can do it.”

She is absolutely right. And it makes me think of another inspiring person I learned more about over the weekend. I watched the Justin Bieber documentary Never Say Neverwith my kids (don't laugh; it was really good!). If that story doesn’t make you want to dream big and follow your dreams, I don’t know what would. A Canadian kid with a great voice, was discovered on YouTube. A couple of years later he sold out Madison Square Garden in 22 minutes.  In his short career he has done things no other person has done. And he’s only 17.

Penny De Los Santos and Justin Bieber are an odd pair to talk about in the same breath, I’ll admit. But you know what I love about both of them? From the little I have seen, I get a strong feeling that they are both genuine people who have their priorities straight. In other words, their hearts are in the right places. And their stories make me smile.

All of my rambling has absolutely nothing to do with this recipe. Except that I shot these photos before I watched Penny’s class, and I hope that in the coming weeks and months I can start to show some improvement from the great tips I picked up over the weekend. If you didn't catch the class you can order a download at http://www.creativelive.com/courses/food-photography-penny-de-los-santos.

This pasta was, in fact, delicious. The stars of the show were the fresh asparagus and the basil that I snipped from my very own, newly acquired plant. Hooray for spring!

It’s an easy, quick dish you can whip up after a long workday. And I've found the time passes faster if you drink a glass (or two) of wine while cooking. 

Cook 4 ounces of linguine in boiling water until al dente, about 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil over medium high heat. Mince two cloves of garlic and sauté for a minute or two. Add 2 cups of shrimp and saute. Steam 3 cups chopped asparagus until crisp-tender, 1-2 minutes. Add to shrimp and garlic. Add one cup cooked peas, and the zest and juice of one lemon. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve vegetables and shrimp over linguine. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of fresh basil and a dash of red pepper flakes if you’d like a little heat. And Parmesan cheese would be good too. I didn’t think about it until after the fact, but it would have been delicious.   

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Click here for a printable recipe!