My Favorite Pasta Salad

You know in life, when things happen, they all happen at the same time. And though it's really exciting and wonderful, a little part of you wishes they were spaced out a teeny bit better. It has been over two weeks since my last post, and I promise I didn't just abandon this space right after my exciting announcement. As some of you know, the exact same day the Saveur finalists were announced, I started school. A full time 9-am-to-6-pm-plus-homework kind of school with the hopes of having a better, brighter, and more fulfilling career at the end of it. Thankfully it only lasts 12 weeks, but never have I had to actively use my brain for such an extended period of time each and every day—not in my previous jobs, not in college, not in high school. There is no such thing as "zoning out", or "free time" here (besides the hour we get for lunch), it's exhilarating, my classmates are amazing, I'm never bored, but goddamn, I am tired. I come home exhausted, and can barely muster up the strength to make dinner each day, so for the first two weekends after school started, I didn't blog. I felt awful because I had been given such a great honor of being a Saveur finalist, and I wanted so badly to give back and make more recipes, take more photos, and reach out to all of you, but I needed that time to decompress (and catch up on homework!). Now that we're starting our fourth week of school, there is finally a rhythm to the madness, and yesterday I managed to pull together a recipe I have been making and packing for lunch quite frequently as of late.

But before we move on to the recipe, if you haven't voted in the Saveur awards yet, I would really appreciate your vote in the Best New Voice category <3. Click the link here or in the sidebar, and make sure to cast a vote in the other categories as well so we can recognize all the wonderfully talented finalists.

Warm Brussels Sprout Salad with Marcona Almonds

An ode to the elegance of simplicity. To not laboring over a stove for hours on end. To enjoying the day and basking in the sunlight.

This past Saturday, the last day before March, was a beautiful day. The sun was shining like it rarely does during this time of year. A preview of things to come. It brought back memories of all the activities we used to do when the weather was nicer. Biking to the beach. Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge to get soup dumplings and not feeling bad about binge eating because we just walked 2 hour for lunch. Spending entire afternoons at the farmers market. Berry picking in the fields of Long Island.

Life has been busy to the point of insanity lately. There's been such a deluge of things to get done that I have neglected the most important of them: enjoying my surroundings with the people I love. So let's forget about all of that for one moment. Forget about work, forget about made up expectations, and enjoy the very life that we seem to so often forget to actually live. To celebrate the simple pleasures in life, a simple brussels sprout salad for those days when we all have better things to do than stay in the kitchen.

Tagliatelle with Roasted Cauliflower

We managed to wade our way through the entire month of January without touching any kind of pork product. Why you ask, would we undertake such an endeavor? The simple answer is because I wanted to and by extension Phillip had to. The complicated answer has something to do with animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and the fact that pigs are just so god damn cute, but I won't bore you with a long winded explanation.

Then, on February 1st we promptly went to my neighborhood diner and ordered french toast, over easy eggs, homefries, and three sausage links. It was glorious. It was euphoric. But I felt awful. Not only about the poor pig that died in order for me to get my preservative laden breakfast sausage, but also for my obvious lack of willpower. It got me thinking. Though it might be unrealistic to say that I'll stop eating pork for good (just put a slice of prosciutto in front of me, I dare you, I will probably bite your hand off in my fervor to eat it), as long as it has helped me be more aware of the food choices I make on a daily basis, no-pork-January has done its job.

Mushroom, Chestnut, & Dumpling Soup

I have been on a chestnut craze lately. At least one day every week seems to end with bum fingers cut up from peeling those frustratingly delicious little nuts. And my goodness, for a food item that seems so plebeian, they are as high maintenance as they come. Some of them don't want to give up their shell for anything, and some of them are moldy, but you can't see their dirty little secrets until after scoring, roasting, and peeling (or, attempting to peel) each and every one. But for all the wasted time and energy that goes into a bad chestnut, the ones you do manage to salvage are just so goddamn delicious.

There aren't any nostalgic stories from my past about roasting and eating chestnuts with my family during the winter. Such activities simply never occured. The most I can dig up is this one recollection I have of my mother making braised duck and throwing in some vacuum packed cooked chestnuts near the end to offer additional heartiness to a dish that was already a beast in itself. But oh was it good. The rich, fatty sauce coated the chestnuts and enhanced their already fragrant flavor. Whether or not it was that one experience from my youth or my general preference for salty over sweet, I have been trying to incorporate these guys into anything that is not a cake or cookie; first stuffing, then fish, and now soup.