Ingredients

• 1 lb. Spiral Pasta, Cooked
• 6 oz. Assorted Olives and Red Peppers, Roughly Chopped
• 10 oz. Dry Salami (Try Busseto)
• 4 oz. Gorgonzola, Crumbled
• 4 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 4 oz. Dried Cranberries
• 4 oz. Pecans, Roughly Chopped
• Kosher Salt, To Taste

Instruction

Cook pasta and set aside to cool. Roughly chop selection of olives, red peppers, and pecans; cut Salami into quartered pieces about one-quarter inch thick. Mix ingredients in a large serving dish. Serves 6-8.

Notes

This is one of the oldest recipes that I remember The Girl and I preparing together. It’s actually something that I put together on the fly, probably after having watched the Food Network right before grocery shopping. There are many, many recipes for Antipasto Salad out there, but I think what makes this special is the sweetness of the cranberries and sweet red peppers as it mixes with the bitterness from the olives and Gorgonzola. Another is the fact that the pasta is almost an afterthought; something to hold the remaining ingredients together. Most of the time we make this recipe even easier to prepare by getting our olives and red peppers together in the deli section of our grocery store, and by using a packaged salad topping called Cherry Cranberry Pecano Salad Pizazz. Most groceries have an olive section in their deli salad bar these days, and the salad topping has been pretty easy for us to find wherever we go, as well.

Additionally, this is the second straight combine and serve recipe, which, if you hadn’t already guessed, is going to be a common occurance.

The Girl: “I’m thinking about switching to a different pill…”

Me: “Maybe I’ll just make the decision for you and switch your pills out with Flinstone’s vitamins.”

The Girl: “Why would you do a thing like that?”

Me: “To promote strong bones and healthy muscles, of course.”

The Girl: “Har, har. And what heppens when I get pregnant?”

Me: “Well I suppose you’d just have to pedal your car to the delivery room with your feet…”

Happy 1st Birthday, Thing 1 and 2. Sorry that we couldn’t be there, but we’ll see you soon. My, what a difference a year makes.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Watermelon, Cubed
• 1 lb. Cherry Tomatoes, Halved
• Cilantro, Chopped, To Taste
• 4 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt, To Taste

Instruction

Simply toss first four ingredients in a large bowl, dust with kosher salt, and serve. Serves 6-8.

Notes

For me, any recipe with cilantro brings about thoughts of summer, and warm weather, and a light, fresh feeling that can only truly be appreciated during a certain time of the year. I think a bunch of cilantro should be an item on the weekly shopping list every week from Easter until Labor Day, and that’s greatly reflected in the meal’s that I make and serve throughout the spring and summer. The Girl doesn’t share my enthusiasm for cilantro, but she does tolerate it in occasional dishes, of which this is one. We first had this combination of flavors at a Spanish tapas restaurant named Jaleo, which is one of our favorite restaurants. The recipe originally involved peeled, steamed tomatoes, and a cilantro paste, and had the tomato and watermelon on wooden skewers, and we loved it. We decided to recreate it at home, and we made this already simple recipe even easier by losing the skewers, using uncooked cherry tomatoes, and a handful of chopped cilantro. The result is a salad that goes with a complex entree such as roasted chicken or pork just as well as it goes with a chicken salad sandwich.

I have, in the past, written about trying to find my voice. Personally, I believe I have only recently been able to partially accomplish that, at least in the context of this site. In the beginning, I feel as if I was simply trying too hard to make the site popular, and trying to make it look cool, and be stylish, and have hundreds of thousands of visitors. It’s not about that anymore, not for me, and I’m glad for that, but in the mean time, I’m finally beginning to write about things in my life that are more relevant to me, and the life that I live.

This blog has seen me through those changes, every step of the way, and you can see the changes in me reflected in the writing of my posts, as well as the categories, and general attitude of the site. Sports have taken a backseat as something that I post about. While they’re still important to me, they’re something that I watch, not something that I do. New categories have been created, to write about The Girl, or Work, or our Travels. The ‘Moments’ category sprouted up, inspired by another site, and meant to convey what makes mine and The Girls relationship uniquely ours. Articles in the category of Life have taken on a greater importance to the site.

With that said, I hadn’t ever written at all about food until the previous post, but it’s an important part of our lives, The Girl and I. We enjoy going out to a multitude of ‘favorite’ restaurants. Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown for brunch, or Jaleo for tapas, or Old Ebbit Grill for the Trout Parmesan, and an experience that’s the essence of DC. But we also like to bring the tastes that we find into our own kitchen, cooking for ourselves and our friends, and families, and for whatever reason, we haven’t really shared that.

Until now. In the future I’ll be sharing some of the recipes that we’ve found, or created, or copied that we like the best, and that have become staples in our cooking. Some are complex, most though, are quite simple.  I do this now, to continue what I spoke about above; to share those things that are important to me with those that want to know more about me. There’s also the hope that, like with a blog in general, we can take a snapshot of a moment in time in our lives. And inevitably, I hope that others can get some joy out of those tastes that have brought us, and our friends, together.