Vegetarian Pastitsio
We got a lovely big bunch of silverbeet in this week’s Food Connect box that I wanted to use up while it was still fresh. I also had a couple zucchini in the fridge from last week. A quick Google search on the bus home from work (thank you iPhone!) led me to this: Vegetarian Pastitsio. It’s a baked pasta dish with sauteed silverbeet, zucchini, and garlic topped with a nummy bechamel sauce. We had nearly all the ingredients already. “This dish is perfect comfort food during the colder months,” Peter blogged. Done and done!

The recipe isn’t terribly exact, but it was easy enough to follow. I separated the silverbeet stalks from the leaves and cooked the stalks first, reckoning they’d take a little longer. Then I threw in the zucchini, and then the chopped up leaves. I used two gloves of garlic, a pinch of dried chilli flakes, and salt and pepper to taste. (If you like a lot of garlic, maybe go an extra clove. I wish I did.) I used penne for the pasta, and I just eyeballed how much to cook. (It was probably about 400g or so.) The pasta and greens went into my baking dish along with a couple scoops of Greek yoghurt (I didn’t bother draining it), a beaten egg, some freshly ground nutmeg, and a scattering of cheese. While that was cooling, I made the bechamel and loaded that up with more nutmeg and cheese. The bechamel went on in a thick layer over the top. I baked it in a hot oven (probably about 190C) for about 30 minutes til the top went lovely brown and crusty. It made eight generous portions! Very tasty and warming on a cold wintry night…

Rules of the House. So true. Our cats don’t want to curl up with us, though. They have both figured out that the funny metal thing at the end of the bed mysteriously gets hot at the same time every night, so they’ve taken to sleeping near it.

Babies, babies!
Congratulations to my brother Anthony and his wife Kara, who are expecting their third child. (Good grief! Between the Howards and the Carbos, we’ve now achieved an actual basketball team. Tall, hearty Midwestern stock, every single one of ’em!)

And additional congratulations to a knitter friend of mine in Sydney, who is expecting her second. (She hasn’t blogged it yet, so it’s still on the down-low.)

“Living in denial: Why sensible people reject the truth.” Fascinating article about people who reject vaccines, evolution, global warming, tobacco research, and more. (And yes, Mr. Snook, I count people who think that there is a secret cabal of evil dentists promoting the removal of wisdom teeth as a money-making scheme amongst the conspiracy theorists!)

Food Connect Sydney
Last night when I got home I headed over to Michael’s house to pick up our first box from Food Connect Sydney. We had previously gotten veggie boxes from the Chippendale Fresh Food Co-Op, but the Snook hasn’t been thrilled with the quality recently. It’s also more of a hike to pick them up at Central. When Michael blogged about Food Connect recently, we decided to give them a try. It’s a little more expensive, but they’ve got some nice perks (like managing your account online). Just about everything is certified organic too, which is nice. I also like their blog and the notes about where the food comes from. The quality looks good and it’s definitely convenient. So far so good!