Marrying into Food

Dinner tonight made Kevin remark "Have I told you how glad I am to be marrying someone who knows how to cook?". I can't take all of the credit though. Nick over at Macheesmo really knows his stuff. I made two of his recipes tonight. Tapenade Grilled Cheese and Pesto Quinoa Salad.



For the cheese in the sandwich I used some smoked fontina and asiago we had hanging around. Unfortunately it didn't melt all that well, but it was still quite tasty. This was my first foray into tapenade and I was surprised at how easy it is to make. It will definitely be considered more often for appetizers and bread toppings.

The real star of the night though was definitely the pesto quinoa salad. I saw this recipe last week and thought it might be a nice change of pace from sandwiches for lunch. I forgot the parsley and didn't have any beets on hand but the salad was damn fine without it. It was filling, hearty, healthy and friggin' good. There's definitely enough left to munch on for lunch this week. Kevin has declared that it needs to be made next time we need to bring a dish somewhere. Quinoa has also redeemed itself to me. It's definitely not as boring as I thought it was the first time I cooked with it.

The downside to follow the Macheeso blog is my grocery bill is getting very high. Ingredients like sundried tomatoes, pine nuts, basil, olives, red peppers and good bread gets expensive very quickly. It's worth it though when dinner is as good as it was tonight.