Roasted Asparagus

(Becky)

One of my favorite vegetables is asparagus. There are plenty of fancy ways you can cook it, lots of delicious ingredients that you can combine it with. The best in my opinion though? Fresh asparagus, roasted with olive oil, sea salt and cracked black pepper. This weekend the farmers market had a few bunches of asparagus and I stood in line to make sure I had one!

Roasted Asparagus

Snap the woody ends off - they'll break naturally at the tough point.

Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper (I like to crack it fresh over the spears before putting it in the oven)

400 degrees, 10 - 15 minutes depending on how browned or crunchy you like it

Happy dining!

Pizza Pizza!

(Becky)

This past weekend I was sprawled about watching Giada on the food network and she started rolling out pizza dough and arugula on a cream cheese base...and I was drooling. Knowing I had arugula in the fridge from the CSA pick up that day before, I was wondering if I could somehow make pizza myself. Most of my future attemps at pizza have failed epically...making pizza is my husbands department. Nonetheless, I headed off to the Coventry Farmers Market with pizza on my mind.

I was about to leave the market when I stopped by one last vendor who was selling bread, cookies and assorted other baked goods. They were also selling prebaked pizza shells. No rolling or rising of the dough, no stretching it into perfect little circles, all the work was done for me! How does it get better than that? I bought them with every intent on making pizza - I just wasn't sure how the ingredients were going to fall together yet!

Tonight - I had pizza success. There's nothing very healthy about this pizza, but it was delicious and used up some stuff in my fridge as well!

I had leftover spinach dip from a baby shower this past weekend and instead of a cream cheese base as in Giada's, or the standard white or red sauce, I spread a layer of spinach dip on each pizza crust. I then topped it with big handfuls of arugula from my csa share. Shaved parmesan and mozzarella cheese and in the oven at 400 degrees they went for about 15 - 20 minutes, until nice and browned.

YUM! The dip base and the cheeses provided for a decadent, rich pizza - almost too rich so I could only eat a couple pieces, but it was very satisfying!

Wine, wine and more wine...anyone want some wine?

(Becky)

In May, Aimee and I went to White Silo Winery for their annual asparagus festival!

The asparagus based menu was amazing - asparagus blt's, asparagus soup, teriyaki asparagus stir fry, lemon chicken and asparagus stir fry, asparagus frittata...My favorite on the menu was the asparagus blt. If you friend White Silo on facebook, the recipe's on there - I can't wait to try to duplicate it!

The grounds were beautiful, the people awesome and of course we had to do a wine tasting. White Silo specializes in fruit wines (my favorite!) and the tasting sure did not dissapoint. I left with two bottles of raspberry dessert wine, along with a bottle of blackberry wine.

Since there was still time in the day - we next checked out Digrazia Vineyards and this was such an awesome place.
Relaxed atmosphere, great people, really, really great wine. I've been a fan of Digrazia for quite some time anyways, but had never visited before, and it was so nice to do a tasting and try some of the other wines avaliable. At home I had already had a bottle of their Autumn Spice wine (tastes like pumpkin pie) and a bottle of their Wild Blue (blueberry wine with brandy), but I ended up leaving that day with a bottle of Pomegrenate and Pear Wine. Can't wait for the chance to drink it!

Last winery stop of the day was Gouveia Vineyards,




The whole place was gorgeous - you can just imagine attending a wedding here as the sun's setting. The wine wasn't necessarily to my tastes, except for a white wine which I bought a bottle of. I would definitely return here with my husband and a picnic lunch though and just relax for a little while. The view makes it well worth it!

The best part of the day, other than the obvious wine drinking, was knowing that with every purchase I made I was supporting a local vineyard, and in many cases - a family business. When I look at my wine rack, I'm thrilled that most of the bottles on it come from places where I can get to within an hour or two drive. My husband's coming home in a few short months, and I'm trying to save these bottles to share with him...but that's getting more and more difficult. Another winery trip might be in order!

Has It Really Been 2 Months??

(Becky)

According to blogger...the last time Aimee or I posted was April 7th! Goal for the current: get better at updating blog. We have had plenty of food adventures in the meantime and hopefully I can get some updates and pictures up asap!