
This was, as my husband put it, "the best meal I ever made." It was on our plates for less than 5 minutes. Jack's too- he loved it. I got this recipe from my cute neighbor, but only changed a couple of things.

A friend of mine's Aunt entered this recipe into a contest at Zupas and won. They served this soup at Zupas for a little while so if you have had it there you'll know how delicious it is. It's pretty easy to make and is vegetarian if you want it to be.
lemon asparagus pasta
1 large bunch of asparagus
250 g bow-tie pasta
1 t salt
3 T butter
3/4 c heavy cream
2 T freshly grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
1/4 t salt (optional)
1/3 c finely chopped parsley
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
1. Prepare asparagus by snapping off the bottom tough ends & then snapping each stalk into 1 inch pieces.
2. In a large pot, boil water and add 1 heaping teaspoon of salt. Add pasta. When pot comes back to a boil again, put prepared asparagus into a large metal colander, place over the boiling pot and cover the asparagus with the pot lid. One and a half minutes into the steaming process, take tongs and gently toss asparagus, replacing lid for another one minute and a half. Remove colander and rinse asparagus under cold water until cool. The asparagus should be crisp-tender. Drain well and set aside.
3. In a smaller pot, combine lemon juice, butter and cream over moderately low heat. Stir in zest then remove pot from heat and stir in 1/4 cup of the pasta water into the cream sauce.
4. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add in the asparagus and parsley and combine well. Add the cream sauce and parmesan chees and cook over moderate heat, tossing until heated through. Taste and add remaining salt if necessary.

HEAT oven to 350ºF.
PREPARE cake batter and bake as directed on package for 24 cupcakes. Cool completely.
BEAT pudding mix and milk with whisk 2 min. (i put in some rum extract- maybe 1 tsp.) Let stand 5 min. Meanwhile, use serrated knife to cut cupcakes horizontally in half. Whisk 1/2 cup COOL WHIP into pudding; spoon onto bottom halves of cupcakes, using about 1 Tbsp. for each. Cover with cupcake tops.
MICROWAVE remaining COOL WHIP and chocolate in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until well blended. Let stand 15 min.; spread onto cupcakes. Refrigerate 15 min.
There is no trick or method to this. Just throw it all in a food processor or blender. I actually ended up throwing some hazelnuts in there too because I needed to use them. So I saved the rest of the pine nuts to toss in a green salad.

I got this off of my new favorite- THIS website, . I can't stop perusing this site for snacks, dinners sides and ideas. It's superb. I brought these tasty treats for game night and truly, I was surprised how easy it was. And they are very, very good... I substituted the fleur du sel with regular coarse salt, and sprinkled the almonds on after mixing them with the coarse salt. It helps bring out ALL the flavors. Get recipe HERE.


This year, due to lack of extra money to spend on love- we decided to stay in and have fondue. Jack was at a Valentine's Party (thank you, Elisha) so we had a few hours alone. To his own embarrassment, Josh watched The Bachelor with me and we leisure had three courses of fondue. It was really, really good, and less than half the cost of Melting Pot.
I really like pickles. Especially garlic pickles...you know the refrigerated kind? They're a great snack when you need something salty. Instead of grabbing some crackers or chips, eating a pickle is a tasty way to eat a vegetable instead.
I recently came into a lot of cheese. A few months ago I starred this recipe on my Google Reader because I wanted to make a mac and cheese dish that I actually liked, so I grated a bunch of cheese and threw this one together last night.