Meatless Tuesday: Linguine with pine nuts and asparagus

The Wife resented my implication that she hid the pine nuts on me last week.

She called me a name. She reminded me that she “can’t reach that effing shelf without climbing on something.” And, she reminded me that I was deflecting my own mistake on to her. I offered her the opportunity to rebut my claims, but she opted to take the high road (again). That high road stuff gets annoying after a while, which is exactly why she does it.

That, and hiding things on me.

Meatless Monday: Penne with roasted asparagus and balsamic butter

The Wife likes to hide things on me. She plays coy, but I know she does it on purpose. She does it with my wallet, my iPhone, and other stuff around the house. On Monday night, she did it with the pine nuts.

I knew that I had purchased a jar of pine nuts on Saturday while grocery shopping. Since they are so damn expensive, I was a little concerned as to where they landed. I asked The Wife. She played dumb. No, she would tell me, I don’t know where they are.

Tuesday dinner: Chicken and quinoa burritos

Our first week back has been more about getting back to normal and less about, well, everything else. The jet lag has kicked my rear end, so it’s not uncommon to find my daughter smacking me in the head while I lay on the floor to wake me up. The adjustment to work has been a bit of a challenge; not the work itself, of course, but the fact that I’m at my desk and not walking up some hill. No falling asleep there, but I do miss the luxury of a mid-afternoon nap.

Tuesday’s dinner was a quick-and-easy meal that I ran across on Pinterest (If you are not following me there, you ought to. I archive my grocery lists, recipes, restaurant reviews and keep a running list of what’s next up in my kitchen, much of it accompanied by my subpar photography.). I picked it up from Real Simple, the official magazine of 30something women and a publication that my sister swears by.

Wednesday dinner: Dinner fail. Side dish win.

The recipe looked good. A little spicy, but all told, it looked good. In the end, it was…marginal. I’d love to say that something went off the rails along the way that made it my fault, but I just don’t think that the recipe was all that great.

The Wife doesn’t particularly like spicy food, and I’m not a big fan myself, but I’m not certain that the heat would have made it much better. The accompanying salsa didn’t make much difference either. I know that not every recipe is a winner, but chicken thighs with cucumber-rhubarb salsa was a dud. It was enough of a let down that I’m just going to link and not bother with recounting the steps.

Tuesday dinner: Yogurt-marinated chicken with quinoa and vegetables

Real Simple has apparently ascended to the status as “official magazine of 30-something women.” Find a woman between 30 and 39 who doesn’t subscribe, buy or worship to the monthly magazine. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

See what I mean?

It’s actually a pretty nifty magazine with a robust archive of recipes on its website. Tonight’s dinner came from the February 2011 issue.