Umm, I have been an eating MACHINE today. I cannot be satisfied! I think it has to do with the fact that I slept so poorly a couple nights ago. When my sleep pattern gets out of whack, my appetite usually follows suit.

Ie I stopped by my parent’s house on the way home from work tonight, to quickly pick something up mind you, and ended up staying to semi-devour thier dinner of BBQ beef and garlic mashed potatoes! I feel like there was something else I was crunching on too…oh yeah…

Triscuits & sour cream

Amazing combo, btw. Ohhh, boy. Gotta’ love raiding your parent’s kitchen!

Don’t worry, I still came home and made dinner. Sweet Potato Pasta with Mascarpone Cheese Sauce!

This was the. best. and I’ll tell you why in a bit. First of all the recipe was based off of the one included in the bag of Pappardelle’s Sweet Potato Pasta I picked up at the Farmer’s Market a couple weeks ago!

The vendor I got this up from had dozens of pasta types to choose from like Spicy Thai Linguine, Basil Garlic Penne and Lemon Garlic Orzo!

As soon as I saw the sweet potato variety though, I knew I had to have it…

The pasta strands are thick, wide and looooong.

And the color popped out at me right away!

Into the pot of salted, boiling water to cook up while I worked on the sauce.

The sauce!

I started by sautéing 2 cloves garlic & 2 Tablespoon chopped walnuts in 1 Tablespoon butter.

I let the butter bubble over medium-low heat so it would get deep,

dark,

and lusciously brown – about 4-5 minutes.

Then I whipped out the mascarpone cheese! You’ll most often find mascarpone cheese in desserts since it’s flavor is very mild (no tang like cream cheese,)

and its texture is like silk. Creamy, soft, SILK.

I added ~1/4 cup each mascarpone cheese and chicken broth to the butter mixture,

and let everything melt until smooth.

Toss with the chewy, sweet potato pasta to coat,

and top with more crunchy walnut pieces!!

I chewed this slowly and couldn’t stop thinking, “I know this taste. No seriously, I KNOW this taste! WHY do I know this taste??” Bingo!

Remember when your Mom used to make you egg noodles with parmesan cheese and butter when you were little? (No? ) Well this tasted just like that! Just GOOD, you know? Heartwarming and good. Kind of tasted like Mac & Cheese too so, you know, I didn’t hate that..:)

In other news, it is perhaps even windier today then it was yesterday and I’m not going ANYWHERE tonight! Got my sweat suit on, my slippers firmly stuck on my feet (do you wear slippers?!) and I’ll get my nature fix from right about here thank you very much.

STAY WARM!

~~~~~

Do you remember any of the dishes your Mom/Dad/Grandma/Grandpa/other made you growing up?

I’ve told you before that my Mom fixed the whole family home-cooked meals almost every night of the week, but I do remember some seriously hilarious lunches growing up. Including, but not limited to, cheese filled boiled hotdogs, bologna lettuce & mustard sandwiches (we LOVED them) and bunny faces made with a slice of bologna topped with marshmallows for eyes, raisins for a smile and carrot sticks for ears. Gosh I love my Mom!!