In the kitchen

 Man, I love my kitchen. And fresh produce. So this weekend I found excuses to cook using fresh spring ingredients.


Tomato Cucumber Pasta Salad with Dill Yogurt


Half a carton of grape tomatoes, halved
Half a cucumber, peeled and diced
About a cup of greek yogurt
Farfalle pasta
Tbsp dill
Garlic salt
Salt
Cracked pepper


I only wanted to make enough for Kris and I, so for more people, double the recipe.


First get your salted pasta water on the stove on high heat.
Next cut up your vegetables. You can put whatever veggies you want in here, red peppers, corn, snap peas, celery, maybe add some chives... mmmm.

Now, make your sauce. I just mixed together my yogurt, dill, salt, and garlic salt to taste. Simple and delicious.

Boil your pasta per the instructions and strain. I just guestimated how much pasta I'd want to go in the salad, about 3 handfulls of farfalle.

Mix it all together, and that's it! Since the pasta is hot, it's better to chill the salad for about an hour before eating, so it's nice and chilled. Then add your cracked pepper on top and enjoy.

Yummy pasta salad

Pasta salad with dill yogurt

Today, Kris and I went to whole foods, and I decided to pick up some beautiful stem-on strawberries and two stalks of rhubarb to try some sort of crisp. I googled some recipes at home and found most of the toppings required rolled oats. So to improvise, I made a topping out of flour, brown sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and softened butter. I just threw it all together, mixed with my hands, adjusted the proportions, and threw it on top. It's great! The graham cracker goes very well with the strawberry rhubarb mixture. A little extra sweetness to soften the sourness of the rhubarb.


Filling:


Strawberries, quartered
Rhubarb, peeled and cut into 1/2 in pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar


Just mix it all up, put in pan, add topping, and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Yummmmm. Another Kris seal of approval.

Going in the oven

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with bite taken out because I can't resist eating before photographing.

Kris my bartender is inspired again. This time it's a mint flip.

Creme de menthe rum flip

1 whole egg

1 splash of creme de menthe

3 oz spiced rum

1 oz simple syrup

Add all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake until frothy, serve. 

Creme de menthe rum flip

The next night, I was inspired for him. I asked him to use some of that fresh cucumber in a drink.

Cucumber mojito

3 slices cucumber
2 sprigs mint
1/4 lime
3 oz spiced rum
1 oz simple syrup
3 oz ginger ale

1. Fill a rocks glass with ice, and pour about 2 oz ginger ale in the bottom.
2. Muddle the mint and lime in a shaker.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and ice and shake.
4. Strain into glass, top off with ginger ale.

Cucumber mojito