gReeN

Today was quite the Monday.  I didn't sleep particularly well last night, and there were some very noisy birds outside at least an hour before my alarm went off.   Then, just as I was unlocking my bike to go to work, it started raining (yes, better then than en route).  I drove instead, but the gates to parking garage were down and my parking pass expired at the end of May.  

My job today was culling old files, removing all of the metal clips to get them ready for shredding.  Unlike last week, when I got to laugh at people's senior portraits from the 80's and 90's, today I was going through application files with portfolios from very talented people who either did not get in, or decided not to attend UVA's School of Architecture.  And while it took a long time to remove spiral bindings and the like, I spent no where near the time the applicants did putting them all together.

I came home a bit after 5, hungry and a little discouraged after destroying other people's creative work.  I ate a banana with peanut butter and decided to make a recipe I found over the weekend, to use up some leftover ricotta and make myself something a little fancy to counteract my afternoon.

Zucchini and Ricotta Galette from Smitten Kitchen was my starting point.  I found pre-made pie crust on sale at the store for $0.75 yesterday, so I wasn't even going to pretend to make my own crust.  I picked out some nice looking zukes at the Farmer's Market and dusted off the mandolin slicer.

While rooting around in the fridge for the other ingredients, I came across some old green beans on their way out, and thought they matched the color scheme nicely.  I washed them thoroughly and picked out the slimy ones (ugh!), drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and set aside to roast while the galette was cooking.

Fitting with the theme of the day, the ricotta I specifically found this recipe to use up had already turned a disturbing pink color and acquired a funky smell.  Ooops.  I substituted Greek yogurt, used feta instead of mozzarella and added a splash of lemon juice to the cheese filling.

I unrolled the pie crust, spread out the cheese filling and began to "shingle the zucchini attractively on top" as called for in the recipe.

I folded up the edges and drizzled with the remaining garlic/olive oil mixture.  I skipped the egg wash because I don't like having 1/2 of an egg sitting in the fridge.  I eat plenty of eggs, but can never remember to use up forgotten halves.

Green beans roasted and galette baked while I sweat it out with Shawn T and the Insanity crew, which was much needed.   Endorphins released, I sat down to my fancy green dinner.  The green beans, being both old and left in the oven for too long were pretty desiccated, but the yummy galette pretty much stole the show.

The pre-made crust turned out to be a great shortcut that allowed me to redeem an otherwise blah day.  The crust came in a two pack--when/how will the remaining one transform my life?!?  Stay tuned....