Live :: Love :: Laugh :: Eat!

I love the sound of that And the dish was pretty good, too.

We had about 16 people over for Thanksgiving, and since we had spent two weeks in Europe, including a week in Italy, in September, naturally I wanted to serve antipasto for an appetizer.

But most people were holding out for the main event, so there was quite a bit left over. What to do with all these preserved meats and veggies? Put them in a pasta, of course! I found this great-sounding recipe and modified it for what we had and like, and it turned out great. I’ll definitely make it again.

This is my entry in Grow Your Own, the foodie event started by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes and hosted this month by House of Annie. GYO celebrates the food we grow ourselves. We grew the basil and parsley for the pesto in this dish, and I froze pesto to use during the winter, since the basil was so prolific.

Antipasto Pesto Pasta
1 medium roasted red bell pepper, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup marinated cocktail onions, halved
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
3 ounces salami, chopped
1/2 cup marinated mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup marinated quartered artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/3 cup refrigerated pesto
8 ounces uncooked bow-tie pasta (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

Place the roasted pepper, onions, olives, salami, mushrooms, and artichokes in a large bowl and mix gently.

Cook the pasta according to package directions, omitting salt; drain. In a small bowl, mix together the pesto and 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese; add to bell pepper mixture, and toss to combine. Add pasta to bell pepper mixture and stir.

Sprinkle each serving with 2 tsp. remaining cheese and 2 tsp. pine nuts.

Antipasto Pasta

I’m going through my photos from our trip to Ireland in 2003, and came across this one, which is perfect for this week’s Photo Friday challenge theme: Distant.

The Cliffs of Moher on Ireland’s western coast are 800 feet high at their highest point, and five miles long. We were walking up a slate staircase toward a guard house on a hill near the cliffs when I took this picture. Over a hundred years ago, the property owner built a wall of slate there as well, to prevent people from being blown over the cliff by the downdraft.

We were pretty amazed that people were permitted to walk around that hill to go out on that ledge, though. Below is a closeup showing cracking in the rock under his feet.

Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland

Fractured Rock, 400 feet up

After all these years in Virginia, I still can’t get used to these wrecks that slowly disintegrate along the sides of country roads. This one is along the road going to James River State Park, where we do the Tye River Kayak/Canoe Race every year.

This is my contribution to the weekly photography challenge at PhotoFriday.com. The topic this week is Slowly.

Yesterday, Dan and I attended the Scottish Walk in downtown Portsmouth, which expresses appreciation for the town merchants. A couple hundred people turned out for a walk led by a Colonial-era bell ringer and accompanied by the music of bagpipes.

At Admiral’s Landing on the riverfront, we were treated to a rousing call to revolution, circa 1779, and a gun salute to each of the rebelling colonies. It was great fun.

I don’t make lamb very often, for one reason, because it’s expensive, and for another reason, because I haven’t always enjoyed it. I’m not sure if that’s because of the quality or the preparation, but the lamb chops I made yesterday for Christmas dinner were fabulous.

You need a good, stainless steel pan for this recipe – a non-stick pan just won’t get a good sear on the meat to make it golden-brown and delicious!

Herb-Encrusted Lamb Chops
Serves 2

4 lamb rib chops, about 1 inch thick
1 tbsp. chopped fresh sage
2 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. coarse salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil

Remove the chops from the refrigerator and salt both sides lightly. Leave out to come to room temperature, about 30 minutes. The salt will draw moisture from the chops, which will then be drawn back in, seasoning them beautifully.

Prepare herbs and garlic and mix together with pepper in a small bowl.

When ready to cook, drizzle one side of each chop with a little olive oil; cover with herb/garlic mixture and press to adhere. Heat a large stainless-steel saute pan on medium-high heat. Add 1 tbsp. olive oil and swirl the oil around the pan. Add chops, herbed side down, to pan and cook for one minute. With tongs, turn chops over and cook for two minutes. Check temperature with an instant-read thermometer; it should be 130 degrees F for medium-rare. If it’s still a little low, cover the pan and let rest, off the heat, for about five minutes. If you’d like it more done, let cook another minute before resting.

I served this with Duchess potatoes mm mm good!

We grew a nice variety of lettuces in the garden last spring, and most of them did very nicely. We had salad from the garden regularly all spring and into the summer.

This is a composed salad I made one day last summer. Since the high is supposed to be about 42*F today, I’m hoping the thought of a cool salad on a hot day might warm me up. If not, I’ll make some hot chocolate.

This is for Photo Friday’s weekly photo challenge. This week’s topic is Homemade.

When we were in Florence, Italy in September, we happened upon the Mercato Centrale, or Central Market. Between Via dell’Ariento and Via San Antonio is a building about the size of Norfolk’s Waterside Festival Marketplace (I’m not great at spatial awareness, so don’t hold me to that), filled with row upon row of booths selling an amazing variety of fresh and preserved fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, herbs, spices, wines, oils and vinegars, flowers and prepared foods I think I’ve ever seen. I wished I could buy a week’s worth of groceries and start cooking, but we were staying in a hotel with no kitchen in the room (it had a great breakfast buffet and I stuffed myself on prosciutto, but that’s another story…)

The City of Norfolk, Virginia, is looking for a new concept to transform the aging Waterside Festival Marketplace on the Elizabeth River in downtown Norfolk. Dan and I were talking about this recently and he said, “They should turn it into a food market like the Mercato Centrale in Florence.” There’s lots of easy parking, and it’s close to I-264, not to mention the ferry from Portsmouth, to bring shoppers from all parts of Hampton Roads. The Buy Fresh, Buy Local movement is taking hold here with more and more consumers interested in purchasing fresh, locally grown and raised groceries, and the cruise ships that dock nearby bring tourists interested in taking home Virginia-grown products.

What do the rest of you Hampton Roads residents think? What do we need to do to help make this happen?

Several years ago, I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Oak Park, Il., just outside Chicago, and since they had to work one day I was there, I took a walk around downtown Oak Park. And discovered the Penzey’s store there. I was blown away by the huge variety of herbs and spices there, and I’ve been ordering from there ever since. I even had my brother bring me some Greek seasoning last time they visited!

So yes, I would love to win the spices being given away by Sugared Ellipses. You can enter till Dec. 15.

Years ago, just before we went to Germany to see our first exchange student, Olaf, I saw a print for sale in an art gallery titled “Doors of Williamsburg.” It had 20 shots of, duh, doors in Williamsburg, Va. I loved this idea, so I shot “Doors of Germany.” Those are still on film prints, which I am too lazy to scan, but here are pix from our most recent trip to Europe in September.

So, last year, I started Project 365, which is taking a photo a day for a year, to try to improve my photography.

I didn’t get very far, but I’m going to try again. Here are some photos from the last few days.

Day 1, Nov. 29: Oak-leaf hydrangea leaves, from the garden


Day 2, Nov. 30: Quesadilla with cheddar and mozzarella cheeses and roasted red peppers


Day 3, Dec. 1: Hydrangeas: These were our Thanksgiving centerpieces, along with camellia blossoms. I tried and tried to get rid of the glare – covered the light with a lace tablecloth, then a pillowcase, changed the angle of the light – still too bright.