easy pasta with spinach

Last night, I was not really in touch with my hunger. I needed to eat, but didn't entirely feel like it. Unfortunately, when I don't feel like eating I don't feel like cooking. So, what's a girl to make when she has herself and a fiance to feed and not a lot of energy to do it with?

Easy Spinach & Parmesan Pasta. It's practically cheating.

Ingredients (approximate amounts based on a Bunny-and-Sheryl sized serving, no leftovers)

• Pasta - two handfuls or so of penne or rotini
• Big pot of salted (oceany) water
• Three handfuls baby spinach
• About a half cup of parmesan cheese

Steps:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add more salt than you think you should.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions (usually about 7 - 9 minutes for penne or rotini)
3. Put a big heaping handful of spinach in a mixing bowl - you should probably think you have too much spinach. Then forget about it for now.
4. When the pasta's done, drain it and pour the pasta over the spinach. Cover with some sort of lid (a plate, the lid from your stockpot) and let rest for two or three minutes. This allows time for the heat of the pasta and the steam trapped by the lid to wilt the spinach.
5. Remove the lid, stir the pasta until spinach is evenly distributed throughout
6. Plate your pasta
7. Grate parmesan overtop to taste

I spent maybe 5 minutes total in the kitchen, and it was some seriously good eats. I was satisfied, and I loved that it was simple.

Now I'm off to a lunch out and my first bridal apparel appointment, and home to a big cooking project.

the beast

Tomorrow at 3, I have an appointment with one of my bestest friends in the world to go try on wedding dresses.

Umm, have I mentioned that I'm strangely terrified. I didn't expect to be. Well, a little, because I remember how when the girls tried to get me into a dress back in August how I was like "um, how about no" (I wasn't engaged at that point, though).

I have some seriously complicated thoughts and feeling about the whole idea of a Wedding Dress. It's something I want to explore a little more in detail (maybe hopefully on another blog entirely if life works out the way I really want it to). I mean, I know there are dialogues upon dialogues of it in my diary ... but the only person other than me with access to that is Bunny, who swears he doesn't read it. (Can we mention I'm trusting? I write dirty dreams in that thing and leave it in the middle of the living room. Dangerous.)

Tomorrow, though, I'm just aiming to tackle the Beast and get over the fear of putting a wedding dress on. Try on a few things, see what styles I like on my body and figure out a plan of attack from there.

exhausted

You don't get much of a post today, because today is not a productive day.

Today is a day where cuddle-time turned into naptime. And naptime lasts 3 hours after work.

I had a lot I wanted to get done today, but apparently, this evening wasn't happening. At least I didn't have anything I *needed* to get done.

butternut squash

So my kitchen pretty much rocks today.

It's soup day here (because it is also grocery day, and soup is easy to whip up after groceries). Last night, after my failed macaroni and cheese, I did all the prep work for my soup. I stood in the kitchen, trying to peer over the stairs into the living room and watch Two Broke Girls at the same time, and chopped my way through a medium butternut squash, fresh from a friend's garden. Then I worked my way through a handful of carrots and celery and the dreaded onion. Put them in some tupperwares, back in the fridge, and I have all my prep for the day done. I love it.

Today, coming home from the grocery store, I simply popped a tray of squash in the oven until it started to smell gorgeous, put a squirt of olive oil in the bottom of my dutch oven and began caramelizing some onions. Then in go the carrots & celery, until things start to smell good (I told you, no recipes, just what feels right!) and I popped the squash from the cookie sheet into the dutch oven, covered with broth and let it simmer until I decided it was done.

That was supposed to be it, really. Nothing fancy, just soup.

But then there were these beautiful mushrooms at Freshco. And I had a pepper that really needed using in the fridge, and lord do I love me some stuffed mushrooms. (They were glorious. Stuffed mushrooms is one of my top "impressing people" recipes, but they're just as easy to do for no reason.) At the point that the mushrooms were in the oven, I probably should have stopped.

You can't have soup without bread, though. And as a general rule, the only bread Bunny and I keep in the house is bagels. (He likes them in the morning, and I am anti-sandwich as a general rule, although I have had some fantastic ones, so we don't keep bread. I keep us in leftover lunches all week.) Bagels should not be dipped in ridiculously good butternut squash soup. They just shouldn't.

So I made tarragon-garlic biscuits, as a variation of the good old Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits. Because I hadn't already done enough.

They were delicious.

macaroni fail

I don't generally use recipes in my cooking.

Oh, I bake with recipes, and I'm known to use a recipe as a starting point with cooking (in fact, I love using recipes as starting points .... I just don't actually follow them), or for inspiration. But I'm not the most recipe friendly.

Most of my go to meals are rather more a collection of flavours and starting points. For example, quiche is made with a well paired cheese and other filling, layered in a pie shell till full. Beat some eggs with some milk or cream (depending on how fattening you feel like being) and pour over, until you think you haven't got quite enough. That's essentially how I make quiche - with a general outline but no real recipe.

Sometimes, this does not work out as intended. As evidenced by the sham of mac and cheese I made tonight. It wasn't bad, by any means. It was better than KD, or what I've been served at some pretty terrible diners.

What it wasn't, though, was my mac and cheese. It wasn't creamy and decadent, feeling like a gooey, chewy yumminess in my mouth. I messed up a few places. First, I don't actually use macaroni in my mac and cheese - I use miniature shells; this time, though I was out, and so macaroni it was. Usually, I also make a 1.5 quart container of our favourite oozy goodness. But today, I made a 2 quart container. Usually, I use fresh grated cheddar. Today, I had a bag of pre-grated cheddar in the freezer and I was lazy.

At the end of the day, what came out of the oven was not ooey gooey delicious. It was more ... barely coated noodles. Not super dry, but barely cheesey.

A solid C. Not so happy.

Now? I'm going to think about turning the zucchini in my fridge into muffins, and then go snuggle with my Bunny.

the perfect latte

I have a deep seated love for hot caffeinated drinks. It started when I was two, at my very British Nanny's (great-grandmother's) house, with tea and cookies after dinner. Now, I'm pretty sure that I what I was drinking was closer to slightly warm, sugared milk than actual tea at the time, but in my head I started drinking tea at two.

Growing up, and even through university, I would drink tea by the potful. Several pots a day. In high school I worked at a Tim Horton's (the Canadian nation coffee shop, for anyone not familiar), and I would walk around smelling like coffee all the time. It kind of made me sick - I wouldn't dream of drinking the stuff.

In university though, began the weekly coffee dates to catch up with friends at the on campus Starbucks. The moments of realization where the alarm bells go off in you head saying caffeinate, caffeinate (image that being like the Daleks: "exterminate, exterminate") and thinking about how much quicker it is to shoot back an espresso than to drink that entire tea (and that way, I wouldn't have to sneak out for a bathroom break mid-lecture).

Since then, my love of coffee has grown to the point that it is my go-to caffeinated beverage. A day is not a day unless there is a good cup of coffee in it. I have tried most coffee making contraptions, from the boring old coffee maker, to the stovetop espresso machine, the french press, to the garage sale Krups espresso machine Bunny brought home this summer. (He may have gotten in trouble for that - we do not have much counter space and I'm protective of it - but has definitely been forgiven.)

Saturday and Sunday morning coffees are currently some of my favourite moments of my week. Waking up, grinding the beans, steaming a half cup or so of milk, tamping the beans and making a double espresso. A hint of sugar (because we know my sweet tooth), and then pour the espresso and steamy, foamy milk into a mug and go snuggle with it on the couch.

This isn't one of those commercial lattes, where the foam is tacky and the espresso to milk/foam ration is sadly low. No, this is half a mug of espresso matched with equal parts milk and foam. Strong, coffee taste. None of that watered down shit.

I love how each time I steam milk it gets more towards the microfoam I love, a little bit better every time. I love that first sip in the morning, as the caffeine flows into my mouth and warms me all over.

Perfection.

the perfect coat

In our wanders in Kensington, Bunny and I went to quite a few vintage clothing stores. I've been really wanting to use thrift and vintage stores for a bigger portion of my wardrobe. I have had some decent thrift store finds in the past, but I don't know that I've ever found something that I'd truly call vintage, or that I think is out-of-this-world special. Mostly I just use thrift stores when I'm between sizes (and I do need to get a couple of between sizes pairs of jeans, come to think of it).

However, I have these obsessions with boots and coats. When I find a perfect pair of boots, or a perfect coat, I have no ability to say no. If I try it on and I love it, there is no question. It comes home with me. I hate though when I'm just running around the city and I see my coat or my boots on other people. And my heart does a little jump for joy when I put a perfect coat on.

It should also be said that I by no means needed a new coat. I mean, I'm all coat-ed out. See the following:

• Costco camel-coloured coat that I should ditch but I wore the first night Bunny and I stayed up all night and has sentimental value. (maybe I'll toss it when I donate the pile of clothes upstairs to goodwill. I really should)
• The black wool coat (you know, the same wool coat that everyone has the past few years? One of those) that's missing buttons and is too big for me this year (yay?)
• Blue and white plaid wool coat with the thinsulate lining that I got last year because it was $40 on boxing day sales and it was warmer than the black wool
• The monster snow coat that should never been seen outside of a blizzard
• My (multiple) Danier jackets
• Black suede - this one fits like it was made for me, is super flattering ... and used to be my mom's
• Red leather - this one fits like it was made for someone half a foot taller than me, isn't especially flattering but everyone loves on me, and is a blazer so tends to get cold (in the chest/neck area) ... and used to be my mom's
• Orange leather - I lovelovelove this coat. I put it on and couldn't leave the store and accidentally spent $200 on earlier this year. But I feel like a million bucks every time I put it on, and Bunny loves is

Can you see why I don't need any more coats? Except, I kind of bought one.

It's perfect though. It's this gorgeous super dark hunter green (Bunny can only see the green in the sunlight, it's so dark) with a double row of brass buttons and a few little details on the wrist. This coat gave me that instant reaction, again.

It goes to just past my knees, so will be nice and warn for the winter season. It's 1960's vintage and is super super perfect. What's amazing is that as much as it's from the 60's, it's a very classic styled coat, so it doesn't look dated at all. It's heavy wool, and has a good lining. Super super warm. The sleeves are maybe a half inch short, but I can live with that. I mean, I wear gloves.

This is the coat that I've been waiting for. A warm, stylish winter coat. Something dressy enough that I could wear it to an event, if I had one. Something that will keep my knees warm when I wear skirts. Something that gives me more coverage than my other (other! because I'm a freak and have way Too Many Coats) wool coats, without going into parka territory.

Because let's be honest: this girl lives in Canada. Canadian winters are not "mild" even on a good year. We damn freeze here, and I don't freeze well. I mean, I have heat on and am wrapped in two blankets right now. Not so good with the cold. There's a reason everyone I know is into the Canada Goose and North Face winter coats. Not particularly stylin' (though they aren't ugly ... but there's only so nice a thick puffy coat will ever be stylish), but practical and warm.

I really don't know how I made it through Barrie winters as a child. Hip deep snow wading? Nuts.

But this coat? This is a coat I'm excited to wear this winter. Stoked.