Back with a Vengence

Whew! So what was supposed to be a week or so on my unofficial blogging break has turned into nearly a month. But I gotta say, it's been refreshing. And yet now, my brain is literally spilling over with new post ideas. I have enough ideas, most of them paired with photos, to keep this blog fresh for at least a month! (Now if I can just keep current with uploading my photos, hmm...)

"What about your computer, Foodie? Is it still being a royal pain in the arse?" Well our laptop has been demoted from "Royal Pain in the Arse" to "Moderately Annoying Pain in the Arse." We replaced our power source, which really did need to be replaced, and whadda ya know...we're still having problems! We suspect the internal battery is going caput. So it's better than it was, but still running annoyingly slower than normal. Again, I reiterate the "grrr" from my previous post!

So to whet your appetite for my upcoming posts, let me leave you with a recipe that I recently concocted. It's so very simple--only 4 ingredients--and super tasty. Go to town with this one!

Farfalle with Pesto, Chicken Sausage and Goat Cheese

• 1 lb. dry farfalle (bowtie) pasta
• 1 lb. (approx.) fully-cooked chicken sausage (see note below)
• 1/2 cup store-bought pesto (approx.)
• 4 oz. crumbled goat cheese

Bring salted water to a boil in a large stockpot; cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, brown the chicken sausage in a skillet over medium-high heat, turning so that they brown evenly on all sides (about 5-8 minutes total). Remove sausage from pan and slice the links into 1/4-inch thick slices.

When pasta is finished cooking, reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta water before draining. Drain pasta and return it to the pot. Add the pesto, goat cheese and reserved water to the pasta; gently mix until combined. Then add the sliced sausage and gently toss. Serve immediately.

Yield: 8 servings

**Note: Fully cooked chicken sausage links are now available at most mainstream grocery stores, and are also available at specialty markets, such as Whole Foods. Of course, I'm sure nobody is surprised to hear that I purchased mine at Trader Joe's. They have about 7 or 8 different varieties of chicken sausage, including Roasted Garlic and Sweet Basil, both of which were excellent.