“Next time, let’s make it dinner. Your place or ours?”

Check out Jamie’s $30,000 dinner here!

Okay, I’m going to announce a trend…

Private chefs are the hot, new bachelorette party accessory.  Who needs strippers when you have truffled fries and a case of wine???

New York Daily News: Full Plate

Pictured: Hubby and I acting as private chefs at Studio B. (Photo by Colleen Duffley)

I love, love, LOVE cool veggie and cheese-packed salads in the springtime. Check out my lastest “On The Hip” recipe for young mommies–who want to eat well!–on the go.

 Wild Arugula and Tortellini Pasta Salad “Primo”-Vera

On warm, spring afternoons, I want cool salads that Baby and I can tote to the river, to Central Park or to the living room floor. Forks might even be optional. I want the salad to be interesting (“Primo!”) but not funky–my tiny girl needs to be able to nibble along with me if she’s bored with her bottle. So here’s an easy, filling tortellini salad that takes 15 minutes to throw together. Really, it’s more about chopping than actual cooking. To make the salad stretch–and to fill me up–I add roasted chicken. As always, my recipe is so easy, it can be made with a baby on your hip and with no more ingredients than can fit beneath your stroller…

Serves 6

4 cups cooked, drained cheese tortellini*
2 TBSPs extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp garlic, minced
3 TBSPs grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
4 TBSPs pitted Kalamata olives, roughly chopped
1 large plum tomato, seeded and diced
2 TBSPs sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil, chopped
1 roasted yellow pepper, skin, seeds, ribbed removed, julienned (thin strips)  
2 TBSPs fresh basil, chiffonade (thinly sliced) or torn
2 TBSPs salted, toasted, salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
2 handfuls wild or baby arugula
(Optional) 1 bone-in, skin on chicken breast, roasted, shredded (about 1 ½ cups chicken)

*(In New York, I love “Raffetto’s” fresh, mini ricotta tortellini. Otherwise, Buitoni or Barilla brand tortellini work well.)

In a large bowl, toss cooled tortellini with 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic and Pecorino. Add olives, plum tomato, sun-dried tomato and yellow pepper and combine well. If you won’t be eating the salad for several hours–or even several days–cover now and refrigerate.

Before serving, toss salad with basil, pepitas and arugula. (You want to add the lettuce and the pumpkin seeds at the end so they don’t become soggy.) If you’re looking to get a few more servings of veggies into your lunch, add a handful of arugula to your plate and spoon the tortellini mixture on top. I like to end things with a final drizzle of olive oil.

Enjoy!

The sentiment’s so good,  and so appropriate for my life right now, I had to post it.

“It’s better to seek forgiveness than  ask permission.”  –Thomas Aquinas