Mushroom, Leek & Artichoke Stuffed Shells

Spring Vegetable Stuffed ShellsOne surefire way to determine the success of a recipe is to eat the dish every night for a week and if you find yourself craving more after it’s gone, you know you’ve got a winner.  For instance, you know a batch of baked shells is worth sharing with the world (and by “the world” I mean my mother and the three other kind souls that read my blog) when you single-handedly take down three-quarters of the pan and, when they’re finally gone, you find yourself wishing for just one more dinner’s worth.  Forgive me for a moment while I lament the fact that these little beauties will not be my dinner again tonight.

Alright, I’ve had a moment to compose myself and I’m ready to tell you all about these spring vegetable stuffed shells.  The shells have been stuffed with a filling of sautéed mushrooms, leeks, artichoke hearts, and tarragon.  They’re then blanketed in a lemony béchamel sauce and baked, with just enough cheese melted over the top.  All in all, it’s my perfect kind of comfort food–cheesy and a bit indulgent, but not to the point where you’ll be wracked with guilt after eating it, nor is it “food-coma” heavy.  It’s exactly the kind of thing I could eat it every night of the week–oh wait, I kinda did.  

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Honey-Lemon Roasted Chicken Thighs & Radishes

Roasted Chicken Thighs & RadishesIn a continued effort to simplify my life, spend less money, and wash fewer dishes, I came up with this recipe for roasted chicken thighs and radishes.  And, of course, I’m always on a mission to eat well.  I’m happy to say, this chicken covers all of my needs.

This dinner is a 1-skillet situation.  Honey-lacquered chicken thighs are roasted over a bunch of halved radishes.  Once roasted, the radishes are tossed with the green radish tops and finished it with a squirt of lemon.  Eaten on a damp, chilly night, this had a lightened up comfort food quality that was just right for a rainy spring dinner.

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Pea & Scallion Pancakes

Pea and Scallion PancakesTwice last week I had the good fortune of running across a recipe that I couldn’t wait to try and, more remarkably, I actually had all of the necessary ingredients for each recipe on hand and ready to roll.  My luck continued from there, as both recipes turned out every bit as good as I had hoped and will undoubtedly work their way into my repertoire.

The first was a recipe for gigante beans with lemon and fennel from the site, 101 cookbooks.  If you read my blog regularly, it’s probably no surprise that a recipe involving fennel and lemon caught my eye–they’re a couple of my favorite ingredients.  So that, plus the fact that I had just gotten a bug up my butt to clean the cupboard and wound up cooking off nearly every dried legume in the house and needed to find something to do with the enormous pot of gigante beans, propelled me to make the dish immediately.  It was every bit as good as the beautiful photos suggest.  You should definitely try them.  

The second recipe, and the one we’re actually going to talk about today, was for savory pea and scallion pancakes.  After cleaning out the cupboard, I was still on a bit of a cleaning binge and started weeding through old magazines which.  Needless to say, I spent the next hour sprawled out on the living room floor leafing through back issues of Bon Appétit.  I came across a spring pea feature and immediately zeroed in on these pancakes.  They were light golden with bright green pea polka dots and a smattering of green onions scattered over the top.  They looked tender, delicious, and exactly like what I wanted to eat at that precise moment.  I scanned the recipe, raided the fridge, and, within 10 minutes, was having a lovely little lunch.  Like I said, good fortune.

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