Food, Glorious Food

Well, Happy Valentine's Day from my happy tummy to yours! The holiday today followed on the heels of a stressful evening for us, having had our oldest son running an unexplained temperature of over 104 degrees throughout the night last night. (Thank you to those parents who sent their sick kiddo to school this week with a special "happy-first-week" present for my baby)! I had a very rare night of snuggling in bed with the little guy, although the imagined, cozy version of that event is much better than the reality of a tossing, turning little dude who likes to talk a lot in his sleep and who has unnaturally sharp toenails like his Papa. Needless to say, between that bedfellow, a husband whose allergies have him snoring this week, and the cuddle cat who literally likes to lay on my face during the winter, it wasn't the restful night sleep I needed. Thankfully there's coffee . . . oh, and more importantly, his fever was short-lived today; he even managed to get a couple of valentines made. He was not however feeling well enough to enjoy today's food. For breakfast, we had strawberry muffins drizzled with white chocolate and a heart-shaped frittata with bacon, red peppers, spring onions (thank you, co-op) and cheese. Yes, I know the heart shape is kinda over-the-top, but really, why have kids if you can't do silly things like that? For lunch, we had what we were GOING to have for supper last night before the house transformed to a pediatric ward - pork chops with an arugula pesto and mashed cauliflower (and, yes, that's a Woodchuck Cider lurking behind the plate that gave the food a happy, bubbly trip send-off to my tummy). I have to say the pesto MADE these chops today. I used arugula (thanks again, co-op), toasted cashews, parmesan, salt and EVOO, and the arugula/cashew combo is something to make your taste buds tingle (I can't wait to use the leftovers with some pasta later this week). The richness and slight sweetness to the cashews married perfectly with the arugula. It's almost 11 pm, and I'm still thinking about it. The pork chop juices and pesto mingled well with the the cauliflower too (COOOO-op) which was tasty too . . . I've made it in the past and wasn't real thrilled with it, but this recipe (adapted from Guy's on the Food Network website) was a great alternative to mashed potatoes. It uses part roasted cauliflower which I think made the difference. This would have been good with grits too. For supper, we were still too full to enjoy the surf-n-turf dinner I had planned, so I'll post photos of that tomorrow night if there's anything noteworthy . . . and now, as the day winds down, I think I'm going to put my laptop away a little early (I know 11 pm's not early, but it sounds better in my closing), see if my hubby will do the same (bye bye WoW), and hopefully have a little time for us to enjoy together before the work-week reality hits again in the morning. Happy early President's Day, y'all (whatever the heck that is)!