OMG! A Blog Post!

I know, I know, we disappeared for a while. A long while. So long that I'm sure many of you wondered whether we'd left for good.

Well. Good News! We're not dead. Nope, just a combination of lazy, busy, procrastinate-y, lazy, etc. Not lazy in the kitchen necessarily. We have been cooking up a storm. Andrew and I just recently (read two months ago) moved to Philly proper and have been hard at work using all the wonderful garden and farmer's market produce. Also, I got a new and exciting bread book (Local Bread by Daniel Leder) and have fallen in love with the art of bread making. PS - my new bread making hero is Susan of Farmgirl Fare.

This past year has been pretty hectic. I got married, lived in two places at once while taking classes and working two jobs, moved, graduated, and more. Yikes! This is my excuse for the poor performance on this blog. I will let Randi give her own. In less than a month I celebrate my one year wedding anniversary, so I guess that excuse is about to expire. So, hopefully this marks a come back in the blogisphere. I will aim to be more diligent and so on and so forth.

Honeymoon :)

Paddling in Michigan

 

 

Lily loves to hike!

LOST! Finale

Back to the food.

Like I previously mentioned we've been getting a ton of produce this summer, and doing some pretty yummy things. Dill pickles, strawberry rhubarb jam, blueberry jam, blueberry butter, salads, sauces, etc, etc. My other new hero is Marisa - a local Philadelphian who is a whiz at canning! Check out her blog here.

The recipe that brought me back to blogging is below. A delicious pasta dish devised using what we had in the kitchen plus a few items purchased. I guess I could name it Spinach and Goat Cheese Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes. Wordy, but yum. The roasted tomatoes were rich and sweet, a perfect combination with the spinach and creamy goat cheese. Not to toot my own horn, but it was so tasty that I am drooling thinking about it. Plus, it was my very own brainchild. So good that I got off my lazy you know what and posted a blog entry! On to the recipe.

Georgia's Summer Pasta
serves 4 (or more if you up the pasta)

1/2 bunch of spinach, sliced
1 cup fresh basil, sliced
4 oz herbed or regular goat cheese
1 onion, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, diced
1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 box farfalle or other interesting pasta
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Warning - this recipe has several things that all happen at once, so read through and determine how you will best manage your time. Pretty much everything except the pasta can be left to cool, so time your cooking around the pasta boiling.

Preheat oven to 450. Lay the tomatoes face up on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Drizzle on olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast about 30 minutes or until cooked down.

Boil pasta. While pasta is boiling sauté garlic and onions in olive oil until caramelized.  Mix raw spinach and basil together and put in a large serving bowl.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and mix with the caramelized onions and garlic, and goat cheese. The hot pasta should melt the goat cheese, and you should have a nice creamy pasta sauce. You can add a little pasta water to thin it if desired.

Dump the pasta over the spinach and basil mixture. The heat of the pasta will par-cook the spinach, leaving it a little wilty. Top with the roasted tomatoes. (We also sautéed some shrimp and served that with the dish. Yum.)