Sick of Mexican Food, Who Thought It Possible?

After a weekend of eating Mexican food, we were over it. But that's pretty much what our refrigerator was full with.

We had lots of milk. We had lots of cheese. So I made Mac & Cheese.

But I didn't have the frozen broccoli the recipe called for, and we needed something to jazz it up. So I sauteed some red onion and oyster mushrooms from our share in some olive oil. Added some red wine, chard and broth. Cooked until tender. Then I tossed in the remains of our sprouts/salad greens mix and let that wilted. Then stirred it into the sauce along with the cooked pasta. Pretty good for a quick meal!

A light fish dinner was in order

After a weekend of what seemed like nonstop eating, a light fish dinner was in order last night. A friend had posted a recipe for Ginger-Glazed Mahi, so I tried that with tilapia. Fired up the rice cooker (oh rice cooker, how I love you!) and made a great veggie stir-fry with mostly CSA vegetables. I used shallots, carrots, purple cabbage, celery and shredded daikon, with lots of ginger and garlic. I added the rest of the fish marinade at the end and let that glaze the vegetables. Delicious!

Ah, I miss city life...

It's great having a father-in-law who's a dentist. I broke a filling last weekend so Dan and I ventured down to the big city (aka Boston) for 2 days. He fixed my filling and we had an amazing meal in the North End later that night. We met Dave at the entrance of the North End and since we had some time to kill before meeting his partner, we scooted around the side streets so he could introduce us to the fellow who helped Dave get his Italian passport. Dan and I might be getting dual citizenship as well, so he thought he should introduce us to this guy. It was like stepping back into the past, his small office had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with old leatherbound volumes of ancient mythology. We then stopped into an Italian grocery where we sampled cheese and bought some to bring home. We stepped back onto the street, which was busy on this balmy late February afternoon. It was so warm, people were sans jackets, sipping espresso on the sidewalk. I really felt like I was in Italy (almost).

After a glass of wine, we went to Trattoria Il Panino for the best Italian meal I've enjoyed outside of Italy. We got to sit right in front of their open kitchen, which was about the size of a galley kitchen, and watched the 5 cooks and dishwasher dance the dance of dinner service, never bumping into each other, never burning anyone, never a harsh word. It was really beautiful. And so was the food.

For my first course, I had Carpaccio di Bresaola, very thinly sliced dried cured beef topped with a pile of lemon-dressed peppery arugula and lots of shaved aged Parmesan. Then I had (at the suggestion of our server), Paccheri al Ragu, a Neopolitan dish of rigatoni tossed with the most magnificent beef and tomato ragu. I ate my meal so slowly that night, enjoying every bite. Unfortunately, we went to a cafe afterwards where I had the most mediocre gelati. Not the best way to end an amazing night. But that pasta is etched into my brain forever.