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Here are pictures from my baked chicken of this evening. I will post on it soon, I promise. Probably tomorrow, but at the latest on Tuesday. Raw first. Then after cooking.

Pasta Primavera

It's spring, and the vegetables I can get are just flat out gorgeous. I made this lovely vegetarian primavera to celebrate the season. After eating this (So fresh! So Flavorful!) and seeing how easy it truly is, I will NEVER order it in a restaurant again. This version took me about half an hour (including cutting time!) and served DH and me three times each, so I guess that means it serves 6, or 4 really hungry people.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb short-cut pasta (I think you're supposed to use farfalle but I used rotini)
olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced (You might want to use 1 and 1/2, it was REALLY garlicky)
Fresh vegetables, varied. I used:
1 cup frozen peas
1 orange pepper, broken into large pieces
10 stalks spring asparagus
2 cups chopped broccoli
2 yellow squash, sliced
For the sauce:
3 Tbsp butter (that works out to 1/2 a tbsp per serving, so stop fainting)
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup 1% milk
8-10 fresh basil leaves, torn
1 handful grated parmesan cheese and extra to grate on top

1. First, I put cut up my vegetables and had them all ready to go.
2. Put water for the pasta on to boil. Once it boils, add some salt, then the pasta.
3. Start the vegetables. In a large saucepan, I ran the olive oil around the pan a couple times. Over medium high heat, I sauteed the shallot and garlic. When they got soft and slightly browned, I added in the frozen peas. Once the frost evaporated, I added the rest of the veggies, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cooked until crisp-tender.
4. Start the sauce. I used a separate pan, but you could easily push the veggies aside and make the sauce right in your veggie saucepan. Melt the butter, then whisk in the flour. Cook for a couple minutes so the flour doesn't taste raw. Then add your milk and basil so you end up with a basil-scented milk sauce. Add a tiny amount of salt and generous amount of pepper. Melt in your cheese.
5. Check your pasta, and drain it when it's just on the crunchy side of al dente. Toss the pasta, sauce, and vegetables together. Check the seasoning. Turn off the heat, scoop into bowls, and add a smattering of freshly grated parmesan. Enjoy!

Austro-Hungarian Casserole

This is a silly name for a yummy, comfort food dish. I made it up to use up some stuff in my fridge, but the end result was really good, so I'm sharing.

Austro-Hungarian Casserole
First layer:
1 bag sauerkraut
olive oil
celery salt
paprika
salt and pepper
honey mustard
white wine mustard

1. Drain the sauerkraut. Turn on the oven at 350F. Heat a saucepan over medium high heat and pour in about a tablespoon of oil. Brown the sauerkraut. Sprinkle liberally with celery salt, salt and pepper, and paprika. Pour out the sauerkraut into a 9x5 baking pan. When you have it laying flat, squeeze out lines of mustard on top. I did a crosshatch pattern so in some places my white wine mustard and my honey mustard combined. That's the closest you can get to sweet mustard from Austria without buying "senf" in tubes (cheaper too).

Second Layer:
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
paprika
salt and pepper

1. Using the same pan as the sauerkraut, pour in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook the onion and pepper, stirring frequently, until glassy. Add LOTS of paprika. Your onions should turn orange. Season with salt and pepper. This is the layer I found myself sneaking tastes of out of the pan. 2. Pour over the sauerkraut. Don't mix.

Third Layer
kielbasa (however much you want, I was almost out when I created this recipe)

1. Cook your kielbasa according to package directions. I was using precooked, so I browned the edges using Rachael Ray's method. It's murder on your pan, but the sausage casings get nice and crisp. She has you put about an inch of water in a pan and a drizzle of olive oil. Then put in the sausages over medium high heat and leave them be. Once all the water evaporates, turn the sausages frequently. Try to get the casings crisp before the oil and fat turn to black sludge. :)
2. Pour out the sausages and any fat you managed to salvage over the casserole. Put the whole casserole in the oven for 20 minutes. Serve in bowls and stir up to your own satisfaction, or leave it in layers.

Voila! You have made a delicious, definitely eastern-European tasting comfort food. Next time I'm going to saute in some turnip greens or kale in the green pepper/onion layer. :)