Spaghetti with lime and rocket (arugula). And vacation!

Yes, I’m officially on vacation, yay!

My plane leaves next Sunday, Sep 9, and you won’t be seeing me for a while. I’ll miss your wonderful visits and comments, not to mention visiting your fantastic blogs.



Before I go, I’d like to submit this pasta dish to this Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Katie, of Thyme for Cooking, the Blog.

See you guys in three weeks!

Spaghetti with lime and rocket
adapted from Flavours

450g (14oz) spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon shredded lime zest
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed
8 bacon rashers
150g (5oz) rocket (arugula), shredded
3 tablespoons lime juice
dried chillies, in flakes*
grated parmesan, to serve

Cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of rapidly boiling salted water until al dente. Drain.
While the spaghetti is cooking, place the bacon rashers on a plate, between paper towels and cook in the microwave oven until cooked and crisp. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the lime zest, garlic and capers and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the spaghetti to the pan and toss to coat and heat through. Crush the bacon rashers into pieces and add to the pasta.
To serve, toss the rocket, lime juice and dried chillies through the pasta and pile into serving bowls. Top with the parmesan.

* use them accordingly to your taste, some are quite hot

Serves 4

Melting moments (or how I can’t pipe to save my life)

Before I tell you guys about the cookies above, I’d like to answer one question made by a lovely friend of mine (too bad her blog is in Portuguese, she writes beautifully) – she asked me which are my all time favorite songs. I have been thinking of it for almost a week now and came up with the following list - which I think I’ll regret the moment I hit the “publish post” button:

- Reel around the fountain - Smiths
- A new flame – Simply Red
- Loving you hating me – Soft Cell
- The 7th stranger – Duran Duran (the Arena live version)
- Walking on broken glass – Annie Lennox

Now, the food: I made these small boxes of cookies for my sister’s birthday party – she gave them away as gifts for her guests.
Everything was going well until I had to pipe the cookies onto the baking sheet. I had never seen so many deformed cookies in my entire life. They looked awful!
I baked the first batch anyway, somehow hoping they would morph into something pretty while in the oven – which of course never happened, since I’m not telekinetic.

I shaped the rest of the dough using 2 spoons. Everybody loved their little gifts and kept saying how cute they looked and how delicious they tasted and all I kept thinking was “you should have seen my face by the time I finished these…”

If you want to see some really beautiful melting moments, check the ones the sweet and talented Valentina made the other day.

Melting moments
adapted from Modern Classics Book 2

175g (6oz) butter, softened
¼ cup (32g) confectioner’s sugar
grated zest of 1 lime
1 cup (135g) all purpose flour, sifted
¼ cup (25g) cornstarch, sifted

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Place the butter, icing sugar and zest in a bowl and beat with electric beaters until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour and cornstarch until combined.
Place the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a fluted nozzle. Pipe 3cm (1in) round onto a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper, allowing room for spreading.
Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden. Cool on trays.

Makes 32