This past weekend friends of ours invited me to a Poetry Potluck. I have never been to one so I didn't know what to expect. Am I supposed to write a poem or bring one? And then.....what should I bring to eat?!! The gathering was at one of their friend's house and they live on a farm. It was beautiful! Horses, chickens, and a lovely garden surrounded by lots of land! Country living at it's best! The hostess gave us a tour of her garden....and you have NO idea how excited I was......I was just trying to be cool, but really I wanted to pick EVERYTHING! She was growing squash, corn, watermelons and so much more... also lots of herbs and the one that got me excited was the ginger mint........SOOOOOOO GOOD! I was just day dreaming about what I could cook up with all this fresh produce! <<#GOALS>> But I refrained from taking a ton of pictures, because after all, this was my first time meeting everyone and I didn't want to be EXTRA with my picture taking..LOL! I did manage to snap a few. Here is an overview of part of the garden and riding pen.
I wasn't sure of the theme for the potluck so I decided to go with something really easy and tasty. I went with pastina (pasta) with mushrooms and spinach. I took a chance that everyone would like mushrooms and it worked out great!!! And.... I mean you can't go wrong when you sprinkle pasta with parmesean cheese. The host made homemade pizza so I guess my pasta fit in.....and everyone loved it!
AND the poetry was amazing! It was a combination of some original poems and some shared their favorites from very talented poets. It was real intimate and all in all, I had a good time and can't wait to attend the next Poetry Potluck!
Here's the pasta that I brought. I actually meant to buy orzo pasta but when I got home and looked at the box, I realized that I had picked up pastina instead. So rolled with that, and it still came out really good! I was calling this dish "vegetarian" but I forgot I used chicken stock so I guess that cancelled that out...but you can defintely make it with vegetable stock and it will be vegetarian again! LOL! Here's what went into this dish:
-pastina pasta
-chicken stock
-fresh thyme
-butter
-garlic
-mushrooms
-spinach
-parmesean
-olive oil
This is great as a side dish....or if you're like me you can make it a whole meal! The mushrooms make it really meaty and filling! Here's how I put this meal together.
I hope you give it a try! If you do, let me know how yours turns out! Yummy!
