Good evening everyone!
I am so excited – look at my little baby tomatoes!! They’re of the Roma variety and I just can’t wait until they turn that gorgeous, scarlet color.
The taste of home-grown tomatoes is so special and is largely un-replicated by the varieties available in the grocery store, in my humble opinion.
These were super easy to grow, too. I just bought starter plants at the Farmer’s Market at the beginning of the season, put them in big pots and watered them every couple of days. A couple months later – voila…tomatoes!
Do you grow any anything? It’s so satisfying, isn’t it?
After I marveled at my tomatoes for a bit, I hit the trail for a 3.5 mile hot, sticky and sweaty run baby! Rain is on the horizon! Question: does anybody tend to tense up their neck, shoulders and/or arms when they run? My right arm always tenses up and today it hurt particularly bad since it was already sore from Jillian’s beat down last night! Ah well, I made it back home in once piece, which is the important part
After a quick shower, I got to work on dinner – which was Drunken Garden Pasta!
I started by sautéing some onions and garlic in a skillet pre-heated with ~1/2 tablespoon olive oil. When those were soft, I added in a big handful of fresh baby spinach and 3 roma tomatoes, both roughly chopped.
While those guys were sautéing, I cooked my pasta. When it was done and was draining in the sink, I added a medium sized splash of some Chardonnay wine into the pasta pot on medium heat. After that reduced for a ~20 seconds, I added in a smaller sized splash of balsamic vinegar and ~1/2 tablespoon of olive oil.
Finally, I added the drained pasta, along with the onion, garlic, spinach & tomato mixture back into the pasta pot with the wine, vinegar & olive oil, and mixed. Drunken Garden Pasta was up!
I topped the whole bowl off with some Feta Cheese. Because, say it with me now, ‘feta makes everything beta’!!!! This was a super easy meal that came together in no time flat. All the ingredients were fresh and I just couldn’t have been more satisfied!
I read recently that you don’t have to say no to pasta (which I completely agree with!) Just treat pasta like an ingredient in your dishes. You wouldn’t put a whole onion and 10 cloves of garlic in this dish, so why do you need to put a whole box of pasta in?
Ok – SO jazzed about my snack for later on – Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels from Trader Joe’s!!! Ugh – these are like snack crack…seriously…
Love these babies!!
I have a whole evening ahead of me with nothing to do. I am SO pumped! I think I may catch up on The Deadliest Catch. Gosh, I love that show!!!
~~~~~
Do you eat a lot of pasta? What’s your favorite way to eat it?





























Tomatoes, Pasta & Pretzels
July 14, 2009