(Greek) Yogurt Panna Cotta with Fresh Fruit

I am a dessert person. I can eat dessert any time of day. And usually the more decadent the better. Chocolate cake for breakfast? I'm your girl.

So it may surprise you to find out that one of my favorite desserts is panna cotta. The smooth, simple, tinged-with-vanilla cooked-cream dessert transports me. It has a firmness that créme brûlée lacks, a set texture that wobbly flan and créme caramel can't even come close to. It is a creamy "spoon dessert" that other spoon desserts don't hold a candle to in my world.

And when you take panna cotta and replace the cream with milk bolstered with yogurt, you get a dessert that really can be eaten for a midday snack or even for breakfast without much guilt. Top it with fruit and you're basically just having some really decadent yogurt (that's what I told myself anyway).

Soup Sundays: Soba Noodle Soup With Ginger-Scallion Broth

One thing I don't cook enough of is Asian food. I go nuts over a bowl of good pad Thai and love other Asian noodle dishes, dumplings, sushi, soups, and so on, but I don't tend to cook much of it at home besides simple stir-fries and fried rice. I feel like I need someone to take me to an Asian market and help me stock my pantry, and then I would just go to town making Asian food, especially anything with noodles.

Happy Valentine's Day 2014!

A Seafood-Laden Dinner At Row 34

Shrimp slider with chipotle and bread and butter pickles

Soup Sundays: Hearty Minestrone Soup

Two weekends ago I came down with a really horrible cold (and I am just finally starting to feel better, which is why you haven't heard much from me lately). All I wanted was to stay curled up on the couch with a blanket and some hot tea. And I wanted soup. I had actually made chicken soup the week before because Jeff was sick (yup, he passed his cold on to me), so I didn't want the traditional cold-curing soup. I was really craving vegetables (probably my body's way of asking for vitamins), so I turned to an old recipe for a hearty, herby minestrone soup that I had posted years ago.