Corn, Tomato, and Lima Bean Stew

Dr. Sanjay Gupta would SO approve. Look at all those colors! I haven't made this dish for ages, and I have no idea why. It's very simple to make, extremely tasty, and highly nutritious.

I took the easy option and went with frozen lima beans, but when it comes to corn, 99% of the time I buy corn in their husks and cut the fresh kernels off the cob. Next summer I'm gonna find out if I can grow corn on our terrace. Talk about an effective privacy screen -- I hear it can grow as high as an elephants eye!

Without Tommie's input I'm going to give this one 4.5 stars. I love it, but it has a bit of half-and-half in it, and Tommie is not such a fan of The Dairy. Really it's only a tiny bit of the cream just to add another layer of flavor to the dish, but my guess is that he gives this one a rating somewhere in the 3-4 star range. To be continued...

Spinach and Pesto Risotto

When the cat's away the mice will play... WITH THE CHEESE!!!!! So, Tommie's out of town, and I thought to myself, CHEESE! (Tommie, if this is too much for you, step away from the blog.)

My good friend, who I will refer to as Memily, in case she would like anonymity, came over this afternoon, and we made Jack's Spinach and Pesto Risotto. I can never make anything like this when Tommie's home, due to the CHEESE factor, so we took advantage of the opportunity.

This was my first risotto, and, no surprise-- thank you Jack, it came out delicious. Jack has an incredibly delicious pesto recipe in the book that is an ingredient in the dish. If I had made the pesto in advance, the risotto would have taken maybe 30 minutes or so to make. But since we were making it an afternoon of hanging out and cooking, we made the pesto first. Fabulous pesto. I, of course, gave the leftover pesto to Memily to take home, because Tommie would be horrified to find its yummy, CHEESY, goodness in our fridge. Enjoy, Memily!

We both agreed that this risotto tastes as good as anything you'd find in a nice restaurant; therefore, it gets the full 5 stars. Tommie -- if you're still reading this, Memily took the rest of the leftover CHEESE with her too.