waysideviolet - cozy, lovely things

I feel like I’ve been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with my 365 one photo a day goal. Sure I miss a few days here or there and sometimes the most interesting subject I can find ends up being dinner or my plants, but I’ve captured some pretty light and that makes me happy.

I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight and started clicking through some recent dinner shots and thought it would be fun to share a review of the two most recently photographed ones:

Dinner No. 1
Brussels Sprouts and Endives & Chickpeas and Tomatoes with Shallots, Panko Crumbs and Basil

They have a bad reputation, but brussels sprouts are my hands down favorite vegetable right now! I fix mine by cutting off the bottoms of each sprout and halving or quartering them depending on how big they are. Then they get blanched for 3 minutes, drained and quickly sautéed in a  little butter. Sprinkle a tiny bit of salt and pepper and-oh my goodness! so good!

As good as the sprouts were, the endives were a bit of a disaster. I sautéed them and they ended up rather oily. The flavor was okay but the texture was not! I need to find a better way to fix them!

I’ve talked about this chickpea dish before, but I made a few tweaks the second time around that made it even better! I swapped out the oregano for shallots and basil. Yum!

Dinner No. 2
Herb Salad & Farfalle Pasta with Peas and Shallots and a Creamy Cheesy Sauce

I made up this dish based on what I had in the house. I heated butter in a saute pan added the chopped shallots and grated in lot of ramono cheese. I added a little white wine and peas. I cooked the pasta while the sauce was coming together. Then I drained the pasta and returned it to the pot and poured the sauce over the pasta. I gave it all a good stir and grated a little more cheese on top. It tasted just as good as it smelled and it smelled amazing!

The veggies were a simple herb salad tossed in a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Of course it hasn’t been all healthy yummies around here. For some reason getting up early on Saturday morning to go renew my driver’s license seemed to warrant a donut (or two).

Tags: cooking, dinner, homemade, in the kitchen