Love Nest Cooking: The Truth

Love Nest Pasta a la Heidi Swanson

Perhaps I over-dramatize on occasion. Like the time I told you about our cute little Love Nest.  Yes, it's cute and yes, it's little, and it's all the nice things I mentioned a year ago. What I didn't share then is that once a week (usually Monday mornings), I crawl out of bed at the uncivilized hour of 5:30 a.m. to drive the hour-and-a-half to the office, otherwise known as the hometown of the Love Nest. I read somewhere that for optimal perkiness, a person should keep the same sleep pattern day in, day out. I don't do that. Some days of the week I wake at 7:30, some at 6:30, some at 8 a.m. The horrific back-to-the-office-day alarm comes as an assault. 

Another Love Nest Truth I Didn't Share With You: 
A Severely Sloping Cooking Surface

This morning I drug my weary tukhus away from dreams, the warmth of the covers and the sweet morning scent of My Baby into the chilly, dark dawn. I had my suitcase and garment bag packed in the car last night as usual, but a few last minute items always wait until right before I drive away, including a small cooler packed with a few food items to get me by for the 3 or 4 days away.  The Love Nest cooking plan this week included a ultra-green eggy springtime pasta I'd read about from Heidi Swanson over at 101 Cookbooks. It sounded easy, delicious and healthful; I had sugar peas, green beans and spinach at home with which to make it. Great. Easy peasy.

So at 6:15 this morning, having traded in weatherproof boots and jeans for high heels and office attire, I packed my little cooler, which required cutting an egg carton with kitchen shears so that the two eggs necessary for Heidi's recipe would fit with protection, a task that definitely strained my small-muscle coordination that early in the morning. Veggies, leftover pineapple galette (stay tuned for that), eggs, a dab of remaining fennel-potato gratin from the weekend, a sandwich baggie full of my favorite peanut M & M's, and tiny neat ice packs to keep it all fresh. Viola. Food for the week. Kisses and goodbyes, and I was off.

Sometime around noon I went to fetch my cooler from the car. No cooler. That's how together I was this morning. I packed the cooler and forget to put in the car. No cooler = no food.

After a long day at work, I schlepped to the grocery and purchased the things I'd left behind. In the meantime, a new iteration on Heidi's suggested recipe came to mind. All the veggies would still be great, but garlic and a little salty tang thrown in would be nice. Feta would work well for that.

In a non-rational hunger delirium, I chose this off-the-shelf Riesling purely because of it's name. By then I was really hungry, my pineapple galette was nearly a hundred miles away, and a cupcake sounded really good. I have no comments on the wine. You get what you pay for, and I got what I expected. Except no cupcake.

It was a fresh, tasty, easy weeknight meal. The next time I make it, some torn basil and a handful of pine nuts would be a nice addition.

If I don't forget them at home.