tomato and leek spaghetti.

On the farm, I literally ate spaghetti every other day (pasta on the others...). You think I would've gotten sick of it, but I had some serious spaghetti-withdrawl when I got back. I bought myself a pack of wheat spaghetti (hence the color being a bit spaghetto)...and then realized that I don't eat tomato sauce enough to merit the purchase of a whole can of tomato pulp. So I chopped up some normal tomatoes (took out the seeds because it makes the sauce kind of bitter) and sautéed them in olive oil with garlic and leek. And then I added a squirt of ketchup, which helped the tomatoes turn into a saucy consistency. It tasted like a slightly sweet and leeky tomato sauce. Yum!




x

dinner #1: salad and roasted potatoes.

The same night as the granola-making, I also made dinner for Ariel and I. I wanted to experiment with some of the things Maria used to make on the farm.

First up was the salad. I threw some leaves in a bowl, and chopped up some tomatoes and feta cheese. A handful of mellow-tasting edamame went really nicely with the sharp feta.


For the dressing, I made something Maria used to make for almost every salad. Instead of just pouring olive oil on top of the leaves, she would put some in a metal bowl, toss in some chopped garlic, and let that cook. She took it off the heat right before the garlic was going to brown. I did the same (with less tasty olive oil, unfortunately), and added a little bit of pepper. It really adds flavor to the olive oil, enough so that you don't need balsamic vinegar or whatever other dressing you would usually add with olive oil. Now that I think about it, I bet adding some red hot pepper flakes would've give it more of a kick. Hmm, maybe next time.


For the main dish, I made roasted rosemary potatoes! Maria made this a couple of times, and I know it's nothing exotic, but I really hadn't thought about making it before. I sliced the potatoes as thin as I could, and put them in a bowl. After adding some of that olive oil concoction I made earlier, I drizzled even more olive oil and freshly chopped rosemary. I spread all of that onto a pan, crushed some sea salt on it, and put it in the oven. After a bit, I flipped over the potatoes so that both sides of the potatoes had a relatively roasted skin on it.


SO. GOOD. Ariel said it was the best batch of roasted potatoes she's ever had (win!). None of the garlic/rosemary/salt/pepper flavors were too strong; I hate it when one taste overpowers the others, it's kind of distracting. I really liked that the thickness of the potato slices were varied, so that you got the mush bites and the crunch bites all on one plate. x