Gourmet cooking for one: Pappardelle with wild mushroom ragout and truffle oil!

Who says you can't eat well when you're cooking for yourself?  Elliott's playing a show tonight which leaves me to fend for myself.  I had a lot of leftover parsley and tomato paste, so I concocted this delicious dish.  All I had to do was keep the portion size down to a minimum.  The mix of mushrooms give a lovely woody almost meaty flavor and texture without using any meat at all.

Spicy Seafood Fettucini

So, I wanted to make Fra Diavolo the other night, and found a million ways to do it.  I invented my own version and I think it turned out great.  This recipe makes a lot of pasta, so be prepared to eat nothing else for three days.  I suppose you could always cut the recipe in half like the mathematician I know you are.

Crunchy corn salad

Since my meal was so heavy last night, and I ate leftovers for lunch, I decided to lighten it up tonight.  This chilled salad incorporates lovely summer produce and a light dressing for a really fresh dish.   

Italian dressing mix

This is an easy way to have homemade dressing any time you want.  Simply blend a few herbs together and store it in your pantry until you're ready to mix up some dressing.  It also makes a great marinade for meat, fish and vegetables.  I know you'll find this dressing so much better than bottled or packaged stuff.

Pig-in-a-poke.

Egg-in-a-hole, Pirate's Eye, Eggy Bread, or whatever you want to call it you can.  When I was growing up, one of the few things my dad could cook was a "Pig-in-the-poke."  I don't know what a "poke" is, or why there is a pig in it, or why it's even called a pig because it's an egg and bread.  I wont try to understand the logistics of the dish, I just know that this is still one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast on a lazy weekend morning.

Everything Quiche

Here is a quiche recipe that is sort of a mish mash of a few different ones I saw.  It combines bacon, onion and roasted tomato with a great blend of cheeses.

Mmmm.... toasty......

Fish taco time!

Tonight was taco night.  I decided to make a light meal because it's about 80 degrees and the thought of beef tacos was sort of making me nauseous.  

Lebanese Stuffed Zucchini

Here is a delicious way to use zucchini which is particularly in season right now.  When I was little, my mom always grew zucchini in the garden.  She must have done a really good job, because there were always way too many for us to use.  So after my sister and I had our photos taken holding the one gigantic zucchini that seemed to grow every year, this was always waiting in the kitchen.