Arugula Pesto

One of the veggies that keeps coming through the CSA despite super cold temperatures is arugula. We've been eating a lot of it recently, and I was looking for a different way to use it.

Simply Recipes had a recipe for arugula pesto with walnuts, and I had some 3-cheese tortellini from Costco, so we gave it a try. Pretty good! Not as sweet as your typical basil pesto-it has the peppery bite of arugula. I really liked the garlic roasting methodology (in the skillet!), too. I think I'll take advantage of that for other recipes calling for roasted garlic.

The pesto was tasty on the tortellini, and also tasty mixed with some mayo on chicken sandwiches the next day. Mmm.

Apricot Chicken and Roasted Garlic Green Beans

So, it's been a while since I've done any serious cooking, but I picked some good recipes to break that streak this week. We got a pound of super cute mini-apricots from the CSA this week and I wanted to use them in a savory recipe... Simply Recipes to the rescue! This apricot chicken recipe was really nice- sweet, a little spicy, a thick rich sauce...mmmm.Also, this green bean recipe is a keeper, for sure. I saw it on Daisy Cooks, but had trouble finding the recipe online. I improvised... roasted some garlic, threw it in my salad dressing whizzer-thing with a little bit of chicken broth, added salt and pepper, threw it over slightly sauteed green beans from the CSA, threw the cover back on for a few minutes and then served! Awesome and so easy.

Both recipes got two thumbs up from both Chuck and Tim. Tim said it was "the best apricot dish I've had since I got back from Armenia." He got back from Armenia last Friday. Thanks a lot, Tim.

Grilled Summer Succotash Pasta with Roasted Garlic Sauce

This week's Washington Post food section included a recipe for a grilled vegetable pasta with roasted garlic and lemon sauce. This recipe was good- very fresh. The veggies the recipe called for were exactly what came in my CSA share this week, including sweet corn on the cob, zucchini, garlic, and one that I was nervous about: lima beans.

Turns out that fresh lima beans aren't half bad! They're kinda a pain to shell (see the photo below for an idea of what they look like in and out of the shell), but tasty.