She told me about what she thinks about her body; that people at her table are talking about getting married. She listens to my feedback about her effort at soccer practice and asks me to speak in a more calm voice (I wasn’t yelling for the record, but I do get passionate when I want to make a point. That point being: please act like you want to be there). He wants me to listen to the fart joke in his audio book or the techno song that he likes, even though it “feels stressful” (it does). He tears up over feeling like everyone at school just argues over football rules everyday and remarks he wants to live with us forever. I get so much from them at bed time, like everyone is ready to unload, and maybe this is a season, and one I’ll miss if it is, but when did they become people? Messy ones who still need to be reminded to put their clothes away 385798410 times, but these complicated feelings over friendship and motivation and little and big questions are pretty remarkable. I am planning some travel for a few book events, and it struck me how much I really love the ages of our kids. It’s so much easier now – they’re more flexible to take along, their thoughts are interesting and funny. I’d want to be both of their friends if I got to go back to elementary school. Curran is turning 10, I’m turning 40, a book that feels like it took forever to make it finally coming out this Spring and in a good way, it feels more like New Years than January did. At a glance, zooming out, asking questions and reorienting perspective. Here we are, and isn’t that just amazing.

All those memes about how people hate that bloggers write musings instead of just post recipes. It’s not always for you, dearest recipe searcher, sometimes the writing is just as much the connection as the food is, so you’re going to have to bear with me. Many people I know who connect through making people food, are also writers and thinkers and communicators, so it’s a package deal, folks. It’s pillow talk and pasta over here.

Speaking of the cookbook! Most every recipe in there has a photo except for, maybe 4? There are factors that contribute like page count and price etc. so a few final shots just didn’t make it in. Unfortunately, no photo usually means less intrigue and the recipe can get overlooked, so I’m going to highlight one of my favorites here. I love pasta with lots of bits in it and this one is heavy on the bits. My kids will eat this, picking around the extra kale and Cleo won’t actually like it, but they eat it. Either way, I do think you should put this one on your list soon.

I also wanted to post a few dates for some cookbook events coming up around the time of publishing. If you live in any of these areas, I would really love to meet you! If more get added, I will include them here as a landing page.

April 30th – Kitchen Lingo in Long Beach, CA 6pm
May 3rd – Vivienne’s in Portland, OR 5pm
May 5th – IG with Aran Goyoaga of Cannelle et Vanille
May 6th – Book Larder in Seattle with Ashley Rodriguez, WA 6:30 pm
May 9th – HOM in Dana Point, CA 6pm
May 15th – Preorder Incentive Class at 12pm PST with Laura of The First Mess
(sign up!)

June 22st – Olivia and Daisy in Carmel, CA 1pm

PASTA with ROASTED CAULIFLOWER, CHORIZO + WINTER PESTO

Serves 4

A dish that has excellent ROI with your cooking time, it is filling and textured and has lots of vegetables. You may end up with more kale pesto than you need for this recipe, but it has lots of other uses, such as with eggs, atop roast potatoes, or as a veggie sandwich spread. We don’t want the fresh sausage-like chorizo in tube form; instead, look for a dry chorizo, typically from Spain, not Mexico, that you will find in a well stocked cheese and deli section. It looks like salami.
I do think sucessful dinner prep takes a bit of planning. The pesto can be made a few days in advance to save time. Vegetarian? Replace the chorizo with some chopped, sun dried tomatoes.

Printed from Around Our Table by Sara Forte

FOR THE WINTER PESTO
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup cilantro or parsley
1 packed cup lacinato kale, deribbed and chopped
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

FOR THE CAULIFLOWER
1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. dried oregano
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

2 oz. dried chorizo, cut in 1” ribbons
1 small bundle lacinato kale, deribbed and cut in ribbons

12 oz. any short pasta
half of one lemon

grated parmesan, red pepper flakes, fresh parsley, for garnish

Make the kale pesto. In a food processor, pulse the garlic, pine nuts and lemon juice together. Add the cilantro and/or parsley, chopped kale, salt and pepper, and run it again until well chopped. With the motor going, drizzle in the olive oil and parmesan cheese. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Preheat the oven to 425’. On a rimmed baking sheet, pile the cauliflower, and drizzle it with the olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Toss well to coat and roast for 30 minutes until the edges are toasty. To the baking sheet, add the chorizo and kale ribbons, toss everything to coat. If the sheet looks dry, add another drizzle of oil. Roast an additional 3 minutes to warm. Set aside.

Cook your pasta according to instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot with a few heaping spoonfuls of the pesto and a giant splash of the pasta water. Stir to mix, we want it generously sauced. Add the contents of the baking sheet, squeeze of fresh lemon and stir again. Add more pesto if you’d like or more pasta water to loosen things up.

Serve portions with a generous sprinkling of parmesan, red pepper flakes, a grind of pepper and some fresh parsley.