What's Cookin'

It's good to get back to cooking and sitting down at the table with the Hubs to enjoy freshly made meals. Recipes for lemon cream pasta with English peas and coconut lentil soup with greens can be found in Moosewood's Simple Suppers. 

My variation on their lemon cream sauce is to start with a roux and use low-fat milk instead of cream. I warm the milk before adding it to the roux as I find this prevents the butter and flour from forming lumps. Throw the peas into the pasta pot for the last minute of cooking. This is a fairly low labor recipe with a wonderfully satisfying payoff.

If you have arugula (rocket) on hand, try this simple, quick method to add it to a soup or pasta dish. Coarsely chop the greens and put them in a bowl. Ladle over hot soup and stir or toss with hot pasta. The heat from the soup or pasta is enough to wilt the arugula without making it a mushy, slimy mess.

And just because our taste of spring has me itching for open windows and soft breezes, I pulled a taste of summer out of the freezer. Wild raspberries from our backyard. I followed this recipe (and added 1 tsp of grated orange zest) which made a very thick batter. I had doubts on its success given its seeming dryness, but the muffins are moist and tender with a nice thin crunchiness surrounding a fluffy interior.