Put An Egg On It!

Tonight, I made a dinner which was surprisingly quick, easy and tasty!  I was tired when I got home, so all three were a necessity if we were to avoid ordering delivery.

Here is the cell phone pic of questionable quality:

The above is bow tie pasta, with garlic, mushrooms, spinach and cherry tomatoes, with a soft-poached egg on top.

Here's how to pull it together yourself:

Noodles (I used bow tie, but use whatever shape you have on hand)
1 bunch spinach, washed, dried and roughly chopped
1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes
3 large white mushrooms (or a bunch of smaller ones), sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced (optional)
lemon juice or balsamic vinegar (optional)
1 egg per person
water & plain white vinegar for poaching
oil for sauteing
salt, pepper and grated parmesan to taste

Start your noodles as per package directions.
In a large frying pan, heat some oil.  If using the onion, add it first, and saute/stir until starting to soften.  Then add your mushrooms and cook for 2-5 minutes.  When the mushrooms have started to get some colour, add your spinach.  When the spinach is mostly wilted, add the tomatoes and a splash of lemon juice or balsamic (if using).  Keep this on low heat, while the remaining items cook.
When the noodles are pretty much done, drain, reserving a little bit of cooking liquid, then add to your pan of vegetables and stir.  Add some cooking liquid if necessary, to keep things from drying out.  Keep this on low heat/warm, while doing your eggs.
If you know how to poach eggs already, awesome!  I'm not great at it, and if you don't know how, you probably shouldn't learn how from me.  If you know how, soft poach your eggs.  If you don't, a soft boiled, sunny side up or over easy egg will work too - or you could search for a good tutorial.

Serve up your pasta, top with your runny egg, and sprinkle with parmesan, salt & pepper to taste.
When you bust your egg open, the yolk will run everywhere and help make a delicious coating on your noodles.

Enjoy!

Random Stuff from the Last Few Months and a Sandwich

I realized today that it has been longer than I thought since I've posted anything.  Several months in fact.  Oops.  I haven't really been doing anything interesting (other than growing a person), which has contributed to the lack of posting.

Here's a little summary of what I've been up to recently:

The garden also went in really late this year - we kept having frost warnings right through the end of May!  It also hasn't really stopped raining, which hasn't helped getting things into the ground.
This year's garden is much smaller than usual, since I don't plan on spending too much time out there near the end of this pregnancy.  The only things I've planted are:
Black Plum Tomato
Lipstick Pepper
Cantaloupe
Cinnamon Basil
Rosemary
some flowers out front that the munchkin picked out

The tomato plant is a very prolific (and very tasty!) variety, and I'm looking forward to re-supplying my stash of salsa!

The sage, chives, thyme, spearmint, rhubarb and strawberries all survived the winter, which was also pretty convenient.

The two books that I have read since my last update, which have stuck out to me are: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (slow moving, but very atmospheric and sadly sweet) and The Acolyte by Nick Cutter (this one is a distopian novel where the science-denying, Evangelical religious right have taken over and instituted a sort of dictatorship.  Very creepy read!).

Finally, I'm very happy the seasonal farmer's markets are back!  There is a year-round market not too, too far from us, but I am fond of the seasonal market that is much closer.  When my finds at the market are combined with what we get in our produce delivery box, some very tasty meals can be had!
I've ended up making this sandwich for lunch the past two days in a row (I only have a cell phone pic, so my apologies if you can't view it well)

Delicious Sandwich!

What you see in the photo includes:
Herb & cheese sourdough from De La Terre Bakery
Garlic & chive fresh chevre (goat cheese) from Fifth Town Artisan Cheese
Spring mix from one of the veggie vendors at the market (I can't remember which one!)
Sweet Russian Mustard from Kozliks Canadian Mustard (I prefer the spicy Russian, but we ran out!)
and then tomato, cucumber and radish from the produce delivery.

Do you have a market nearby, or a favourite sandwich?