Most delicious pasta ever

This weekend, I decided I was going to cook. But I also had a bunch of leftovers I needed to consume. Mmmm conundrum. So I said "leftovers Saturday night, cooking Sunday night" as the weekend plan.

Well, earlier today, I pulled out my trusty Martha Stewart "real food fast" cookbook, which is pretty perfect for the every day, and organizes recipes by season. And I paged through the summer section, trying to decide what to make. The answer? Not most to the summer recipes, apparently, since they all relied on having a grill. Martha, don't you realize that not everyone owns a grill? Because some people don't have apartments that are amenable to grills! And reading all of the tasty recipes that require grills, and realizing you wont really be able to make them - not right, anyway, is quite upsetting. Would it have killed you, Martha, to include baking instructions, to make your recipes more flexible? Really?

But I digress.

Tonight, I went with the fettuccine with peas and prosciutto in a cream sauce. Can you say delicious? I can, and did, several times while eating it. Always a favorite at the occasional italian restaurant, and man, it was SO good. I did make one small tweak to Martha's recipe though. I added an extra (large) splash of cream, because the package of peas I bought was 2oz larger than called for. Also, I just felt it needed it. And that...was a good call.

this is how you make french toast

sorry this post disappeared - i was playing with uploads on my phone and it wasnt supposed to post the first time!

anyway. back on fourth of july weekend, i had a nice little staycation for the long weekend. and part of that meant that i had some time i could spend in the kitchen, cooking! so rather than spending money going out for brunch, Will and I decided to get together and cook brunch instead. french toast to be exact. with bacon. and no syrup needed -- we had a nice fruit puree that we reduced into a sauce instead. mmmm.

since will has cast iron, he started by frying up some bacon. mmmmm, bacon. meanwhile, i was making the french toast batter with some eggs and vanilla and whipping cream. i also started reducing the fruit puree (from a BBQ we had gone to the day before -- to be used for cocktails, but hey, there was leftover!) -- peaches, strawberries, sugar amd simple syrup. we added some more strawberries and thickened it right up. mmmm.



over on the cast iron pan, the bacon was off and the pan reheated to be set for french toast! will dunked the cinnamon raisin bread in the batter, and minutes later we had several pieces of warm french toast! we topped it with the reduced fruit puree, and some whipped cream we whipped up quickly (well we had the whipping cream, after all...)

mmmmm brunch!

Its always better with blueberries AND chocolate chips

While at the grocery store the other day, blueberries were on sale. Exciting. And then I was walking by the baking aisle, and I saw one of those bisquik shake and pours in a tiny size! Perfect amount of pancake batter for 2 people. Or, one person and leftovers. And so I thought...blueberry pancakes! How perfect on this holiday weekend!

And so this morning, I made pancakes! And tomorrow, I will probably also make pancakes! But hopefully I will make them look less demented tomorrow, after the practice today. The first one...failed horribly, which is why it is, in pieces, at the bottom of the plate, and covered by the last one, which looks soooo much nicer! And contains delicious blueberries and mini chocolate chips!