There is a cliche that states

"look before you leap". This saying has become a cliche for good reason, for it is wise to follow. But I will get to that later.

I cooked again! It's practically a habit already what with doing it twice in one weekend. My plan for Sunday's meal was Tziki, pasta, and steak, but when all was said and done (I'm looking at you, Leapy), all I had was pasta- which was BY GEORGE delicious. So let us start there.

I got this recipe from this months Rachel Ray magazine, which, if my dad didn't give me a subscription every winter I would have canceled by now. But, there is at least 1 recipe a month that I want to make and this was it for this month: Herbed butter linguine with goat cheese and heirloom tomatoes.

Take 6-8 TBS of butter in a pan, melt it, then add 2 shallots. After they soften, add 1/2 c. of white wine and let it reduce. To this you add about 1/4 c. or howevermuch you feel of fresh tarragon, thyme, flat leaf parsley, and dill that has been finely chopped. Cook some linguine al dente, and add 3/4 c. or so of the pasta water to the herb butter. In a bowl, dump everything together with about 8 oz. of goat cheese and 2 c. of chopped heirloom tomatoes. Sadly, Safeway was out of heirlooms, so I chose to use 4 varieties of tomotoes instead. Season with S & P. As you can see, the end result is fairly alfredo-esque.

Next, I got a hankering for some Tziki which is fairly straightforward: chop some cucumbers, add plain yogurt, garlic, olive oil, I added some red onions and dill and finsh with S & P.

Now, here is where the looking and leaping come in. As I was prepping everything up for assembly, I had all my ingredients out on the counter. I chopped all the veggies and plopped them in a bowl, and proceeded to dump all the yogurt in and that's when it hit me: the gently wafting smell of vanilla. VANILLA people - I grabbed sweet, Greek Style, vanilla yogurt instead of plain. Oh the humanity!

Not to be completely undone, I finished the dish and went about with a taste test, albeit a timid one. And then it hit me again... THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST FRAKING TIME I HAD DONE THIS. The taste of garlic and salt imbued vanilla yogurt is not a flavor one soon forgets, at least on a sensory level. So when I tell you to look (I suggest looking while at the store still, because even if you have the containers on the counter with you while you are chopping veg and the lovely vanilla bean caricature is staring at you in the stupid face for an hour you still won't see it) before you leap, I say it from the heart. Else you will end up with a dish that looks thusly:

In the end, after all this work and one of the two dishes ending in disappointment, I didn't really have the heart (or energy) to make the steak. Tonights dinner is steak and leftovers - exciting!

See more pictures of the process here.

Oh yeah, and Eric had burrito for dinner - leftr over meat from the nachos, cheese, and tortilla melted up in the microwave.