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Pasta with Goat Cheese and Roasted Asparagus

from: Everyday Food May 2007

Ingredients
2 bunches asparagus
4 T butter
12 oz cavatappi or other short pasta
1 small log soft goat cheese (5 oz), crumbled
2-3 tablespoons snipped fresh chives for garnish

Directions
Heat oven to 450. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil. Place asparagus on a large rimmed baking sheet, dot with 1 T butter and season with salt and pepper. Roast until tender, tossing occasionally, 10-15 minutes; cut into 2-inch lengths.

While asparagus is roasting, generously salt boiling water and ad pasta and cook until al dente. Set aside 1.5 C pasta water, drain pasta and return to pot. In a medium bowl, combine goat cheese, remaining 3 T butter and 1/2 cup pasta water. Season with salt and pepper and whisk until smooth. Add goat cheese mixture and asparagus to pasta; toss to combine, adding more pasta water if necessary for sauce to coat pasta. Serve garnished with chives.

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Roasted Salmon with Lemon Relish

from: Everyday Food May 2006

Ingredients
1/4 C pine nuts
1/4 C raisins
slivered zest and juice of 1 lemon (peel off the zest of the lemon with a veggie peeler and slice it very finely, then juice)
4 skinless salmon fillets (6 oz each)
coarse salt and ground pepper
1/4 C chopped parsley
3 T olive oil
5 oz baby spinach

Directions
Heat oven to 450. Spread pine nuts on cookie sheet and toast for 5-7 min or until lightly golden. Remove from sheet and reserve. Meanwhile, place raisins and lemon zest in a small bowl, cover and set aside.

Place salmon fillets on the baking sheet and season with salt & pepper. Roast until salmon is opaque throughout, 8-10 min. Meanwhile drain and discard liquid from raisins and lemon zest. Return raisins and zest to bowl, add lemon juice, pine nuts, parsley and oil. Season with salt and pepper, stir and combine.

Dividing evenly, make a bed of spinach on each of four plates. Top with salmon and relish.

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San Francisco Days 4-7


Welllll … best paid plans went asunder. The hotel we were staying at lost internet connectivity and so I couldn't post anymore. Bummer. I still snapped a few photos though … so here are the last few days, minus photos from my mom.

Day 4: Downtown Oakland, Beard Papas, BART trip, Jersey Boys
Day 5: de Young museum, Golden Gate Bridge overlook, Goats for Hire
Day 6: meeting up with family, and a trip to Los Gatos (photos to follow)
Day 7: Haight Ashbury

We got in last night and we've been up to our elbows in laundry and weekly preparations. Lots more to share …

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San Francisco Day 2


I could have sworn I put this up earlier, but for some reason it didn't make it.

Day 2 (Sunday) was our trip to wine country. I was mostly in it for the beautiful scenery, but I did enjoy a little wine as well. Here's the photos.

Hopefully I can get s'more photos up tonight!! We've been busy busy.

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San Francisco Day 3


Well yesterday was a pretty low-key day. We got going slowly and though we had larger plans, we spent most of the day in Japan Town, which, though probably larger, is in my mind a sort of Japanese-themed mall with neat restaurants and fun shops. Full photo journal here.

In the evening, we had a delicious meal at Donna and Eddie's house, compliments of Eddie. Unfortunately, I was a bit too knackered to take any photos .

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San Francisco Day 1


We got into San Fran last night after a fairly un-eventful flight. Tabby was a model baby, not making a fuss even once!

Today we had a great day exploring the city by the bay with our excellent hosts, Eddie and Donna. A full photo journal is here.

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Curly Q

Look at my hair!! It's always had a moderate amount of wave to it, but ever since I had Tabby (and even towards the end of pregnancy), my hair has been super curly. I got it cut yesterday and if anything, that just encouraged the curl even more. So weird. Is this a hormone thing? Has it happened to anyone else?? I can't say I mind it too much … it used to be just a bit wavy that didn't look very good, so I had to blow dry it straight. Now that it does this curl thing when I don't blow dry it, it's saving me time in the mornings. Good timing at least.

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Sunny Face on a Rainy Day

It's a glorious rainy day today. I love rainy days, probably because I live in a semi-arid climate where we rarely get them. As I drove to work this morning, I was listening to Harry Potter (Book 6) and it seemed a very fitting thing for a rainy day. It was the next best thing to being curled up in the chair with a cup of tea reading it. Continue reading “Sunny Face on a Rainy Day”

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Bouncing Around My Head

We have acquired quite a few Munchkin-brand products both as gifts and as items we've purchased and I've been very impressed with them. They seem to make the useful sort of things that “real moms” need. We have a duck that tells us if bathwater is too hot (color-changing HOT on the bottom), a drying rack for bottles, an on-the-go formula dispenser and a diaper bag dispenser. You can find most of their stuff at Target.

Anyone out there been to (or live in) Australia? It's the front-runner for our “big trip” this year and we're trying to figure out cool things to do and how we'd structure our trip. It's such a big country! Continue reading “Bouncing Around My Head”

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Tabby's Nose


Yesterday, I discovered something to make Miss Tabby smile pretty consistently … a little game I like to call Tabby's Nose. I point to my nose and say “Mommy's Nose” and then I point to her nose and say “Tabby's Nose.” I do this with mutliple body parts, but she grins the most when I do her nose. That left-most photo is of her just after I've played this game with her (more photos here). I've got no idea why this amuses her so much, but it does and I could play it for hours with her … I love to see her smile. Continue reading “Tabby's Nose”