So that humongous storm that stretched across the entire country and completely covered St. Louis? Yeah, petered out a bit at the end there. We got a few inches of sleet with some ice, and maybe 2 inches of snow, and then it just…stopped.
Other areas got an insane amount of snow, so I’m thankful we didn’t have anything too harrowing. I’m working from home one more day today (the roads were pretty bad this morning) and it’s back to the office tomorrow.
In the meantime, we made sure we were stocked with these:
Hope your Wednesday has started off right!
We had a great dinner last night. I used my brand new food processor. They’re a bit more complicated than I thought! I got two blades for various slicing and chopping, but because I have no idea what I’m doing yet, I put those to the side.
I made Spinach Pesto Pasta with Chicken using this recipe. Ingredients included:
4 cloves of garlic, peeled (I used minced)
4 small shallots, peeled
8 oz. fresh kale or spinach
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup / 2 oz goat cheese, plus more for topping
2 tablespoons + hot pasta water (If needed, I didn’t)
sea salt & black pepper, to taste
fresh lemon juice, to taste
12 oz penne pasta (I used ribbons)
thyme, to taste
Boil a large pot of water and throw in your peeled shallots and whole garlic (if using whole). Boil for 2-3 minutes, then stir in the kale/spinach and boil for 10 quick seconds.
Don’t overcook (nice, right?)!
I did this a few handfuls at a time. Use a slotted spoon or strainer to fish the garlic, shallots, and spinach out of the water and put them in your food processor.
Puree the ingredients along with the olive oil and goat cheese. Season with salt and pepper and taste. If it’s too thick, add the hot pasta water. If it’s too bland (the goat cheese can make it taste flat), add lemon juice. I added about a tablespoon of lemon juice. Set aside.
If you’re including chicken, sauté it at this point and set aside. I just cut mine in strips and sautéed in olive oil, then sprinkled them with some oregano.
Boil your pasta according to package directions. I used parsley garlic ribbons from my favorite pasta brand, Eden Organic. Yum! They did not give me free pasta (though I wish they would), I just love them.
Drain the pasta and immediately mix with the pesto (and chicken). Top with thyme and a few goat cheese crumbles. Serves about 4.
4 oz. shredded coleslaw mix (about 2 cups)
2 tbsp shredded carrot
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp + 1 tsp Dijon-style mustard
2 tbsp crumbled bleu cheese (I undoubtedly used more)
2 tsp white sugar
2 tsp cider vinegar
Whisk the mayo, mustard, cheese, sugar, and vinegar. Add the coleslaw and carrot (I also added onion), and mix well.
I’ll leave you with this. They didn’t pick up our trash yesterday, so we had to leave it out for today. I don’t have a recycle bin to throw things in, so they’ve been piling up…
I need that recycle bin back in the garage! I think I need to order a second bin too, since we fill it to the brim every week. And we usually only have one bag of garbage! Not bad for a 3-person household.
Have a great Wednesday afternoon! Make sure if you haven’t yet, to visit my guest post on Jessie’s blog, Kissing Frogs.
Question: Do you recycle? Tell me about it!
(I get nervous because the county separates recyclables for us, but all I can picture are a bunch of lazy people throwing half of it into the trash because they don’t want to separate it!)
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My boyfriend used to work for a paper company and they did a lot of recycling so he assures me that not only does it get sorted, but you can recycle pretty much ANYTHING (even if your county only “allows” certain plastic #s).
I got a snow day today too and have been EXTREMELY disappointed in the storm! We got a few inches last night and were supposed to get 1 – 2 feet of snow today
I loooove pesto and have been seeing it everywhere lately. I have to make some!
That spinach pasta looks way tasty! I’ll have to look for it
Wait, parsley pasta! either way, it looks nice and chewy!
I don’t like pesto at all, but that looks so good that I could almost overlook that fact and dig in!
Your post made me laugh because of the preparations we and the rest of St. Louis made for the storm that didn’t really happen (like not making corned beef until tonight because I was worried the power would go out and it wouldn’t finish cooking in the crock pot). Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that we didn’t have power outages but it did die off rather quickly
We stocked up on beer too–11 bucks for an 18 pack from Schlafly’s at Schnuck’s when I went on Monday!
That pasta looks delicious, by the way. Will definitely have to try it!
I love Sierra Nevada and Bells. Two hearted is one of my favorites. Kudos on your idea of putting blue cheese in cole slaw, I will definitely have to try that sometime!
@Ella – Good to know! I’ve seen some “exposes” about recycling plants basically throwing out half the recyclables, so I always worry. I bet I could even visit the E’Ville recycling plant.
@Beth – This was a unique kind (spinach instead of basil), but it was good!
@Meri – It was good but I think I cooked it for too long, as it was kinda mushy. Otherwise, I love all their pastas.
@Wendy – hahah it’s very green, but it’s tasty!
@KT – Yeah we were expecting a lot worse. At least we were prepared! That’s not a bad price for Schlafly either.
@plopfizz – Bell’s Two Hearted is one of Matt’s all-time favorites.
I love anything pesto! Thanks for the recipe.
Yes, we recycle! It was a pain in the butt to get a bin at our house though…I posted about it at the beginning of last year. It took numerous internet searches and phone calls to find the right place and then to actually get a bin delivered. It shouldn’t be so difficult to recycle!
We also compost, which I highly suggest so long as you have a place to throw out your compost in your yard or whatever.
@Ashly – me too!
@Tara – I do remember you posting about it. I think we need to order a 2nd bin so I need to figure out how. I’d like to compost but I’m not entirely sure where we’d put it. We don’t have a garden (yet) but we could put it at the base of our pine trees in the back i think. I have to look into it.
Parsley garlic ribbons sound so elegant! And all that goat cheese on top of your pasta dish, yummy!
Very yummy post!
@Amy – The goat cheese was an awesome addition!
@Linda – Thank you!
That storm wasn’t as bad in NY/NJ either, at least where snow accumulation is concerned, but we definitely had a lot of ice and freezing rain, too. What a disgusting winter it’s been. And more tomorrow! WOOOP! :p
I thought I was the only person who liked cole slaw. Will have to check that out.
Get the heck outta here–Kissing Frogs is a great, GREAT blog read. Off to check you out now!