Well, we are all moved in to our new place, and are somewhat settled.  So far we love it!  We have a backyard for the first time ever and have spent lots of nights outside eating dinner and playing with Jacob and our dog Nikko.

We’ve had a lot of company come and visit us, my parents and sisters and their husbands all came to see our new place, and Jeremy’s parents have also been out.  Jake has been loving his grandparent and aunt time.

Amidst all of the chaos we have been eating out a lot more than normal.  I’m getting pretty confident eating at the Outback Steakhouse in Louisville, CO and the P.  F. Chang’s in Broomfield, CO, Jake still doesn’t eat at these places because of the rest of his food allergies, but I have eaten at both places off their gluten free menus with no problems.  All of us, Jake included, ate at the Chipotle in Louisville, with no problems!  We requested the person on the line change their gloves for us and they were so nice they even washed and scrubbed their hands, even with a line.  We are SO happy to have a place that even Jacob can eat at.

When we haven’t been eating out, we’ve eaten a lot of salads with grilled chicken or grilled steaks.  We’ve also eaten a ton of fava beans this July, we grew some ourselves and also got a bunch from our CSA.

Here’s one fava bean dish we’ve eaten a lot of this summer:

Fava Beans with Basil and Sundried Tomatoes over Pasta

Fava Beans – shelled

Handful of Basil – chopped

Sundried Tomatoes – chopped

Garlic

Onion or Shallot

Olive Oil

Pasta – We use gluten free Tinkyada

Sautee your garlic and onion or shallot in olive oil.  Meanwhile boil your fava beans for 3-4 minutes.  Cook your pasta according to package.  Toss Fava beans, chopped basil, chopped sundried tomatoes, garlic and onion, and a dash of olive oil together.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  This is good warm or cold as a pasta salad later.

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We’ve also grilled a lot of fava beans this summer, which is a nice way to save time on prepping the beans!  Just toss the fava beans in olive oil, salt, and pepper or whatever you want.  We used seasoned salt several times which was tasty.  Then grill for 3-4 minutes per side, until the pod begins to blacken.  I served with lemon juice over the top of them.  Then just let everyone eating shell the beans themselves.  We did this several times outside on our picnic table served with a salad and it was  a lot of fun, a lot like eating edamame at a Japanese restaurant.

We went to the Farmer’s Market in Boulder on Saturday morning and picked up a few things that were available this early in the season.  We bought some purple potatoes, parsnips, and spinach.  We were planning on having steaks and roasted potatoes for dinner Saturday night and we didn’t have any specific plans for the produce we bought.  Thanks to teething, Jake took longer than normal to go down and while I was laying with him I came up with an idea for the produce.  We made a wilted spinach salad with roasted purple potatoes and shaved parsnips, with a maple mustard vinaigrette.

I have been making my own salad dressings thanks to the guidelines in the book How to Cook Everything.  After making Mark Bittman’s basic vinaigrettes I started to see a pattern and started experimenting with some of my own dressings.  This has been my favorite salad dressing so far! After eating it on our salads we fried some french fries the next day and ate it as a dipping sauce, which was also delicious.

For the salad:

I roasted potatoes in the oven with olive oil to coat at 450 for about 40 minutes or until crispy.  I like spinach better cooked a little bit, so I wilted it in a pan with a little bit of olive oil for a couple of minutes.  I put the spinach on the plate, topped with the roasted potatoes, and shredded parsnips, salt and pepper.

Maple Mustard Vinaigrette:

3/4 cups olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

3 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp spicy brown mustard

2 tbsp shallots

salt & pepper to taste

Add the white wine vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, shallots and salt and pepper to a food processor, and blend thoroughly.  Add the olive oil a little at a time and blend.  Adding the olive oil a little at a time should create an emulsion.

Enjoy!