Warm Corn and Bell Pepper Salad with Asparagus

Today Amateur Omnivore is guest posting for fellow blogger But I'm Hungry while she is taking a little baby-moon with her newborn daughter.

Check out this tasty vegetable side dish here and while your at it check out Christina's genius Creme Brulee Cheesecake and  Chipotle Sweet Potato Chowder!

Lombardo's Vine and Dine Dinner

Our recent Vine and Dine dinner at Lombardo was such a treat.  The food courses were thoughtfully paired with wines from Arrowhead Spring Vineyard and Leonard Oakes Estate Winery and I really appreciate when you can tell that a lot of love and planning went into a meal, as was the case with this one.  To read more about this meal, check out Nittany Epicurean.

Scallops Two Ways and Margarita Jello

I absolutely love scallops.  I love the delicate texture and the sweet, mild flavor and I love trying new preparations for them.  I've had them prepared with with hot sauce, with pasta, with vinaigrettes, with corn, with grapefruit, with prosciutto, with strawberries, with cream sauces and with sweet potatoes and cranberries.  I'm trying to say that they pair well with a lot of other foods and flavors.

Scallops tend to be a 'special occasion' meal at our house because of the heftier price tag compared to other seafood, but they're easy and quick to make at home.  If you haven't done this before, the trick is to just keep an eye on your pan.

Agave

Remember that first really nice Saturday this Spring?  Ellen, my friend and recurring star in this blog, and I took full advantage of it and had a fun girls day out.  We ran errands, shopped around at the mall, picked up the petticoat for under her wedding dress, drove around Hertel, hit up a flea market, walked around Elmwood and ended up eating lunch at Agave.

Sitting there at the bar, the sun pouring through windows and keeping us toasty warm, spanish guitars drifting through the speakers, drinking margaritas (hers frozen strawberry, mine regular on the rocks, both with salt), it felt like we were on vacation in Mexico.  We were there for two hours but I could have stayed for four, it just felt good in there.

The Garage Deli

The Garage Deli, on Kenmore Avenue next to Torches, is open weekdays for lunch.  Owned and cheffed by the Richert family, you just sort of know that your meal is going to be a treat.

I thought I would never get the opportunity to eat here.  It's a little too far from work to trek over for lunch, but I am a lucky girl.  Ellen (yes, Curly's, Martin Cooks and Agave Ellen), is a teacher and on her week off for spring break she offered to pick up lunch from The Garage for both of us and meet me somewhere closer to my work to chow down.

Homemade Fettuccine

The very first time I made pasta was on a whim.  I had the ingredients.  I had the time.  I had the enthusiasm.  I did not have the equipment.

It was half a disaster.  I made spinach linguine and it tasted good.  Kneaded by hand, rolled by hand (technically: rolled by wine bottle [hey, you use what you've got...]) and cut by hand.  So far so good.  But I almost wish I had a photo so you could see the embarrassingly uneven strands of linguine I made.  We're talking widths ranging from half a spaghetti noodle to half a lasagna noodle.  Shameful.  Let's move on.

For Valentine's day last year, I was thrilled when my husband bought me the pasta roller attachments for my Kitchenaid Mixer.  Turns out, the right tools can make a world of difference.