Some recipes and an update

Quick update: Matty and I had a fabulous time this weekend skiing in New England. The conditions werent great (close to 50) but skiing in bad conditions is still better than not skiing in my humble opinion. We stayed at a cabin on Lake Winnipesaukee owned Sue and Don. Saturday we skied Attitash and then Sunday we played around on their snowmobiles and played in the snow and made a snowman and roasted marshmallows over the fire in their fire pit. It was a lovely mini vacation. And Matty is 100% officially hooked on skiing. Which makes me totally excited since that means I have a skiing buddy! And hopefully we will do it more often than once every 3 years or so. And he is an excellent skier. We had him on double blacks Saturday. His sixth day skiing! I will post pics as soon as I get them from my dad, I forgot my camera.

I have not been a very good cook recently, first we were preparing for the Mardi Gras party. Then I was sick. Then we had a busy week with a movie night, a Lost night and the hockey game. So we have been eating mostly leftovers and quickie meals the last few eeks. So this week I decided to try to get back to cooking and most importantly trying new recipes. First up on Monday we had Barbecue Portobello Quesadillas. They were excellent. We pretty much followed the recipe to the letter I think. The pic is from the Eating Well website. But ours pretty much looked like that. Matty cooked them the way he always cooks quesadillas. He put the tortilla in the heated pan with a little oil, once it starts to brown a little bit, he flips it over, puts the cheese on half, lets it melt a little, then adds the filling and then closes the quesadilla and cooks until filling is heated through. We had a side of chips and guacamole and each had 2 quesadillas. So this was actually a good size for us (even though it says it is 4 servings).
Last night (after drinks at Sidecar) we made Alpine Mushroom Pasta, also from Eating Well. Ours looked a little different because we modified the recipe a bit. We used Trader Joes Organic Sprouted Wheat Peppardelle since they didnt have whole wheat fettucine. We also used 5 large baby bok choys instead of the Savoy cabbage. It ended up being about 3 cups instead of 6. And we used smoked gouda because TJs didnt have any other smoked cheeses. This is excellent and I would highly recommend. It takes practically no time at all to make (the "sauce" takes about the same time as boiling the water and cooking the pasta). I would recommend (if you used the pasta and amount of cabbage we did at least, cutting a minute or two off the cooking time so the pasta is a little more al dente). It is pretty sagey and garlicy which Matty and I both enjoy, but just a warning in case you dont. It made enough for us to have for dinner last night and then to each take for lunch today. It is also very good leftover. We will definitely have this again. I think smoked mozzarella would be fantastic though the gouda did work well.