Oh, it’s Friday again, thank-the-good-lord. Now, what to make for dinner? Here’s my advice:

Put a pot of water on to boil, toss in some nice sea salt, and cook up some penne pasta. Now while you’re waiting for that to be en dente grab a handful of cherry toms and give ‘em a little rinse. Now cut them into thirds or so and put them on that tiny cooking sheet that came with your toaster oven. Add a handful or two of pine nuts, drizzle on some olive oil, more sea salt (of course) and slip it into said toaster oven. Now, don’t walk away from it or I guarantee you’ll burn the pine nuts. When things look nice and toasty in there, take them out and set them aside until your pasta is done.

Got the pasta drained? Great. Scrape every last little bit of that yummy pesto out of the jar and toss it in with the noodles. Add all the toms and pine nuts and toss the whole thing together. Now grate some Romano on top. Ummmmm…..you remembered the crusty bread and the red wine, right? Good then. Time to eat!

Advice Girl’s Friday Shopping List:

cherry toms
penne pasta
pesto sauce
pine nuts
romano cheese
vino
crusty bread

Welcome to my new category, Advice Girl. It will pop up here and there until I get a regular posting schedule (if I ever do!). After you see a few of these pop up, you can also check the tag cloud over in archives and see if there are others floating around. Enjoy!

Lazy Gourmet: Friday Asparagus and Eggs & Saturday Crepes

So here’s what you might could maybe do tonight. Stop by the grocery store on the way home and buy some asparagus. It’s in season right now—although according to Barbara Kingsolver the French don’t celebrate it’s arrival until Father’s Day, when all the bistros make wonderful dishes out of the lovely green spears. Regardless, if the French make a holiday out of it, don’t you think you should eat it? Yes, me too, loves.

Okay, so get the asparagus, and maybe a little carton of chevre (goat cheese), and carton of eggs (two if you’re cooking for more than one), and if they have ‘em, a mostly ripe avocado. Get twice as much asaparagus as you think you need, kay?

Now go home, snap off the ends of the asparagus, roll them in olive oil and salt. If you are really ambitious you can peel the bottom inch or two to make them less stringy, but I never sweat it. Now throw them on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven at about 450⁰. Check ‘em in ten minutes and then every so often after that because they can get away from you pretty fast.

Now scramble some eggs and voila! Dinner! I promise you will feel very French – especially if you sip some nice white wine. (Or cheap white wine – honestly, darling, it really doesn’t matter to moi, being the good, cocktail drinking maman that I am!)

Right about now, you’re asking, “What’s with the other stuff, and all the leftover asparagus?” Well, here’s the genius bit. See, tomorrow is Saturday, so you can make crepes! Then you can stuff said crepes full of leftover asparagus, chevre, and avacado. I know. It’s brilliant, and don’t you feel oh-so-smug about your healthy, healthy breakfast? (Or possibly brunch? Lunch? Oh, you must not have children if you’re not cooking anything until lunch. We will try not to hate you, really we will.)

After you eat that nice veggie-full crepe, you can sprinkle one with powdered sugar and stuff it with that slightly too soft banana you have over there in your fruit bowl. Yummmm…‘dessert’ without regrets.

Go on; get delicious on your weekend!

If this inspired you about asparagus: you can get fancy about it with some of these great recipes from BlogHer food editor Kayln Denny.

Read more about the wonders of asparagus and other locally-grown goodness: try Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

You know what would be really helpful? If every woman had a “cycle buddy” who would email them at certain points in their hormonal madness. For instance, if you were ovulating, your cycle buddy would email you and say:

Morning love! You are ovulating right now and all the evolutionary nerves in your body are on high alert. If you are feeling at all inclined to call up that man you know is positively toxic, but is sounding like such a good idea right now, for heaven’s sake DO NOT SLEEP WITH HIM. Also, if at this moment, you are suddenly aching for baby number three, you should BY NO MEANS forego your birth control tonight or anytime in the next week. Have a nice day!

-Your Cycle Buddy

Conversely, you would get something like this just before your period…

Hello dear. I promise you everything is going to feel much better in just a few days. You probably aren’t doing a terrible job at work. I’m sure your friends all love you. And no, I don’t think you look fat in those jeans. Repeat after me: “This too shall pass.“Now kindly get under the covers with a hot water bottle and eat some chocolate. There, there now, isn’t that much better?

-Your Cycle Buddy

What do you think? Could we write a little macro and start our own webpage to send out automated wisdom at just the right time?