Sugar Pea Pasta with White Wine Sauce

Remember me? I used to come here several times a week to share recipes and foods. Well…you might have noticed that I’ve been absent for awhile now. My last post was (gasp) over a month ago. I never intended to stay away so long, but now I’m back with an interesting story and a fabulous recipe. First the story. Do you remember way back in mid-April when I announced that my husband and I were planning on selling our house with the intention of living and traveling in our airstream for several years? We did it! That’s right- our house sold in the unbelievably short time of two weeks, the closing was six weeks later, and here we are today one and half weeks into our journey. So you can understand why I haven’t had much time for food blogging. In fact, the last two weeks before the closing I barely had time to cook anything beyond slapping together a random sandwich with whatever happened to be hanging out in the fridge. Things have changed though. Life has slowed to a pleasant pace and I’m more than ready to jump back into cooking. And thrilled that I once again have time to share my recipes with you. As with everything in life, my new living situation is not without challenges. The biggest one so far has been adjusting to my ultra mini traveling kitchen.Here is the kitchen in our aristream. As you can see it’s kind of, umm…small, tiny, microscopic. Surprisingly functional though. Everything has a place and I mean come on- two square feet of counter space is enough to cook anything right? Hmm…maybe not. I’m making it work though. I have a custom cutting board that fits nicely over one side of the sink and a fold up counter extension to the left of the stove where I usually assemble my ingredients before cooking. This is actually a great space because it’s right in front of the door which means enough light comes in to take an okay picture.

Tiny kitchen challenge aside, life in the airstream is wonderful! Travel, nature, adventure, new people, new foods, what could be better? My hope for this space is that it will turn into a sort of traveling cooking blog. A place where I can share my culinary adventures as I seek out local foods and turn them into meals. Sometimes I will share stories of the places we visit, such as wineries or farms, and sometimes I will just share the cooking part. I have a ton of exciting ideas, like a grilling series (dessert on the grill anyone?), a tiny kitchen cake baking challenge, an all local feast, and much,much more. I hope you will enjoy following along on my journey as much as I will enjoy sharing it with you. Oh! I almost forgot, if you want to see more pictures of our airstream or learn more about our traveling adventures hop on over to our travel blog at watsonswander.com.

Now on to the recipe. We spent all of last week in the Finger Lakes region of NY. If you don’t already know, this area is famous for it’s wines. There are wineries everywhere!  Most of them are conveniently located along the shores of the lakes with gorgeous views of vineyards that slope down to the water below. Kind of like this.

There are so many wineries that you could literally spend days trying to visit them all. We only went to one, but judging by the amount of buses and limos we saw in the parking lot plenty of people hire someone to drive them around for the day while they go from spot to spot tasting wines till they can no longer stand (just kidding- we only saw one group of girls who looked like they might fall over). We chose Three Brothers Wineries on the shores of Seneca Lake. In part because it was only a 15 minute drive from where we were staying, but also because at one location you can visit three different wineries and one brewery. After tasting wines at two of the wineries we wandered out into the vineyard for a close up look at the grapes. This time of year they are still small, hard and green. I bet it’s really cool to come here in the fall when the grapes are ripe.

I was very good and only purchased one bottle of wine. I also couldn’t resist buying some tasty local cheese and a bottle of grapeseed oil. The Finger Lakes wines tend to be on the sweeter side. I think this has something to do with the climate and what kind of grapes grow best here. Sweet wine is okay for sipping with dessert, but for the most part I prefer my wine less sweet and more dry. Which is why the bottle I brought home was the driest one we tasted.

I also chose this wine with the intention of using it for cooking. A few days before I visited a farm stand where I picked up some local sugar snap peas. Peas + wine + pasta = a simple, yummy meal.

Before leaving Vermont I was lucky enough to have been gifted a lovely traveling herb garden. Fresh herbs are such a luxury while traveling, and yes, that is a hot pepper you see in the back.

Armed with my NY wine, local sugar peas and fresh from the campsite Italian parsley, I set out to make a simple meal. Just look at the setting where I got to enjoy it!

Print Recipe

Whole Wheat Peanut Noodles

Spring Fever! The sun is shinning, the birds are singing, the grass is greening and I’m feeling the urge to get out and enjoy it. So I did. Yesterday I gleefully went outside and raked my lawn wearing shorts and a tank top! Now I have a beautiful leaf-free lawn and a blister on each hand. Oh the things we put ourselves through for a pretty patch of green in the backyard.

I also made my way down to The Farm Store and picked up a gorgeous bag of fresh organic produce. Thanks Jen for bringing this wonderful resource to our community. Can’t wait to see what goodies you have next week.
Feeling inspired by my purchases and the warm weather I decided a cold pasta salad was just what the day called for. A pasta salad that only takes 15 minutes to make and is packed with a little sweet, a little spice and a little salt. What more could you want in life. Peanut noodles can be made using practically any combo of vegetables. Because lets be honest…anything smothered in peanut butter is good…right? The only rule I follow is to use at least one crunchy vegetable to offset the chewy noodles and creamy peanut sauce. Snap peas, sweet red pepper or even broccoli will do the tick. This time I went with thinly sliced carrots and combined them with a European cucumber and some lovely scallions. Perfect.
Veggies get sliced…matchstick style for the carrots and cukes, little round slices for the scallions. Don’t worry if your matchsticks aren’t perfectly shaped. No one cares.
Peanut sauce with lots of lime and sweet chili paste!
Peanut sauce + veggies + noodles = Peanut veggie noodles! Simple, simple, simple. Now I can go back outside and give myself some more blisters. Enjoy.

Print Recipe

Roasted Veggie Lasagna (Gluten-free)

I don’t know about you but after all the sugary treats I’ve been stuffing my face with the last few weeks, I really need a hearty dose of veggies in my life. Besides, I am about to indulge in the next snack-filled, champagne drenched holiday so I figured there was just enough time to squeeze a healthy meal in there. And let me tell you, this gluten-free, mega veggie filled lasagna fits the bill perfectly. Gluten-free lasagna? That’s right, I wasn’t messing around with this one. This is a full out health fest on your plate…oh, except for the cheese…lots of ohhy gooey cheese. What, how healthy did you expect me to go? Technically it is still the “holidays”. We’ll eat salad next week, I promise. For now though I am satisfied that I got in my veggies, even if they were covered in melted cheese.

Back to the gluten-free part though. If you’re like me the idea of a gluten-free noodle conjures up images of a gummy, mushy mess that tastes more like soggy socks than an actual noodle. Well, I am here to tell you that you (and I) are wrong. I found these wonderful brown rice noodles and used them in my lasagna exactly how I would have used the regular wheat based noodles. Guess what? They tasted exactly the same! Not only that, but the texture was the same and I swear If someone made this for me and didn’t tell me it was gluten free I would never know the difference.
Does this mean I am ready to go gluten-free? Ha! That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Let’s not get carried away now. I am far too much in love with bread to ever even consider this silly idea. But it was fun to experiment and I will definitely be using these noodles again.

Let’s get back to the veggies.  Here they are ready for roasting.

And here they are after roasting- yumm!

The cheesy mixture

All layered up

More cheese on top!

Out of the oven…

and with a glass of wine!

Print Recipe