Chicken and Asparagus Risotto Style Pasta

Saturday was a day of extremes. The boy woke the girl or the girl woke the boy – they never let the other sleep and as for their parents, well, forget it. It was an even earlier morning than usual, all of us up before 6 a.m. Which explains, I guess, why by the time we were trying to get out the door to go grocery shopping at 10:30 (yes, it takes more than four hours to get up, have breakfast, get dressed, you know the drill) Esme was an uncontrollable beast. There were tears over which shoes she would wear, whether she would pee before leaving the house, a time out for rudeness. Ben offered to do the groceries alone. Naturally, I saw right through his ploy to ditch his whining, whinging family and said absolutely not. There were huffy sighs exchanged. And all witnessed by our lovely and bemused cleaning lady, Maria.

Our weekly grocery trip is always a bit of a schmozzle but somehow I love it. For now it’s one of the few activities for all four of us. It was Julian’s first time out of the Bjorn and in the little seat of the cart. He was ecstatic by this new perspective. We go to the amazing Fiesta Farms and good local vegetables are just starting to appear – it’s nice not to have to buy from Argentina, Chile, Mexico or the U.S., right? I’ve been on an asparagus bender and we picked up some more. That settled it, I’d try the crazy absorption pasta I’d been reading about.

Do you know about this? Cooking pasta in the style of risotto? I’d never heard of it but was ultimately sold on the notion of a one pot dinner. There’s a good recipe on Design Sponge but I’ve based mine on New York Times writer, Mark Bittman’s recipe. I think you could make this pasta as many ways as you can make risotto.

Have you seen these things? It’s called a Nuby and you put banana or whatever kind of fruit you like I guess in the fine mesh bag, snap it on the handle and hand it to your baby. Much less messy than just handing over a snack and no fear of choking. My cousin Shelley sent this to me recently and I love it! It keeps Julian happy while I’m cooking for minutes and minutes….

So delish! It’s a very savoury dish because you’re cooking the noodles in stock and the texture is creamy rather than starchy as you might think.

After a short nap and a trip to the pool with her dad, Esme did the kind of personality transformation particular to three year olds. She shared toys with her brother, she complimented dinner, she ate her dinner. Julian happily sucked the life out of several pieces of asparagus. He looks like he’s smoking a cigar and it always makes us laugh. Just a happy family, eating dinner out on the deck on a warm spring evening.