Thursday, October 23, 2008

Taste & Create: Pesto Pasta

"When are you going to blog again?" was Mr. J's question to me a few days ago. "Soon.." was my non-committal response.

I have to admit, I've been stuck in a rut lately. After my trip to the Philippines, I never expected that I would have a hard time blogging again. Don't get me wrong, the desire to blog never left me, and I've never stopped cooking -- it's taking the time to write, take photos and posting them up that I wasn't inspired to do somehow. It's as if my blogging "mojo" was sucked out of me. Ha,ha...

I don't know how others are able to get back into the swing of things immediately after a long break, 'cause I'm finding out now that it is not easy, uh-oh. Not for me, at least.. But I know that I should not stay in this rut for long, so in an effort to take myself away from it, I have decided to once again particpate in
Taste & Create. I figured, it would be a good motivation for me to get out of this stupor and force myself to blog again, huh?
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For those who don't know, Taste and Create is a monthly blogging event where bloggers are paired up, and then the partners get to cook/bake something from each other's blogs. It's basically swapping recipes, if you ask me.)

And so here I am, barely making it to the deadline, but I'm here nevertheless. That's what matters, right?

For this month's
Taste and Create, I was paired of with Scrumptious of In My Box. Her blog is about the weekly CSA box that she gets from Eat Well Farm. It's not only a fascinating blog, but an enviable one as well. I wish I get the same fresh, organic produce regularly myself! Some people just have all the luck, huh? :o)

To keep things simple for me being that I'm not totally out of the rut yet, I decided to do her Pesto Pasta.... It looked so good to me and I needed something quick for lunch yesterday.
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Her pesto is a vegan version, though, and since I am not one, I decided to do the regular pesto. (Check out her recipe here) For this, I changed up the nutritional yeast to parmiggiano reggiano - which I absolutely love! And for the veggies, I roasted a mix of zucchini and squash which I added to the medley of tri-colored spirals along with halves of cherry tomatoes.

All together, this pasta made up for a really colorful, light, healthy and quick but flavorful lunch.

Thanks, Scrumptious, for taking me out of this rut! And thanks Min, for hosting this month's Taste and Create. You did a good job!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jescel! I am just writing up my experience with your recipe right this moment! I came to just look over your blog one more time and was like... hmm... that picture looks exactly like my favorite pesto pasta... what a crazy coincidence. But not a coincidence, of course,because it's your Taste & Create post!

I totally know what you mean about the rut. I've been having a really similar experience - still cooking and getting inspired that way but it seems like a drag instead of fun to photograph and post. Hopefully we'll both find our mojo again soon!

P.S. My name's not Corrie! For blog purposes it's Scrumptious, I'm not sure where Corrie came from. It sounds vaguely familiar as a food blogger's name but I can't put my finger on whose...

Jescel said...

Scrumptious... I am so sorry... I thought that your name is Corrie.. sorry to have mistaken you for someone else! :O(

Anonymous said...

No problem, Jescel! It can be tricky sometimes to track down people's names from their blogs. (Corrie Haffly! That's why that name sounded so familiar! She is another person who gets a box from Eatwell.)

If you love okra, you have to try the okra dish! The original recipe said it could be made with frozen okra - perhaps you'll be able to find that?

I'm so glad to have been introduced to your blog, I will definitely continue to follow your adventures.

Anonymous said...

Also, my post about your recipe is up! I made it just before the deadline...

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you're back blogging again. Looks like you're already back in the swing of things :)