A Year in the Making & A Giveaway!

It’s been a pretty good week over here in Beantown.

Boston has officially become Championship City thanks to the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup this week. THANK GOODNESS. I’m not a huge hockey fan by any means, but I’ve been GLUED to this Stanley Cup series and have been washed up in Bruins pride.

This week also marked my ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! It’s pretty crazy that it’s already been a year. It feels like I’ve only been doing this for a day. I started this blog after I got married because suddenly I didn’t have a wedding to plan anymore and had a BOAT LOAD of free time. With grad school coming in the fall, keeping up with this blog, and life in general, life’s going to get a whole lot busier. And now, because I like bullet points, let’s talk about all the awesome things that has happened because of me starting this little ol’ blog:

• I’ve met some amazing people. A-MAZING. People that I consider to be my best friends. People I talk to every day now and make my days at work bearabl
• I’ve become way more confident in my cooking and baking abilities. Granted, I still feel like I have a long way to go, but I’ve grown exponentially as a result of this blog. I was one of those girls that used to be too lazy to take some frozen orange chicken out and make it. Now I make it from scratch. I’m hoping in my next year of blogging I can do more experimenting to create more of my own recipes
• Most Popular Blog Post: Apple Cinnamon Pop Tarts.  Does this surprise anyone, really? I mean, 1 it’s pop tarts, and 2 the recipe is from the Flour Bakery Cookbook. DUH. You people have good taste
• I never thought that I would be part of such an amazing food blogger community. Even though I have WAY too many blogs on my Reader, I still try very very hard to read all of it because I truly enjoy being part of this community and going to blogger events.
• My family almost expects me to make something magnificent every time an event happens. I still haven’t decided if this is a good or bad thing
• I like to giveaway stuff to my readers. One, because sharing is caring and two, it proves that people other than my husband and mom reads this blog.

Which brings me to……

A GIVEAWAY!!! The lovely people over at America’s Test Kitchen provided me with a copy of Cooking for Two 2011 to try out and they have graciously offered me another copy to give to one of my readers!!!!

Let’s face it, a good number of recipes are usually for 4-6 servings of something or other. That is difficult if you are a household of 1 or 2. There are some recipes I make that give us leftovers for DAYS (mainly because again, I’m too lazy to scale it down. It’s the math). What’s great about this book is that it’s perfect for 2 people, or even for 1 person that wants some leftovers for the day.

My favorite section is the dessert section, for reasons that are not so obvious. Many many times I find myself wanting to make a dessert but not wanting to have any leftovers. If I bake a whole cake, I’m most likely going to eat it. Same with pies, cookies, muffins, cupcakes, brownies, WHATEVER. Cooking for Two includes a whole section on desserts for two, in which a smaller pie is made, or only 4 muffins are in a recipe, which drastically cuts down on leftovers, and keeps my waistline intact. I plan on using those recipes as a baseline to create multiple different flavors.

I love this recipe for Linguine with Arugula-Mint Pesto. Most of the ingredients are pretty basic, and I happened to pick up most of those ingredients from the farmer’s market, so the flavors were tripled. This couldn’t be a simpler meal to make, and it took no time at all. While the spaghetti is cooking you could be making the pesto and then all of a sudden BAM, dinner is ready.

So I’m really excited that one of you will be able to get a copy of this amazing cookbook.

Rules:

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me what you are looking forward to doing the most this summer, food or non food related. Please make sure to include your email address in the form so I know how to contact you!

Entries will be accepted until Thursday June 23rd @ 3PM. Any comments left AFTER that time will NOT be counted.

Winner will be announced on Friday June 24th.

For EXTRA entries:
– Follow me (@Kitchenmisfit) & America’s Test Kitchen (@TestKitchen) on Twitter and Tweet: I want to win a copy of Cooking for Two thanks to @KitchenMisfit & @TestKitchen http://wp.me/pVDUw-iq and leave a comment saying you did that
– Like Tales from a Kitchen Misfit & America’s Test Kitchen and leave a separate comment stating you did so.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

 

Linguine w/ Arugula-Mint Pesto

Recipe from Cooking for Two 2011

• 1 garlic clove, unpeeled
• 4 oz baby arugula
• 3/4 cup tightly packed fresh mint leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped walnuts, toasted
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• salt
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 6 oz cooked linguine, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water
• 1/4 grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

Toast garlic in skillet over medium heat, shaking pan occasionally, until fragrant and color of clove deepens slightly, about 7 minutes. Let garlic cool slightly, then peel and chop.

Process garlic, arugula, mint, walnuts, lemon juice, sugar, red pepper flakes and 1/2 tsp salt together in food processor until smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula. With machine running, slowly drizzle in oil until incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Add pesto and Parmesan to pasta and toss to combine, adjusting sauce consistency with reserved pasta cooking water as desires. Season with salt and serve with extra Parmesan. I also served mine with some fresh heirloom tomatoes I got at the farmer’s market!