back in action

Having a wonderful boyfriend makes me want to procure wonderful edibles.
Chopping the toppings for the absurd peanut butter pie.



Reeses cups, roasted salted peanuts (yes, salted. salty bites in sweet mouthfuls of creamy fatty sugary richness are often mandatory in my world), dark chocolate mini chips, and chocolate covered peanuts.
Creamy pie pre-topping. Extremely simple. All natural fresh peanut butter from Winco, powdered sugar, real cream cheese, vanilla and whipped cream folded in over a graham cracker crust.



Post-topping. Into the freezer!



Dinner I made for Noah and Zeniff. Odd choice of serving dish.



Boiled spaghetti in salted water, of course, of course. In a large saucepan, combined BUTTER with olive oil and sauteed off some onion, red bell pepper, beautiful meaty mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini and large amounts of garlic until very tender and fragrant. Salted for flavor, and so the water could be released from the vegetables concentrating their flavors with one-another. Added cayenne for heat, black pepper, touch of chili powder and a fair amount of basil and oregano. Added the pasta into this al dente with a teeny bit of starchy pasta water to bind. Followed by generous amounts of parmesan cheese, also to bind. Added spinach right when cooking was finished so it could wilt into the sauce.

Noah hovered wanting in on the action that was producing such smells, and Zeniff was very excited based off of the olfactory experience. Noah is the only person who is allowed to hover in the kitchen.



Finished with cubed Fontina cheese and fresh parsley. Clicking on the pictures makes them big. They look better big.



Also pan-fried some firm tofu in a parmesan crust. Coordinating flavors of basil, oregano, cayenne, pepper and chili powder went into the mix for the crust. Fried the slabs of tofu in yet another mixture (it's a lovely fat fest) of garlic-infused olive oil and butter. I must admit, that I went ahead and threw the leftover parmesan dredging mixture straight into the cohesive vegetable mix/sauce for the pasta.

There was a salad, but it bears little mention. Just fresh spinach, chopped almonds, parmesan croutons and balsamic.



Any domestic lady's favorite image: boys doing dishes <3
Zeniff told me to make sure I talk about how insanely badass this meal was and how very satisfied and happy the recipients were.
The smells were overpowering and lovely. Sometimes I just want to touch vegetables and hear cackles and sizzles of garlicky butterfat, smash garlic cloves, and get to hold onto a knife for awhile. Cooking is great. I missed it.