Garlic is my only friend...

OK...I think I'm going to have to call that garlic scape pesto a bust.  Maybe I went too far down on the stalk's roots; maybe the arugula's bitterness is what's overwhelming me; maybe I'm just not used to eating anything made with the recommended amount of olive oil.  But between the overpowering pungency of the garlic, a strange, off-putting bitterness, and the overabundance of olive oil...I don't like it at all (although it was much better cold yesterday than heated up today).  Yet I still have about 2 servings left in the fridge, and I'm going to have a hard time throwing them away for no reason other than the taste...

Oh, well.  I brought 1/2 the head of red leaf lettuce from this week's haul for a salad, had a hard-boiled egg and some dried cranberries too.  I didn't eat much of the pasta...but I may have had a small bag of chex mix to make up for the carbs I was missing.  I can't go without them!

GARLIC scapes pesto

Man, not feeling like anything today.  Crabby, emotional, blah.  Lady hormones leave a lot of emotional stability to be desired. 

But at least I maintained enough of my sanity not to give in to said hormones' ferocious cries for a cheeseburger-and-fried chicken feast for lunch, and ate the relatively healthy pasta, salad (CSA lettuce) and almonds I brought for lunch.  And a nectarine.  Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Let me tell you something about garlic scapes: the word "garlic" should be bold and a font size at least 300x larger than scapes.  STRONG was this pesto!  And even though I threw a handful of arugula in to temper the garlic, its peppery bitterness that I usually find so appealing in salads was distracting here.  I think this would be greatly improved by using 1/2 basil, 1/2 scapes, then proceeding as written.  Even that's not how I did it, that's how I'm editing the recipe Julia shared.  Otherwise, it's a pretty good pasta.  My coworkers just might not bother me as much today.  Hey, that makes it a pretty great pasta...

Recipe after the jump.

stale bagel and fresh coffee

Still rockin out every morning with the brand-new, ultra fancy coffee pot.  Love it.  But since my brain's still shut off from the weekend, I couldn't get my act together to bring breakfast for myself.  Luckily I found some old bagels in the snack jar in our office kitchen (only 8 people share it, so it's not quite as gross as it sounds to pillage food from shared spaces) from last week, apparently.  It was up for grabs, and I was doing the grabbing.

With strawberry jam and a teeny bit of butter--the amount that didn't melt all over the toaster and counter when set the pat next to the toaster to warm up a bit....

....and we're back!

Long weekend in NYC with 8 of my favorite girls left this bachelorette a little brain-dead and sleepy the past couple of days....so much so that I resorted to an all-frozen, prepared food dinner last night (Trader Joe's chicken egg rolls and orange chicken over Uncle Ben's boil-in-bag brown rice, with CSA broccoli on the side) but now I have returned to my senses and am back in the game...er, kitchen. 

This week's CSA haul (thanks to A who picked it up for me Sunday, when I had completely forgotten...)

1 head red curly-leaf lettuce
1 bunch spring onions
1 big bunch of curly-leaf kale
1 large head of broccoli
3 giant garlic scapes

I first was introduced to garlic scapes last year from this same farmer.  They are the tops/shoots of the garlic plant.  Cutting them off helps the garlic bulbs grow, but they also are good to eat.  You can cook them like asparagus (cutting off the woody bottom ends) or use them for their garlicky green flavor in other dishes.  Julia shared a garlic scape pesto recipe that I tried last night...more details to come. 

Kitchen toys

After my first, amazing bridal shower last weekend, I was stunned at the generosity of my family and friends...particularly with one gorgeous gift from MIL and GIL:

How pretty is she?  I've wanted a kitchenaid artisan stand mixer since always...and NOW I HAVE ONE!!!  Wheeee!

And, I spent 3 hour rearranging my kitchen on Sunday to throw old things away and make room for the new toys I got at the party...like an amazingly quick, delicious coffee maker; airtight, stainless-steel canisters; beautiful artistic pottery platters....

And a GORGEOUS end-grain butcher block, a sharp new Wusthof boning knife, and pretty flavored oils and vinegars in my new cooking station (I know it's a little blurry):

The tupperware you see on the block is full of Key Lime Meltaways, a huge batch of which I used to inaugurate my Kitchenaid and to wrap up as little gifts for the girls at my batchelorette party this weekend.  They are easy to make (and FULL of butter) but I have to say, they aren't my favorite.  I love snowball cookies at christmas, and these remind you a lot of that (shortbread-like texture, tossed in powdered sugar) but they were a bit too delicate and perhaps not tart enough for me.  When I eat citrus, I want the pucker. 

Blah....

Just not feeling it today....maybe its the 25 work projects that are all due this week, or maybe its the fact that my boss is not out of the office for several weeks...but I just can't motivate to do anything--work, blog, think.  Surfing the interwebs is about as much as I can handle.

Unexciting 1/2 whole-wheat bagel with OJ for breakfast, unexciting work catered lunch (some sort of sweet jerk chicken, rice, waaaaaay overseasoned veggies, corn, and bizarrowraps) that wouldn't look any more appetizing in a photo (and I'm just not nerdy enough to whip out a camera in public....yet).

But y'all should swing back here tonight.  Boy, do I have dinner planned....

In the meantime, I have 6 starburst waiting for me.  And a whole lot of internet to catch up on reading.

Storms affect dinner plans

Wow, mother nature.  Sorry to piss you off.

Tonight was the first time I've ever heard the tornado sirens go off in Chicago in 7 years.  Serious storms rolled through right after work and dropped inches of rain, brought heavy winds and threatened both hail and tornadoes for a few hours.  With no basement, we hung out in the stairwell and listened to the wailing sirens...and thinking about dinner.  Nope, not going to grill the steaks I had planned in the lightning factory.

Instead, I mixed up a batch of tuna pasta and peas, the second batch of which we've eaten in as many weeks. I grew up making this salad on hot summer nights, that humid season when having no air conditioning means the oven and stove are off-limits.  Simple, with a few twists.

Garlic Parmesan Bread on the side, a rare unhealthy recipe from mom.  Oooh, but good.  Recipes after the jump.