Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

That title has stuck in my mind ever since my mother read Irving Stone’s book while she was finishing up her art ed degree, and I couldn’t resist using it–because it says it all.  I rarely cook with lemon, even though I adore the flavor, because no one else in my family particularly enjoys it; my hubby’s okay when I BAKE with lemon, but not so much with the savory, and my oldest daughter has come around slightly, but only in a small way.  Last night,  however, I decided to make this Lemon Broccoli Tortellini, because I had the ingredients, and it sounded amazing, and even Mommy gets to have her favorite food occasionally, right?

It was HEAVENLY–and OH, how they suffered!  My older girls both gave it thumbs down (although to be fair, my oldest doesn’t love tortellini in general); my son went with thumbs middle, but pointed out that it was “too lemony.”  (As if there could ever be such a thing!)  My two-year-old didn’t love it either–although to be fair, she may have just been being two–and my hubby came home from work after dinner was over and didn’t try it.  (I didn’t expect him to.)

They’re all crazy, folks, because my version was amazing.  I don’t love cooked spinach, and so I opted to drain and chop up a can of artichoke hearts (not the marinated kind, the kind packed in water) and toss that in instead.  I also tossed the broccoli with a lemon’s worth of zest before roasting it–why waste the zest when you need the juice?!–and added the remaining juice of that lemon to the second lemon’s worth of juice, which gets added into the pasta.  I grated real Parmesan over mine (the kids either prefer the canned or don’t care, depending on which one we’re talking about), and let me tell you what–lemony goodness.

It was beautiful.