Dinner During Lent - Pasta Con Le Sarde

Welcome to part 2 of Dinner During Lent, where I'm cooking a different meat-free meal for every Friday during the 40 days leading up to Easter. This year is seems fast food chains are geared up for Lent and even inviting the Pope to join them!

Part 1 included a simple dinner of pierogies and asparagus. This recipe has much more history and work to be done!

Last year when we (Bryce and I) traveled to Europe, the part I was most looking forward to was our cooking class in Sicily. There we learned to cook the esteemed Sicilian dish of Pasta Con Le Sarde, or Pasta with Sardines. It's made with fresh sardines, which are abundant on the island, and wild fennel which only grows in Sicily. On our first night in Sicily I had Pasta Con Le Sarde in a restaurant before learning how to make it the following day in our cooking class.

During our class the English-speaker/tour operator recorded the recipe for us while the Italian-speaker cooked and dictated to him. I didn't take a good look at the notes until just recently while planning to remake the recipe. Mamma Mia is all I can say, here's what they said: 

Dinner During Lent - Ash Wednesday - Pierogies and Asparagus

It's Ash Wednesday, or a Friday in Lent, what's for dinner?

Immediately I imagine my Mom's Tuna Noodle Casserole! A close second is, of course, a fish sandwich. I'm trying to get creative this year with a different meat-free meal each week and calling the project Dinner During Lent.

On Ash Wednesday we kept it very simple. We had pierogies with corn and shallots + roasted asparagus.

The Whale Wins

Who loves birthdays?

(Raising hand in the air, waving it frantically back and forth) Meeeeee!!

Birthdays 'round here are welcomed with open arms and, in the month of January, it's my turn to celebrate. On the 15th I celebrated turning 29 with Bryce at a restaurant called The Whale Wins in Fremont (Seattle). It's nested in a building that shares space between several restaurants and stores. The interior is full of fun and function alike.

Disney World Waffle Sandwiches

In November (2014) we made a family trip to Disney World in Florida. What began as two Grammies and my Mum (a non-Grammie) chatting over breakfast about bringing their grandkids to Disney one Sunday morning rapidly turned into a gang of 15 family members! With just 5 kids and 10 grown ups, we traveled from Hawaii, Washington, and Pennsylvania. There were Mommies and Grammies, Aunts, Uncles, Godparents, siblings, and cousins.

2014 - It Was a Very Good Year

This sure was a great year, wasn't it? 2014 was our first full year of married life, living in Seattle, our first trip to Europe, and the year we bought a house!

 

We had so many visitors and every single one of them obliged me on a visit to Pike Place Market and a corresponding photo! Food and photos, it's what I do.

 

My cousin Chloee was our very first visitor and we wandered in and out of the produce stands and shops in the market all day long.