Easy, Breezy, Beautiful...

My husband leads the life of a lawyer who works and works and then works some more. Not surprisingly, he rarely makes it home for dinner. I used to go out with friends or order delivery, saving my cooking adventures for the weekend when I'd have someone beside myself to cook for. But everything changed last summer when my daughter started eating solid foods. I became a practical cook rather than just a fun times cook – you know, the girl you marry versus, well...

Due to my harried writing schedule, I’m not around to feed my baby girl dinner or lunch several times a week, but I am still dedicated to providing local, sustainable and unprocessed foods at each and every meal. How do I do it? Our nanny is a gourmet chef. Nope, but she is truly amazing with our daughter. Every Sunday, I cook a big meal with enough leftovers to last us a few days and supplement them with fresh fruits and veggies. By Wednesday evening, I turn to the goodies stored in the freezer like homemade bean and ham soup, pot roast, turkey meatballs and Lebanese Kibbe (don’t worry, I’ll post each and every one of these recipes in the future). Before I know it, it’s Friday when my husband returns home to join us for a nice dinner of something original and fun to cleanse the palate of the week’s leftovers (a word on the much derided left over meal – if you make delicious food, you will have delicious leftovers).

One night, when my daughter was almost nine months old, my husband fed her strained peaches or some such puree while I served up a dish of sauteed spinach and chicken sausage over farro pasta. Once baby girl saw our food was different from hers, she started reaching and screeching for a taste. Well, we hadn’t really moved beyond pureed veggies and fruits, but we indulged her and she loved it. She ended up eating nearly everything on my plate. With its salty anchovies, savory sausage, sweet raisins and earthy spinach, this dish is killer for adults and apparently for babies too. After that night, I stopped with the homemade specialty purees and, to this day, she eats what we eat.


Spinach with Sauteed Chicken Sausage and Farro Noodles

I originally found this recipe in Body+Soul magazine, but I’ve adapted it so many times, consider what you see as based on the original. It is one of my go-to Sunday meals because it’s so tasty, so simple to make, so easy on the wallet, so healthy and it always yields a few nights of leftovers. To make this dish even tastier, buy some fresh spinach from the farmers’ market – in season right now!


Bring a pot of water to a boil and add two cups of farro pasta. If you can’t find farro, any kind of delicate egg noodle or even pasta shells will work nicely.

For the main event, heat a large pan over medium heat and add a healthy splash of olive oil. Throw in 4-5 pressed garlic cloves and a strong squeeze of anchovy paste (or about 5 anchovy fillets). Mix it together and cook until garlic is translucent. Before the garlic goes all brown and crusty, add a pound of uncooked chicken-apple sausages with the casings removed; break it up, mixing it well with the anchovy-garlic mixture.


When the sausage is cooked through and broken up into smaller chunks, squeeze half a lemon and then toss in about a cup of raisins. Cook for a minute or two until the raisins plump up and add two pounds of spinach. (If you took my advice and bought fresh spinach, wash it well and then trim of the stems. Don’t cut or break up the leaves – just toss them in whole and you will have glorious splashes of vibrant green throughout the entire dish.) Add the spinach in batches and carefully mix it throughout with tongs to help it cook evenly. Once the spinach is cooked down and wilted, but still green, add another squeeze of lemon and turn off the heat.

To serve, strain the noodles and spread on a platter, top them with the spinach and chicken sausage saute. I like to mix it all around and eat it with a spoon; baby girl like to eat the sausage, then the noodles and finally the spinach. My husband? Well he's just normal and eats it properly with a fork off a plate. Enjoy!


Approximate Dinner Cost
• W/Wine - $25.75
• W/o Wine - $13.75
• Leftovers – At 8 servings, that’s a mere $1.72 per meal!

Was Blind, But Now...

Every day last week, every time I opened my fridge, there they were, two and a half pounds of once fresh and beautiful spring asparagus deteriorating before my very eyes. Whether I was reaching for milk or for other, less qualified vegetables, I always threw a guilty glance at the long green stems as they stood up, erect and proud, in the shallow dish of water I had so conscientiously placed them in.

I'd had the best intentions. Really, I had. The Sunday I bought them I was hosting a small dinner party; the menu included spring lamb shoulder, homemade olive tapenade, lentils and asparagus. They were to be steamed and served with a lovely red wine and shallot vinaigrette. It was going to be grand...

But then I got it into my head to make a Greek salad and I thought I could do both. I was convinced, but alas, I couldn't and the asparagus suffered. So, here I was this past Saturday afternoon wondering what to do with this sorry lot of greenery. I was about to throw them all away when my husband suggested I make a soup. I argued with him as I usually do when he makes a suggestion, especially a good one. I shooed him and our baby girl out the door to the playground so I could make dinner and then I got to thinking, 'hmmm, maybe he's onto something.'

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of chatting with Nach Waxman, owner of Kitchen Arts and Letters on the Upper East Side. It's a fabulous store dedicated to books on food and cooking. He said the difference between Europeans and Americans is the Euros think to themselves, what do I have to coook with tonight whereas we think what do I want to make for dinner. Aha! I realize now my Massachussetts-raised hubby is more Euro than me, American mutt that I am. Not only that, but he's definitely more Eco and budget conscious and way more Alice Waters worthy. Who in their right mind would've thought to waste the first bounty of spring after such a cold winter?

Asparagus Soup

Nach Waxman also said that a good cook never follows a recipe to a T. She flips through a few books, gets an idea, puts the books back on the shelf and starts cooking. Well, that's exactly what I did. I got the gist for what goes into a tasty asparagus soup and then found my own path of righteousness.

***
Preheat the oven to 400, then grab, say, 2.5 lbs. of asparagus, 4-5 large shallots, 3 garlic cloves, a few sprigs of thyme, some salt, some pepper and a bottle of olive oil.


Wash the asparagus and snap off the dry ends by holding a stalk of asparagus at each end and bending - AW says it will break at the perfect spot. Slice up the shallots and press the garlic. Throw them into a roasting pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and splash a healthy dose of olive oil over the whole thing. Toss it all together - make sure everything is nicely coated with oil - and pop in the oven for about 15 minutes.


Once the asparagus are nicely roasted, cut them in half and throw the entire mixture into a food processor. Add a good amount of chicken stock to the processor and pulse until it's nicely pureed. Move it all to a pot, turn on the heat and add a bit more stock for texture, a squeeze of fresh lemon and some salt and pepper if you need it.


To serve, ladle a helping into a soup bowl, then sprinkle a bit of Parmesan cheese and add a few strands of fresh lemon zest. My baby girl was lapping it up like it was ice cream. Enjoy!

Approximate Dinner Cost
• Well, this wasn't exactly a meal, but we ate it for lunch with grilled cheese for four days straight so eight bowls of soup came to about $2.25 per bowl. Not bad considering the asparagus soup at our local gourmet grocer is $8 for 2 servings.

*Author's Request - I just have to ask for a pat on the back for finally figuring out how to take a decent picture with my Sony Cybershot. However, I'm still trying to master getting one of my motion-filled 17 month old!