New Things

Well we are finally settled here in Texas. It's nice to have things organized again....well as organized as we get at least. :) Lance is still working away and I'm still schooling my life away. I've been working on getting my schedule together for my last year of school. So exciting and scary! This means that I actually need to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life sometime soon. Hard decision....

Lance and I spent Easter weekend here at our new home. We went to a new church and it was a great service. After church we come home and we finished making dinner together. We had a pretty good lunch and then pecan pie for desert. First pie that I made that I can say actually looked pretty. Haha... It was our first holiday that we weren't around the rest of our family. We missed everyone but I feel blessed that we have this opportunity to grow as our own family. We spent the afternoon outside. It was so nice and warm out. We dug around in our yard for awhile but mostly just relaxed. In the evening we grilled for the second night in a row. Haha...We were outside and could smell the neighbors grilling so it made us want some.

I've been trying to cook with new things lately. I made asparagus one the grill and we both loved it! Then last night I made a pasta dish that I saw on the food network. Here's what it was:

Pesto:

• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 (2-inch long) red or green jalapeno pepper, stemmed and coarsely chopped* see Cook's Note
• 2 cups grated (4 ounces) Asiago cheese
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 ounces baby spinach
• 3 ounces arugula
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound fusilli pasta
• 4 ounces Asiago cheese, shaved

Directions

For the pesto: In a food processor, combine the walnuts, garlic, jalapeno, cheese, salt and pepper. Process until the mixture is smooth. Add the spinach and arugula and process until blended. With the machine running, gradually add the olive oil.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water. Place the cooked pasta and pesto in a large serving bowl. Toss well and thin out the sauce with a little pasta water, if needed.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with Asiago cheese shavings and serve.

Now that I posted this I must say that I did not care for it at all. I couldn't find the asiago cheese in the stores around here so I used mozzarella instead (which was probably a mistake) and it was WAY too cheesy! Lance liked the flavor but I really didn't. Anyway at least we are trying new things :) Like lance said, they can't all be good!