Summer Summer Summer Tiiiiiiiime: Pasta with Asparagus, Chicken and Orange Gremolata

Heeeey, gremolata face. How you doin?

Three is a magic number. Or at least that's what Schoolhouse Rock told me. Because I like to make magic, here comes post number 3 for today.

This is one of my absolute favorite summertime recipes. I found it over at Yeah, That Vegan Shit and couldn't resist trying it after reading about what fun you can have saying GRRRRREMOLAAAAATA. And hey, turns out making it and eating it is as fun as saying it. I made a few changes to the original recipe, most notably adding some meat, but either way is a guaranteed good time. Try out both, you'll be glad you did... because if nothing else, then you can join the Gremolata Gang, too!

Pasta with Asparagus, Chicken and Orange Gremolata

1 bunch thin asparagus, cut diagonally into 1-1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 lb. pasta, penne or some other festive shape
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Grated zest of 2 oranges
Juice of 2 oranges
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 chicken breast, cooked and diced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Asiago cheese, to taste

Over medium high heat, sauté asparagus and chicken in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Sauteed so hard the camera blurred.

Meanwhile, back at the hall of justice, cook the penne in salted boiling water for about 10 minutes.

Once pasta is cooked, drain and save 1 cup of the pasta water. Add the asparagus, pine nuts, remaining olive oil, reserved pasta water, garlic, parsley, orange zest and orange juice to the pasta. Mix it all up!

It's just... so very... ZESTY!

Top with cheese and nom!

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Summer Summer Summer Tiiiiiiiiime: Tutti-Fruity Chicky-Chocolatey Waffles

A summery meal is nothing without a yummy dessert. And this dessert is top shelf, A+ would eat again, type stuff. It's wonderful. It's fresh fruity, creamy, minty and chocolatey, need I say more?

I love waffles. I've loved them ever since I was a kid. I've been mega in love with them ever since I went to Iceland and learned to eat them as a dessert. Since I don't have access to a super rad heart shaped shallow Scandinavian style waffle iron to be able to recreate the fantastic Icelandic dessert waffles with jam and whipped cream, I decided I needed to come up with something even better. And that's exactly what I did.

Tutti-Fruity Chicky-Chocolatey Waffles

1/2 pint heavy cream
3/4 bar of white chocolate
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup hot fudge sauce
several sprigs of fresh mint
1 tub of strawberries
frozen waffles

Cut your strawberries into pretty little slices. Egg slicers make super pretty, evenly sliced strawberries, but if you don't have one you can rock it old skool and do it with a knife.



Cook waffles according to package directions. Make whipped cream, by placing 3/4 cup heavy cream and 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract in a mixer and beating until it looks like whipped cream.

Place white chocolate, remaining vanilla extract, butter and 1/4 cup of the heavy cream in a double boiler. If you're like me and don't actually have a double boiler, fear not! You can redneck rig one by stacking two similarly sized pots on top of each other.



Fill the bottom part with about an inch of water. Keep it just under a boil. Stir pretty much constantly until everything melts together and is creamy and wonderful.

Ladle some of the white chocolate sauce over the waffle. Top with strawberries and sprigs of mint. Drizzle some more white chocolate sauce over. Drizzle hot fudge sauce over that. Top with a dollop of whipped cream and another sprig of mint. Bea-utiful!

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Summer Summer Summer Tiiiiiime: Black Beans and Rice with Cilantro Pesto and Jalepeño Johnny Cakes

Oh happy day! There are at least 3 updates coming today. And they're all part of my hooray it's kinda-sorta summery outside series! Put on your flippy floppys and get excited!

First up, a bastardized food network creation. One day I was watching that dude that comes to peoples houses and tells them how much better than them he cooks, I don't know his name, make some shrimp with cilantro pesto. I tucked the cilantro pesto idea away in my head and carried on about my business.

Another day entirely, another dude entirely was making some burgers on grilled jalepeño cornmeal buns. This made me think of fried cornbread / johnny cakes / hoecakes. My mother loves them. My hubby loves them. I think they taste like a pancake gone wrong. But, on this day, I decided that if you added some jalepeño, they'd probably be pretty good. Somewhere along the way, I decided they'd be a good side dish to have with black beans and rice. And then I decided to Jamacainize the black beans and rice because eating cornbread with black beans and rice reminds me of the Atomic Cafe, which has a clear Jamacian slant. Sooooo, I pulled the cilantro pesto recipe that I had so neatly stored away in my head out. And, the following creation was born:

Black Beans and Rice with Cilantro Pesto and Jalepeño Johnny Cakes

For the black beans and rice:
Black beans and rice mix in a box or bag (just not cajun flavored)
Spicy Sausage

For the pesto:

1 cup chopped up fresh cilantro leaves
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup grated Asiago
1/2 cup olive oil
1 /4 cup lime juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Johnny Cakes:

1 c. cornmeal
1 egg
2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. soda
1 c. buttermilk
1 jalepeño, chopped

Okay, first things first, start the black beans and rice cooking according to the directions on their package. Be responsible and manage your time wisely after this because I don't know how long your black beans and rice cooks so I can't tell you when to do what.

Now, let's talk sausage. There are several options. My favorite is the following:



- Spicy Mango and Jalepeno Chicken Sausage. But, chorizo would also work nicely. Andouille, while fantastic, is probably not the best bet given the carribean slant of this meal. Anyway, assuming you've picked a good sausage, heat it up. If you bought raw sausage, you'll need to do more than heat it up. But that's obvious.

While your sausage cooks work on your pesto. Basically, dump everything into a food processor. Process. Hard. Tada, you have pesto.




Then when stuff is getting close to done start the johnny cakes. First you need to sauté the jalepeño to take away some of its bite. Go until it's slightly browned.






Mix all ingredients together. Put a dollop of butter in a skillet. When the butter is melted spoon some batter into the skillet and cook just like you would a pancake (i.e. get it golden on each side).



When all your individual pieces parts are done, it's time to bring it all together. Cut the sausage into 1/2 slices. Mix in with the black beans and rice. Then, stir the cilantro pesto in with the sausage, beans and rice. Stir it up real good so the cilantro-y goodness gets on every last grain of rice.

Now you're ready to eat. Serve a big scoop of the beans and rice with a couple of johnny cakes.

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