Pappardelle with Fresh Tomatoes, Mozzarella, & Basil

I have a super simple pasta recipe for you today, courtesy of our wedding menu.

Since we loved the food at our wedding, I decided a couple years ago that it would be fun to recreate one item from our wedding menu for each anniversary.

For our first anniversary, I attempted to recreate our wedding cake (amaretto cake with lavender icing), and for our second anniversary, I made tomato, corn & avocado stacks with basic shallot vinaigrette.

This year I decided to recreate the simple papparadelle with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella & basil.  Life is hectic for us right now with both of us living in different cities, so a simple recipe was exactly what we needed.

This morning we listened to a segment on the radio about how similar couples become after many years together.  Over time, they begin to mirror each other's speech patterns and body language, and even develop their own ways of communicating that others may not understand.

I'm already noticing signs of this with me and Adam. Even though we've only been married for 3 years, we've been together for 10.  Last year, we got each other almost identical anniversary cards.  (They each had a little boy and little girl kissing. I guess we both feel like we've grown up together, which we sort of have.)

This year, we wrote very similar messages in our cards.  The coming months will be difficult for us, for lots of different reasons, and we're both struggling with uncertainty and fear about what comes next.

However, we're also finding tremendous comfort in the fact that, whatever happens, we're in this together.  For better or for worse, in good times and in bad, for always.

There's lots of comfort to be found in the everyday routines we share together, too.  This simple pasta dish we shared Friday night after a long week apart was definitely one of them.

I hope you enjoy it too!

Pappardelle with Fresh Tomatoes, Mozzarella, & Basil

Ingredients:

12 ounces papparadelle pasta

1 tablespoon olive oil 

2 roma tomatoes, sliced

1 can san marzano tomatoes

8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cubed

handful of fresh basil, thinly sliced

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions, ensuring that you add plenty of salt to the pasta water. 

Meanwhile, add olive oil to a saucepan over medium heat. Add fresh tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes, or until tomatoes are starting to fall apart.  (If you're a garlic lover, you can add a clove of minced garlic or a pinch of garlic powder here.) 

Add canned tomatoes to the pan. Continue cooking on low for anywhere from 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. 

When the pasta is ready, use a slotted spoon to add pasta directly to the tomato sauce. (A little pasta water is a good thing! It will then out the tomato sauce and adds a little starchiness which makes a lovely sauce.)  Add the cubed mozzarella and stir to combine.  The mozzarella will melt and become a little stringy. Embrace it!

Sprinkle with fresh basil and enjoy with a glass of wine.

Morning Wild Photography

Tomato, Corn & Avocado Stacks with Basil Shallot Vinaigrette

It's mid-July. How did that happen already?

Every summer, 4th of July is sort of a bittersweet holiday for me. It's the pinnacle of summer, and while I love the fireworks and the cookouts, it also whispers "Summer is half-way over. It's going to go fast from here." Stores take July 1st as their signal to start putting up all their back-to-school items, and then before you know it, it's August and all the regular stresses of busy fall life begin to descend.

I'm intentionally trying a different attitude this year. I want to soak up every moment of this summer--the long daylight and bike-rides at sunset, watering my little garden, reading for pleasure, eating ice cream and other frozen treats, and just generally basking in this slower pace of life. I know it won't last forever, but I don't want to waste one moment of it worrying.

Mid-July also happens to be my and Adam's anniversary. Last year I recreated our wedding cake. (amaretto cake with lavender icing) This year, I contemplated recreating our entire wedding menu, but then I realized that was insane. 

I've now decided to just do one dish at a time. That should last me until our fifth wedding anniversary at least, I think…. 

I remember seeing this tomato, corn, avocado and basil salad on the caterer's sample menu and knowing immediately I wanted to serve it our wedding. There are many downsides to getting married in July in North Carolina, but one benefit is the exceptional produce. The fresh tomatoes and corn really shine in this dish. 

I added my own twist to this recipe based on a similar one I found in the book Delancy.  Molly uses a basil shallot vinaigrette and allows the shallots and garlic to pickle in the vinegar for an hour before assembling the salad. It's definitely not necessary, but we found it added a nice acidic contrast to the other flavors.

My better half is traveling a lot for week lately, and I'm feeling his absence strongly.  I've written sappy things about marriage before, so I won't go overboard today.

I'll just say that I am so thankful for him, and for the way our love makes this sometimes disappointing and unpredictable life so so good.

Enjoy these last few weeks of July, friends!

Tomato, Corn & Avocado Stacks with Basil Shallot Vinaigrette 

Ingredients:
2 large beefsteak tomatoes, sliced
1 fresh ears of corn, kernels carefully removed with a sharp knife
1 ripe avocado, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 medium shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
5 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/8 tsp sugar
pinch of salt & pepper
10 fresh basil leaves, divided

Directions: 

In a small bowl, combine the shallots, garlic and vinegar. Set aside for 1 hour or more to let the flavors adjust. (The shallot and garlic flavors are mellowed and slightly pickled by the vinegar.)

Whisk in the olive oil, sugar, salt, and 5 of the basil leaves. Use the back of a spoon to press the basil leaves, releasing their oil. Let the dressing rest for another 30 minutes, then transfer to a mason jar or other air-tight container and remove the basil leaves.

To assemble the salad, combine the corn kernels and avocado in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Arrange the sliced tomatoes on a plate. Top with the corn/avocado mixture. Drizzle with basil shallot vinaigrette. Sprinkle the top of each stack with shredded basil leaves

Salad recipe adapted from our wedding menu. Basil Shallot vinaigrette adapted from Molly Wizenberg's Delancey.

Wedding photo from the amazing Lime Green Photography.

Amaretto Cake with Lavender Icing

I have one major regret from my wedding day, and that is that I only ate one bite of my wedding cake. 

That one bite was phenomenal, but then I got whisked away for toasts and the father/daughter dance and visiting with out-of-town family, and then, well you know how it goes. 

The cake was from Miel Bon Bons Bakery, and it was amaretto with lavender frosting.  I've always loved lavender as a scent but had never really considered it as a dessert flavoring until our cake tasting. It was exquisite and unusual, and we knew after our first bite that this would be our wedding cake flavor.

Since I've been pining for that cake ever since, I knew I wanted to try to recreate it at some point, and our one year anniversary seemed like the perfect occasion. The only real challenge in this recipe is procuring the lavender extract and petals, which I was lucky enough to stumble upon in a spice shop in Charlotte. (And actually, if you find lavender petals, you can make your own extract.)

The cake itself is light and fluffy thanks to the whipped egg whites that you fold into the batter before baking. I wanted the icing to be light too, so instead of a typical buttercream with lots of, well, butter, I opted for a simpler glaze--icing with just powdered sugar and whole milk. This type of icing is more difficult to decorate with and will harden slightly after application, but I found it's lightness more suited to my summer-time cake craving--if you can call 5 cups of powdered sugar "light."

Adam and I have been reminiscing over many a memory from that weekend one year ago, but instead of going on about all the blissful moments of the day here with you, (of which there were, admittedly, many) I thought it would be funnier to give you a list of all the NOT PERFECT things that happened.  Just so I have it all down on record. 

1.) About three hours before the rehearsal dinner, my mom broke out in red hives, later determined to be a reaction to the fish tacos she ate at the bridesmaid's luncheon. 

2.) The wedding earrings I ordered two weeks before the wedding did not come in time.  My bridesmaids and I went rushed to Nordstrom before the rehearsal dinner and bought new ones. 

3.) On our way to the rehearsal dinner from the church, Adam's brother realized he had left the slideshow DVD at the hotel. We drove back to get it and were then 30 minutes late for the rehearsal dinner. 

4.) After the wedding ceremony, Adam and I hopped into the nice black luxury car we had rented to drive us to the reception. The driver was from Dunn (bad decision on our part) and did not know where he was going. Adam had to break out the GPS on his phone to get us there. 

5.) There were two sets of direction cards at the church--one set with directions from the church to the rehearsal dinner restaurant in Raleigh and one set with directions from the church to the reception site in Durham. After the wedding, my mom proceeded to hand out direction cards to people as they were leaving. Guess which ones she handed out? Yep. One of my friends drove to Raleigh after the wedding. 

5.) Even though we dropped off the wine at the caterer's in clearly labeled boxes, they forgot it. They went back and picked it up, and it was no big deal, but I was a teensy bit stressed to hear about it while taking photos. 

6.) It rained. Twice. Once about the time when guests were driving to the wedding and once between the wedding and reception. Oh, and it was already hot, but the rain made it HUMID HUMID HUMID.  We both nearly passed out after taking photos outside for 2 hours and had to be revived a little before our first dance.

7.) Someone forgot to get the corn hole boards out of Adam's truck for the cocktail hour. However, we did pull them out later in the night and our guests enjoyed them. 

8.) Our DJ played the Electric Slide and the Macarena. At first I cringed and thought "Oh God, cheesy!" BUT it got everyone out on the dance floor laughing, so it was ok. 

And those are just the problems I am aware of. There were probably more. From that list it sounds like my wedding was a hot mess, but it wasn't. All the little kinks worked themselves out, and everything turned out ok. 

I think with Pinterest and all the wedding blogs around these days we've created this notion of the "perfect" wedding with ethereal flowers and endless amounts of personalized details. All those things are wonderful, and it is fun to plan a creative wedding that reflects you as a couple, but at the end of your wedding night, you're probably not going to remember exactly how the cake table looked, or if someone's place card was missing. I know I didn't.

My favorite memory was standing at the altar, looking into the eyes of my new husband and singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." The emotion of the day had finally hit me, and I was crying big ugly tears, but I was surrounded by all the people I loved in the world, feeling so blessed, so complete and so happy. It was a perfectly unplanned moment, which is exactly how the best moments are.

Later, there was of course that bite of cake.... :)

Amaretto Cake

Ingredients:
5 eggs
2 1/2 cups sugar, divided
2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup amaretto
3 cups all purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325.

Separate the egg whites and egg yolks into two large mixing bowls. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 cup of the sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. set aside. 

In the bowl with the egg yolks, add the butter, sugar, salt, baking powder, and extracts. Beat with mixer until completely smooth. 

Combine buttermilk, amaretto, and baking soda.  Continue blending the egg mixture with the electric beaters, alternately adding the flour and the buttermilk/amaretto mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Once fully blended, gently fold in the egg white mixture. 

Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cook in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on wire racks. 

Lavender Icing

Ingredients:

5-6 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar
2/3 cups whole milk
3/4 tsp lavender extract
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
6 drops blue food coloring
4 drops red food coloring
lavender petals for sprinkling

Directions:
Using an electric mixer, blend powdered sugar, milk, and extracts until desired consistency. To thicken, add more powdered sugar. To thin, add more milk. Add food coloring and mix well. Frost cake immediately or icing will harden. Sprinkle top layer with lavender petals. 

Amaretto Cake adapted from Cookie Madness.

Lavender Icing adapted from Martha Stewart. 

Wedding photos from Lime Green Photography. 

Bridal Shower Bites

Why have funfetti cake when you can have funfetti dip?  Strawberries, animal crackers, each and every one of your fingers--all of these are infinitely improved by the addition of spreadable funfetti goodness. 

This weekend we threw a bridal shower for my friend Anna, and I was in charge of the food. I've been scheming over recipes for a while now. She's always been a huge fan of funfetti cake, so when I saw this recipe, I knew I needed to recreate it.  It's one box of funfetti cake mix, one cup of Lite Cool Whip, and two cups of plain non-fat yogurt. It's healthy, but it tastes like icing!

Throughout this process, I have also formed a newfound obsession with animal crackers. They're so cute!

Anyway, I was still unsure about a main course when I remembered Anna's fondness for biscuits and gravy and these two posts. So, I created a biscuit bar. 

I also made these mac and cheese bites, which were a HUGE hit. 

Anna and I lived with two other friends, Catherine and Katrina, our junior and senior year of college.  The four of us became one unit and started referring to ourselves as PACK (Patricia, Anna, Catherine and Katrina) They are some of my favorite people in the whole world. Each of our separate friendships is important, but there's something magical that happens when all four of us our together. Kind of like this book.    

Anna's wedding is in two months, and both Catherine and Katrina got engaged recently too, so we have a LOT of wedding festivities to look forward to.  All of this excitement has led me to reflect on my own experience. I enjoyed being engaged. I enjoyed all the parties/excuses to see my far-away best friends, the creativity of wedding planning and the committed-to-each-other-forever-but-without-responsibility part of my and Adam's relationship.

But after all the fun and fuss of wedding stuff is over, I can honestly say I enjoy being married more.  And not because it's perfect or pretty or planned, but because it's real.

Last week I came home from work and I was exhausted. Ex  haus  ted. (Let me preface this by also saying that I am needy and cuddly like a small child.)  I had planned to go to the gym and check my email, and do some work. Instead, I laid next to Adam on the couch and found the small groove on his chest where my head fits. Within about two minutes, I fell asleep. He let me sleep there for a long time.  Past the time when his arm and leg fell asleep. Past the time when my drool had soaked a large spot on his shirt.  Past the time when I looked in any way cute or attractive.  Friends, this is not romance, but it is love. I'm so blessed to have it, and so happy for my friends to have it too.

Bridal Shower Bites

Biscuit Bar with strawberry & peach jam, honey, and sausage gravy
Funfetti cake dip with animal crackers

Mac and Cheese Bites

Veggie Tray

Strawberries & Blueberries

Regular Mimosas (orange juice + champagne)

Peach Bellini's (frozen peaches + sugar + lemon juice + champagne)

I didn't make any major alterations to these recipes, so I just posted the links.

For the funfetti dip, the recipe recommends letting it chill for 4 hours. I would recommend at least 8.  In the first few hours, there is a lingering acidic aftertaste, but that dissipates with added time in the fridge.

For the mac and cheese bites, I used whole wheat pasta and whole wheat Ritz crackers.

Pasta with Spinach, Mushrooms & Onions

So I stumbled across this essay via this blog earlier in the week, and I've been thinking about it ever since.  Joy and pleasure have always seemed to me distinct yet interrelated, though I find myself drawn to Smith’s description of joy as a “strange admixture of terror, pain, and delight.”  Unbridled joy is a vulnerable experience.  It is free from structure or expectation or pretense, and I think in that lies the terror.  

My most recent experience with joy was the night before my wedding. I had spent an entire day with my closest friends, had dinner with all of my family, and said goodnight to the man I was going to commit my life to the next day.  As I sat in the car on the drive back to the hotel, I could not stop the tears from streaming down my face. “It’s just too much,” I kept saying, “Everything is wonderful, but it’s just too much.”

Pleasure, on the other hand, is comparatively simple.  One of the most accessible pleasures for most of us I think, is preparing and eating a meal. I’ve heard friends of mine say things like “I’d cook more if I had someone to cook for,” but I must disagree. While I always enjoy preparing a meal for friends or family, I find exquisite pleasure in the act of cooking for myself. I can make exactly what I desire at the moment, and eat it whenever and wherever I like.  I guess it’s a small way of telling myself that I’m worth it. I’m worth a homemade meal, and friends, you are too.

Most often for me, this meal is some kind of pasta with vegetables sprinkled with lots of cheese, which is essentially what this dish is.  It’s the kind of thing I’ve been assembling for years without a recipe, and I never wrote the ingredients down until asked to by a friend.

There’s no butter or cream in this pasta, but the sauce is lovingly thickened by the additions of wine and starchy pasta water.  Fresh cherry tomatoes would be wonderful here if they were in season, but I find that the can of diced tomatoes works fine too.  The key for my personal preference is to cook the onions until they are caramelized and sweet and the mushrooms until they are small and browned and have lost all semblance of their former rubbery mushroomness, but the choice (and pleasure) is all yours.

On a side note, last week I mentioned the word pleasure to my students, (as in the word amateur means a person who plays a sport for pleasure, not for money) and afterwards I was the brunt of many snickers and inappropriate comments.

Someone please save me from all the thirteen year old boys in my life.

Yes, that's me in the spoon with the camera, looking rough in my t-shirt.  Still working on this photography thing, obviously. I'm still an amateur. :)

Pasta with Spinach, Mushrooms & Onions

Ingredients 

½ cup white wine (you could also substitute with an additional ½ cup reserved pasta water)

1 can diced tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic

1 package button mushrooms, finely sliced

5 ounces (or a little over ½ bag) fresh spinach

1 medium onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup grated parmesean cheese plus ¼ cup shredded

2 cups pasta of choice, (I used whole wheat rotini) with 1/4 cup reserved pasta water

Directions

1.) Put on a pot of water to boil for the pasta and heat olive oil in a large skillet

2.) Add diced onions to skillet and cook for 5-7 minutes or until onion is starting to become translucent. Add in the sliced mushrooms and minced garlic and cook another 5-7 minutes until mushrooms are soft and onions are fully translucent.

3.) While the mushrooms and onions are cooking, add the pasta to the boiling water and set the timer for 7-9 minutes. Drain pasta when it is al dente, reserving ¼ cup liquid. Al dente pasta is a key for this recipe, as the pasta absorbs more flavor from the sauce if it finishes its cooking with the other ingredients.  (See advice here)

4.) When the mushrooms and onions have reached your desired texture, turn the heat to medium high and add the wine.  In cooking terms, you are deglazing the pan, which means that the wine picks up any delicious bits of olive oil or onion that have stuck to the pan.

5.) Cook for 2 minutes, or until half the wine has evaporated, then add the can of tomatoes and cook for another 3 minutes. 

6.) Add in the  ¼  cup reserved pasta liquid and ¼ cup grated parmesean cheese and cook until slightly reduced.

7.) Add pasta and cook 1-2 minutes. Toss in spinach and sprinkle everything generously with shredded parmesean cheese. Serve yourself a generous portion in a large bowl with a large spoon.  Enjoy.

“[Joy] doesn’t fit with the everyday. The thing no one ever tells you about joy is that it has very little real pleasure in it. And yet if it hadn’t happened at all, at least once, how would we live?”--Zadie Smith