Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Garlic Chips

Yes it has been a LONG while since I posted. To be fair A LOT has happened since the last post... almost a year ago. The biggest and most important is the birth of my beautiful, amazing and perfect baby girl! She was born on September 3rd! Which was not only her due date but also our 5 year wedding anniversary! What a perfect present. Her is a picture of her. She is 3 months old in this picture and we love her to pieces!We have been doing a lot of cooking. I froze a ton of meals prior to Marin's arrival to get us through those tough nights. I would say we did pretty good. We seem to go out of dinner a bit more then normal but we stayed true to our commitment to cook healthy meals. I have since returned to work. I am beyond sad about leaving Marin but it has to be done. I know life will continue to get even busier and more hectic then it already is but I want to return to actively posting on this blog. I have really enjoyed it and look forward to getting back into it!

Here is a delicious dish we made. I'm sure some of you are a bit sceptical but this was really good and different. Don't let the Swiss chard scare you because this is well worth it and easy weeknight meal. Super simple ingredients and pretty healthy too. We pulled this out of the archives in Gourmet 2006

Ingredients:

1/4 C evoo

1 head garlic, peeled and thinly sliced (only used 8-10 cloves)

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 C dried currants (used raisins)

1 bunch of green Swiss Chard, stems and center ribs finely chopped and leaves coarsely chopped separately

1/2 C water

1 box spaghetti (used whole wheat)

1/2 C Kalamata olives, sliced

1/2 C feta, crumbled

Heat oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat, add garlic, stirring until golden, about 2-3 minutes. Make sure you keep a good eye on it because it can turn from golden to burnt pretty quickly. Transfer garlic with slotted spoon to paper towel lined plate to drain.

Cook onion in remaining oil over medium heat until softened (about 5 minutes). Add currants or raisins, stirring until they begin to plump up.

Stir in the chard stems and water and 3/4 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Cook covered over med-high heat (about 5 minutes). Stir in chard leaves and continue to cook covered until tender (another 5 minutes).

In the meantime, cook pasta. Reserve 1 cup of cooking water.

Toss spaghetti with chard, olives, 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water, adding more if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with feta and garlic chips.