When The Cupboards Are Bare . . .

Lately around these parts there is no food.  I blame it on a couple of things:  First, I have children who are growing and eating way too much. Second, I have no motivation to go to the grocery store or cook because we are never together for dinner due to our busy schedules.  I’m grumpy about it, can you tell?  Third, we had a crazy ant problem for a while there and I figured if there was no food in the house maybe they’d go away.

So the other night dinner rolled around and due to rain and practice cancellations, we were all here together. But I had no food. Ugg.

I had been roasting some cherry tomatoes for a good portion of the afternoon. When I said I had no food, I should have clarified. I had a Costco sized tub of cherry tomatoes. Unfortunately,if cherry tomatoes were the only food in the house, five of us would starve and only RedDog would survive.

I dug up the rest of the makeshift dinner from the freezer and darkest corners of the fridge – the last of my pine nut stash (toasted, natch) a half a jar of pesto, the last of the cream (heaven help my thighs), a tablespoon of buttah and a sorry little quarter wedge of parmesan cheese. A box of penne and two cloves of garlic finished my happy accident off.

I sauteed the garlic with the tomatoes in some olive oil for a bit.  Then I combined the cream, pesto and butter together into a nice sauce. Once that had thickened I added all of the parmesan.  I dumped the cooked pasta, the sauteed garlic and tomatoes and the pine nuts into a bowl.  Then I poured on the sauce.

The point of this rambling post?  My dinner made from nothing when the cupboards were bare ended up being so delicious! Owlie ate two huge bowls full. We fought over who would get the leftovers for lunch the next day. Hannie B. licked the bowl clean!

I will definitely be adding this made up recipe to my pasta arsenal.  It was so good to be together for dinner.  I’ve repented of my bare cupboard ways and now must get off the computer and go grocery shopping.

Happy Monday!

ps.  Sad photographs, I know.  There is no such thing as a good photo in my kitchen at night after dark.