asparagus + peas + basil & lemon parsley chicken & grilled sweet potatoes

i certainly didn't plan on the great lapse between the first and second cooking adventure. i blame the tail end of winter for a food rut. however, now that it is spring and the first official day of baseball in 2010 i feel refreshed and ready to make some food and take some trying-to-be-good pictures. tonight's menu has a lot of green in it. i feel inspired by all the green baseball diamonds i've seen on espn today. play ball!

the ingredients:

asparagus/peas/basil (cooking for two so i halved everything unless noted): recipe found here.

- 1/4 cup finely chopped shallots (about 2) - i didn't have shallots, thus i used 1/2 small onion
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter - i did 1 tbs evoo, 1 tbs unsalted butter
- 2 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 3/4 pound shelled fresh peas (2 1/2 cups; 1 3/4 pound in pods) or 1 (10-ounce) package thawed frozen peas
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt - i had sea but if it were kosher i'm sure that would be well, just that, kosher

- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Handful of torn basil leaves (about 3/4 cup)

lemon parsley chicken:

- chicken breast marinated in freshly chopped parsley, lemon juice from 1/2 lemon, a bit of the lemon rind, a small drizzle of evoo, s/p. i only did one breast for two of us 'cause we have scaled back on our meat portions.

grilled sweet potatoes:

- 2 small sweet potatoes, halved, then cut into 4 wedges per half

- evoo to thinly coat, s/p

the work:

1. preheat the oven to 350 for the chicken.

2. after it has marinated for a bit bake for 25-30 minutes or until done.

meanwhile...

- i'd like to put instructions for the sweet potatoes but they were a total fail. too hard after boiling and grilling. boo. i have yet to find a way to properly make decent sweet potato wedges. onto the veggies...

3. Cook onion in butter in a skillet/pan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until just tender, about 4 minutes.

4. Stir in asparagus, peas, sea salt, pepper, then seal skillet with foil.

5. Cook over medium heat until vegetables are tender but still slightly al dente, about 8 minutes.

6. Stir in basil and add more s/p to taste if necessary.

7. i also added some chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice at the end. i refrained from sprinkling parmigiano reggiano cheese on top...mmm...

8. enjoy with a glass of whatever wine you like (chardonnay for us tonight) and lots of baseball, followed by the duke/butler game.

quinoa + sweet potatoes

1. begin cooking your quinoa.

2. place in oven : 1-2 sweet potatoes (cut, obv), 1/2 large celery root cut into smallish cubes/rectangles, 1 shallot thinly sliced, olive oil (a bunch) and salt. bake at 350 for about an hour

3. place in heavy bottomed pan : butter (whatever you feel is the appropriate amount, i used about 1/2 tbs...ok maybe more) and 2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced. cook garlic until it begins to brown. toss in a bunch of kale sliced into thin stips (the thinner the better) and cook until the kale starts to crisp ... this is very important.

4. plate, quinoa on the bottom, kale in the middle and sweet potatoes/celery root on the top. i then topped it off with a drizzle of garlic expressions vinaigrette (you should buy this if you don't have it in your salad dressing aresenal. i typically like to make our own, but this stuff is delish)

5. sit on your couch and queue season 5 of lost. continue to get lost in lost and not go to bed until very late ... particularly for a school night.