Some recent recipes and creations I came up with for your visual stimulation.
The first is a boneless leg of lamb stuffed with vegetables and garlic and cooked on my brothers Texas smoker. Very very good...basically the veggies steam in the moisture generated from the meat. I also did some smoked white cheddar that was incredible as well but alas I failed to take a picture of it.
Next couple of items were a pasta dish I did the other night as well as one my wife's favorite side dishes. We used 1/2 regular penne pasta and 1/2 whole wheat penne pasta just to be healthy. I made a meat sauce using sausage sans casing sauteed with sauteed, mushrooms, yellow and green peppers, and some other goodies I had in the veggie drawer. For the bread I admit I cheated, I used the garlic butter they give you from Zankou chicken and topped it with some fresh parmesan. I actually tried it both ways-once with fresh grated parmesan and one using the powdered store bought pre grated parmesan. Oddly enough for garlic bread, the store bought stuff is much better IMO as the texture really makes the bread.
As for this dish, my wife sautee's Shitake and Enoki Mushrooms with bacon and asparagus. It is arguably one of my favorite sides and works equally well with italian or asian dishes. I bought some cheap wine at Trader Joes for the occasion but it was horrible. It was french table wine called L' Authentique and was cheap enough but in this case it wasn't a diamond in the rough as much as it was a rough in the rough. The second bottle was much better and also cheap called La Boca Merlot. Not outstanding but for 2.99 a bottle a great value for an every day drinker.
