It's been a week in which some very nice and kind things happened to me.
My favourite crossing guard lady told me I was beautiful.  Again.  Heart.
I volunteer to do cooking club at school and two of my Gr 12 helpers told me to that they would take care of all the clean up so that I could head home.  Kind and adorable.  Heart.
My Best Friend brought me some green sprout kinda things and dropped them for me at school.  Heart.
One of the same Gr 12 boys heard that I had forgotten to bring my lunch and brought me some of his homemade potato cakes... with sour cream on the side.  Yup.  Heart.

These are a couple of the things that we made during last week's Cooking Club Course.  It's real.

I felt cared about and that's cool because it helps balance out all of the crap.
I read this and laughed out loud BTW.  Don't even need to read the article because just the Title and Picture sew it all up.
I realised that I haven't baked since Easter.  EASTER.  Unprecedented for me I know and it's probably got something to do with the fact that I've been off sweets.  I have, for the record, made a lot of ice cream.  Leftover cravings from Italy perhaps?  The upside for all of you is that ice cream leaves me with a butt load of egg whites... angel food cake anyone?  It's coming.  I promise.
Michael Pollan again.  I kinda feel like this weird attraction thing with him.  It's cool that he finds a way to say knowledgeable and intelligent things in a very accessible way.  It's also cool that he learns - like really learns - his stuff.
Statistically it looks like work/life balance has been working out pretty well for you if you are a dude... surprise, surprise.  Unfortunately, if you are a single-parent, educated (or not), working female the stats aren't looking nearly as rosy.  Surprise, Surprise.  Makes you wonder (again) about how things generally are working out for women in North America especially considering the kind of economy we've been dealing with over the last 10 (or 30) years.
It's almost impossible to imagine but this used to be 'Black Eyed Peas'.  Ummmm - WOW.
Also, just in case you ever need such thing, it's good to know that there is a company looking out for you.  But why should I believe them??????


I have been absolutely negligent in providing you with recipes using spring season ingredients.  They've been in my fridge - in fact, some are still there right now.  Asparagus, stinging nettles, ramps, rhubarb ('cause I had to order it this year... remember), fiddleheads, etc (can't think of any more).  I just feel like I haven't been doing anything life changing with them.  My general malaise combined with my lack of work/life balance (see above - without the single parenting part) has left me more than a little lazy in the kitchen.  I did however come up with this pesto thing.  It's not really pesto but calling it 'pesto' felt right and I'm just going to go with it.  I had cream cheese in the fridge and so it got added too.  It's a kitchen sink kind of recipe.  I later cooked up some honey garlic sausages and mushrooms and made a pasta sauce with the whole lot.  It came off well - even kid #2 ate it without complaining.


Ramps and Stinging Nettle 'Weird' Pesto
makes about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of sauce

8 ramps (or so) coarsely chopped
3 cups Stinging Nettle leaves, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cups cream
1 tsp salt
1 tsp honey
juice of a lemon (about 2 tbsp)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/3 cups cream cheese or goat cheese
1/2 cup pasta water

Heat a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat.
Add about 2 tbsp olive oil or grease.
Throw in the ramps and stinging nettle leaves.  Stir for 1 minutes and immediately remove from the heat.
Add the olive oil and cream.
Place mixture in a blender or use an hand blender.  Blend until the mixture is an even paste.
Add the salt, honey, lemon, parmesan and cream cheese.  Mix until blended.
Check the taste and adjust if necessary.
Add pasta water just before using the pesto to get it to the desired consistency.