I think that Orzo has to be one of the most fun pastas ever invented.  It looks like big grains of rice,and nothing gets lost in it.  It can be frustrating, to me anyway, to create a pasta dish and have the components on the bottom of the pan when the pasta has all been served.  Orzo allows the other ingredients to cuddle right in.  Got to love that!

Spring is here.  I got fresh asparagus for 99 cents a pound and nothing says spring more than that.  When I bought it I knew that Pasta Primavera was not far behind.

In this case, the pasta I used was Orzo.  I took the casserole dish of it over to my daughter, Erin’s, house when she was still on bedrest from having the baby.  This dish is delicate, rich, and creamy and has spring in every single bite.  For  a nice change grill the asparagus rather than steaming it.

Orzo Primavera

• 1 lb orzo
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 lb asparagus, steamed or grilled until crips tender and cut in 3 inch lengths
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves of elephant garlic, one peeled and cut in half and one peeled and sliced thinly
• 3 carrots, peeled and julienned, steamed
• 1 cup pecans or pine nuts, toasted
• 1 cup grated Parmigiana-Reggiano
• 2 cups heavy cream
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

1. Bring the cream to a simmer in a saucepan or microwave safe bowl.  Add one elephant garlic clove, cut in half.  Set aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Cook the orzo until tender, drain, add a little oil and set aside.
3. Add the sliced garlic, olive oil, and onions to the pan and cook until the onions are transparent.  Do not allow to brown.  Add the asparagus, the carrots, basil, and the nuts.  Stir carefully to coat with oil.
4. Stir in the orzo and heat through.
5. Just before serving remove the garlic from the cream, pourit in the orzo mixture and stir.
6. Stir in the grated cheese.
7. Allow to heat through, plate it and top with shaved parmesan.  Serve immediately.

Serves 8

Image:MaryeAudet

Soup is the best food ever.  Really. Think about it.

It is versatile, generally inexpensive, and is there a better way to get rid of the leftovers in the fridge? I think not.  You can toss everything into a slow cooker or cook it in a stock pot on top of the stove and the results will be the same.  Hot steamy goodness that makes the house smell like home.

Read more

This is my entry for Presto Pasta Night.  The host this week is Ivy of Kopiaste.  If you haven’t checked out her blog you should.  Why? Because it is always incredible, that’s why.

I am finding interesting and varied pasta shapes more and more in the local stores.  This may be old news to some of you but trust me, around here you just don’t get the variety that you do in other places.  Apparently that is changing, something for which I will foreve be grateful because I get bored easily.

Read more

(c)marye audet 2008

O.k. I admit it.  This is nothing more than macaroni and cheese.  I promised the kids macaroni and cheese and there was no way I could change mid stream…

Or was there?

Read more

I could not believe it. I was working on formatting the cookbook until about 1:30 a.m. and when I went to bed it was still hovering around 90 humid degrees.

We are just about into those dog days of summer when even the bugs seem to take shelter in the afternoon heat! Read more

I have learned to love Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes.  They add a smoky bite to everything I have put them in.

Our green beans are just starting to stop producing. I didn’t plant enough this year so I haven’t canned any at all.  I thought about putting in more but I think my time is too limited at the moment to care for them.

Anyway, the okra begins to produce just about the time that the green beans stop. We didn’t have enough for fried okra, only a few tender pods…so I sliced them up with some onions, and other things from the garden, added a can of fire roasted tomatoes and some fresh cilantro..and mixed some whole wheat rotini into the whole thing. Wow! With a little cheese, it was awesome. Read more

This is my entry for the Presto Pasta Night Round-up. Head over there and check out the rest of the pasta dishes. They are always amazing.

I discovered whole foods (not Whole Foods, that came later) sometime in the very early 1980s. Yep. Before it was cool. We were vegan for several years and then vegetarian for several years after that.

We still eat a diet that is not average for Americans. It is very vegetable based with more meat in winter than in summer. We try to eat locally and about 90% of what we eat is either home grown or organic.

I like whole grains in most things. Read more

This is my entry for Ruth’s Presto Pasta night!Hey I am getting good, two weeks in a row.

This was inspired by the fact that I had an eggplant in the fridge that was threatening to grow fuzz, a few leftover mushrooms, and a can of artichoke hearts. Not a very poetic beginning but wait until you try the end result! This lasagne is buttery-creamy and very rich. At the same time it is light because of the lack of meat. You can adjust the cheese however you want but I used a lot. I just like a lot of cheese! This made a 13x 9 inch pan, which was 12 servings..but I would be more likely to have only 9 servings and have them bigger. Our family eats a lot. Read more

This is my entry this week in Ruth’s Pasta Presto night.   It goes up every friday and if you want some great pasta ideas THAT is the place to get them!

Over on Kettle and Cup I had gotten started talking about the tea room Marc and I had for awhile.  Some good memories, some bad….

Anyway, one of the favorite items on the menu was this pasta salad.  We used it as a side and often people chose it over our fresh cut french fries or homemade onion rings.  And my onion rings are ROCKIN’.  Seriously. We used to go through a ton of this stuff. Read more

I don’t know if you have seen the February issue of Bon Appetit but they have gone green, for this month anyway.  I was in love with the issue from the beginning to the end!   One of the recipes that looked especially good was the Brussels sprouts. I was curious because exactly half the family likes them and half do not.

Amazingly, even the half that DO NOT like them, Sam-I-Am, liked these. Alot.  Matthew said, “these are really good.”

I replied, ” They are Brussels sprouts”

He said, “No they aren’t, because I hate Brussels Sprouts.   These are a distant relative of Brussels Sprouts.  BROOOOOOOsel Sprouts.”

To which I rolled my eyes and said, “whatever” Read more