• Roasted butternut squash quesadillas from Two Blue Lemons make me wish it was still butternut squash season. I might have to substitute another vegetable so I can make this with some of the Rancho Gordo black beans that are currently in my cupboard. http://www.twobluelemons.com/2010/04/roasted-butternut-squash-quesadillas.html
• I would like to come home to Southwest Mac and Cheese With a Cornbread Crust after a long-ass bike ride – http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/04/seriously-meatless-southwest-mac-and-cheese-with-a-cornbread-crust-recipe.html
• This Provencal Calamari Salad with Tarragon and Mint from Serious Eas might actually get me to overcome my making calamari fear – http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/04/french-in-a-flash-provencal-calamari-salad-with-tarragon-and-mint-recipe.html
• Will someone please make me some fluffy ricotta pancakes from the Kitchn? http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/breakfast/recipe-fluffy-ricotta-pancakes-048085
• Quinoa crackers with seeds from Gluten Free Girl are an aspirational baking recipe I might actually make someday – http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2010/04/qunioa-crackers-with-seeds.html
• Strawberry shortcake sliders from Simply Recipes are a dessert I will dream of until the mother lode of strawberries hits Minneapolis later this spring – http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/strawberry_shortcake_sliders/
• Mmm… brown butter. Caramelized Brown Butter Rice Crisp Treats from Shelterrific – http://www.shelterrific.com/2010/03/31/real-life-test-kitchen-caramelized-brown-butter-rice-crisp-treats/
• With all of the delicious bread Ian has been banking, I could see us winding up with some stale bread, which would be delightful in this Tortino di Cioccolato from Serious Eats – http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/03/tortino-di-cioccolato-how-to-use-stale-bread-recipe.html

I also enjoy daydreaming about making my own dairy-based, especially after reading Milk. The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages by Ann Mendelson last year. That is the only book that has ever made me miss my bus stop on the way home, and it doesn’t really even have what you could call a plot.This book, and the fact that Minneapolis doesn’t recycle yogurt containers, inspired us (mostly Ian) to start making our own yogurt. The other good thing about library books is that they can only inspire modest heights of insanity with new dairy-based hobbies, because they have to go back to the library before things can get too crazy. Usually, the crazy wears off before I spend money on a book.

Anyway, I was interested to try making the ricotta recipe that is a key part of a larger Capellini with Fresh Ricotta meal idea, also from Serious Eats. A meal idea which I rounded out with caesar dressing, making for a yummy dinner and a Serious Eats grand slam. Weird.

The caesar dressing was more to my taste than my previous attempt, using smitten kitchen’s recipe. I think the key was the anchovies, which surprises me because I don’t think of myself as someone who likes anchovies, but apparently they are the secret to success. And I only used them because they were left over from making Bitty’s pasta puttanesca last week. So, anchovies=key.

It was a pretty fun science experiment to make ricotta (okay, “ricotta”) in the microwave. It really is amazingly easy. And I used the whey to make a smoothy the next day, so no wasted whey. Although I think it would be hard to use up the whey if I made vast quantities of this.

It was also novel to eat non-whole wheat pasta, since either they don’t make whole wheat capellini, or Ian chose not to buy the whole wheat stuff. Either way, the combination of white pasta and a basic sauce, and the super fresh cheese, made for a brightly flavored dinner that came together pretty quickly and easily. This also strikes me as the kind of meal that would work really well for a family with kids who are picky eaters. Not that I’d know from that, since we are a family with dogs who are notoriously unpicky eaters.