Tonight we went for a trio of Cooking Light dishes. Our starter was Pears with Goat Cheese and Preserves (pretty self explanatory). It was super-tasty and would serve very well as a visually appealing appetizer at a party, in addition to being fairly easy and not too hard on the waistline, either. Here’s a picture:
Next up was Farfalle with Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce. I’m really struggling for words on this one. I’m (almost) not kidding when I say I could eat this every night and be happy. It was relatively easy and I only made a few alterations. I used 12 oz. of farfalle instead of the 16 oz. it called for (this was suggested by other reviewers and was a great tip — especially since I could only find the stuff in 12 oz. packages at the store). I also used a full cup of cream (instead of 2/3 of a cup). I did this mainly because I bought a container that had 1 cup in it and I don’t use heavy cream very frequently so I decided to go ahead and go for it. I ended up using 16 oz. of baby bellas instead of the wild mushroom mix because there was only one package left at the Publix and it didn’t look particularly fresh. Lastly, I couldn’t find shallots at our Publix, so I used 3 green onions (chopped finely) and about 1/2 TBS extra minced garlic.
Without a solid comparison (at this point) I’m giving full credit for the deliciousness to the (extremely) expensive cheese I used. I looked all over the specialty cheese section at the grocery store to find the Parmigiano-Reggiano in brick form. I found one option. The grated versions were going for around $4 for a 12 oz. container. I figured that the per ounce price would be cheaper on the brick form. Boy, was I wrong. I never located the price tag (sneakily placed on the BACK of the package) until I pulled out the wedge tonight to grate it. I paid $12.53 for this particular brick of cheese (no wonder our bill was so high this week). The per pound price? Wait for it…$21.99! Is that even legal? Seriously? I guess I’ll find out if this cheese was the reason for the deliciousness, because I guarantee I’ll be buying the grated kind for $4 next time around.
The real proof? Liam ate two full servings, mushrooms included. He was shoveling it in with both hands. It was the first splurge meal that we had ready in time for him to eat the night we made it and it was a rousing success. This picture does not do it justice:
We finished the meal off with Blue-Ribbon Apple Pie made by my wonderful husband (our resident pastry chef). He’s officially a pie-making fool. We topped it off with some 1/2 fat vanilla bean ice cream and we’re both stuffed and happy.
Here he is finishing off the pie construction:
Finished product:
A la mode:
I’d go so far as to say that this might have been the best splurge meal yet!