Dinner of Poppy Seeds and Lemon

The mention of "dinner", "poppy seeds", and "lemon" in the title might lead on to believe that I made some pasta or rice dish accompanied by a sauce of poppy seeds with lemon juice and zest. Or a salad with lemon poppyseed dressing. None of those was on the menu. In this case, dinner was breakfast.

Lemon poppy seed scones, to be exact.

These were made with a combination of all-purpose flour and King Arthur's cake flour blend, baking powder, the zest of two lemons, 40g of Dutch blue poppy seeds, an egg, cream, salt, and sugar.

At times, I tend to use bread flour instead of the KA cake flour blend for my scones. That will be my next experiment for a new version of these lemon poppy seed scones.

Close up using manual focus on macro lensAnd another version will be using all-purpose flour as the only flour. Whoever said you shouldn't play with food clearly did not know how to have fun.

Linguine Fini with Roasted Asparagus

Spring is around the corner. This means an abundance of asparagus and finding myriad ways to prepare it before the season is over.

Recipes need not be complicated or time consuming. Last night's dinner was simple, quick, and healthy. The ingredients are few and include the following:

::asparagus

::olive oil

::sea salt

::freshly ground pepper

::linguine fini

::butter

::shallots

::flat-leaf parsley

::parmesan

::lemon zest

In an oven heated to 425F, roast the asparagus with olive oil, salt, and pepper for 10 minutes, depending on size of spears. Let cool slightly after removing from oven. Chop into bite-size pieces.

Meanwhile, heat a large pot of water for the linguini fini. When it gets to a rolling boil, salt it with sea salt and add the pasta. As soon as it reaches al dente status, drain the water and leave pasta in colander.

In a large pan, heat about a tablespoon of unsalted butter and add one or two diced shallots. Season with salt and add the parsley. Cook for a few minutes until shallots soften. Remove from heat. Stir in pasta and asparagus. Transfer to bowl and top with freshly grated parmesan and lemon zest. Season with additional sea salt and pepper if needed.