be mine

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Hope you had a nice day yesterday. We had a very low key Valentine's night. Since we just got back from Peru, we decided to stay in and make dinner at home. However, I didn't want it to be just another night in, so we spiced it up a bit with a new, homemade pasta dish, champagne and Tim Tams (Australia's favorite cookie!) for dessert.

Here is the pasta we made. It came from Sunset magazine and it was delicious!

Dungeness Crab and Garlicky Yogurt Pasta

Serves 6

Ingrediants:

2 cups of labneh or plain, whole-milk Greek yogurt (we used the yogurt)

Zest and juice of 1 large lemon

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 garlic gloves, crushed with 1/4 tsp. salt in a mortar and pestle

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 lb. dried pappardelle pasta or 1 1/4 lbs. fresh fettuccine

1 pinch saffron threads

1/4 cup butter

3/4 lb. shelled cooked Dungeness crab

1/2 cup loosely packed small fresh dill sprigs

About 2 tsp. Aleppo pepper or ground ancho chile

Directions:

1. Combine labneh (or yogurt), lemon zest and juice, salt, pepper, garlic, and oil in microwave-safe bowl cup. Set aside.

2. Cook pasta as package directs.

3. Meanwhile, pulverize saffron with a mortar and pestle. Add 1/2 cup hot pasta water and loosen saffron bits. Pour into a small saucepan, add butter, and heat until simmering; keep hot. Microwave labneh-lemon mixture until hot but not boiling, 1 minute. Rinse crab with hot water in a strainer to warm.

4. Drain pasta and return to pot. Toss with saffron butter. Add labneh mixture, crab, half of dill, and a little Aleppo pepper and toss very loosely to mix slightly. Pour into a warm rimmed bowl. Sprinkle with remaining dill and a little more Aleppo pepper. Serve with more Aleppo pepper on the table.

Meanwhile, have you guys heard about Vine? The newest social media app? It's an app where you can make short, little looping videos. I signed up for it, and I made my first video on Valentine's Day. Honestly, I'm not sure if I have time to really keep up with ANOTHER social media site, but it was fun to make. We'll see how it goes. You can see my first video here.