Here in the state that i am in household, it is generally understood that I don’t cook.  I bake, but I don’t make dinner (much to the dismay of my mother-in-law, I might add).  So, the real challenge for me in the Whip It Up Challenge is to cook real food.  Don’t get me wrong, baked goods are about as real as food gets in my book, but I would like to be able to cook my hard-working husband dinner from time to time.  And by dinner, I mean something that isn’t frozen pizza!

RA was kind enough to send me some recipes to get started, and for my first official meal I chose to whip up some Bowties with Pesto, Feta, & Cherry Tomatoes.  I chose this recipe for several reasons:

1. It had no meat.  I’m not quite ready to tackle the touching raw meat issue.
2. Pasta!  Something I surely can’t screw up too much!
3. Pesto is one of my favorite things to eat.
4. Two kinds of cheese – parmesan and feta.

First, how about some lovely photos:

This recipe called for lots of basil.  Between the basil and the pine nuts, it was a fairly expensive pasta dish to make — the only negative, in my opinion.  Totally worth the cost, though.

Pesto made by me!  This picture is making my mouth water again!

The finished product.  Yummy!

Was the recipe easy to follow?

Extremely easy.  The only oops came when I realized that I was only supposed to use 3/4 cup of the pesto I made after I’d dumped it all on the pasta.  Operator error, but oh so tasty!

Did the dish taste good?

Oh yes!  It was absolutely delicious.  It was great warm for dinner and wonderful cold for lunch the next day.  I loved the combination of the feta and cherry tomatoes with the pesto.  Yum, yum!

Would you make this dish again?

In a heartbeat.  Right now I’m just enjoying the leftovers!

So there you have it!  My first official “real food” recipe.  I think that went fairly well!