Happy New Year! (and a quick & easy lunch)

 I can't believe it is the last day of 2010!  The year flew by and overall it was a good one for us.  We took our first Winter getaway to Cancun and our first family fishing trip to Gananoque in Canada (which included amazing shore dinners and lovely accommodations).   I also had the opportunity to host our Passover Seder and loved finally getting a chance to use our beautiful Seder plate after all these years.

I was fortunate enough to be able to celebrate a milestone birthday not only with a girl's only weekend back to Kansas City (my hometown), but also a fabulous trip to Las Vegas with a couple we introduced many years ago (and they beat us to getting married, too!) and we enjoyed incredible food at Hubert Keller's Fleur de Lys.

We also enjoyed a visit from My Sis-in-Law and nephew during the summer which gave all the boys a chance to go crabbing together.  It's always so nice we can get the boys together for a few days.  They do miss each other quite alot.  We enjoyed another fabulous meal all together to celebrate a slew of birthdays and My In-Laws anniversary down by the shore.

At the end of the summer, we took our annual trip as a family back out to see My Family, and once again decided that the time would be best spent at Table Rock Lake - on the Missouri/Arkansas border.  It's truly the best time of year to go for us since the boys are not back in school yet, but everyone else out there has gone back.  It's quiet and we can enjoy the lake at its very best.  These trips have provided us with some truly wonderful memories for our family.

I learned some new things this year by way of others teaching me... a friend showed me how easy it is to can jam and I took a class at the Culinary Institute of America.   I plan to take a few more classes in 2011 to continue to increase my cooking knowledge and hopefully learn some new techniques that will help me to cook more by intuition over time.

The next year is sure to bring many wonderful things and I do hope to share them here with everyone who takes the time to stop by.  I enjoy writing this blog and plan to set aside more time to do it regularly in the new year.  The last few months have been rather hectic and I've missed updating and sharing things here.  There are some new things I hope to share in the coming weeks here and I do hope you will stick around and even share your own input.  I do love your comments even though I may not be able to respond to each and every one of them.  If you have questions, I will be sure to respond quickly!

Now, for one last quick and easy meal for the year!   I have been trying to find simple and easy healthy ideas for lunches lately.  After all the indulging, it's time to get back to what I know I need to do (and there will be more on that in the next few days).  I came up with this one day when I wanted something healthy, yet filling for lunch.

 It's so easy, and truly delicious!


Quick Pasta with Vegetables
Source:  Patsyk Original
Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 2 ounces whole wheat pasta (uncooked)
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh baby spinach
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• Kosher salt - to taste

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2.  Heat olive oil in a small non-stick skillet.  Add spinach and sauté briefly over medium heat until it just starts to wilt.  Then, add grape tomatoes and cook until they just start to "burst".  Then sprinkle with Kosher salt.
3. Serve hot over cooked pasta.

Please note that all photos and content belong to Patsy Kreitman, unless otherwise noted. If you want to use something please ask first.