From memory - yikes!

The phrase "If memory serves me well..." is not one you'll see around here very often, since it is pretty much a given that my memory doesn't serve me well these days, and some days doesn't turn up to serve at all. The slide began some time ago. I remember one particularly frightening occasion when I was in the park with my (then toddling) kids, and chatting to another mother, who asked me where I lived. For a brief moment, I simply couldn't remember the name of the city I live in. Brief moment, yes, but long enough to be scary and sobering. Fortunately brief enough not to identify me as a complete loon who shouldn't be in charge of small children. Phew.

Anyway, occasionally, there is a brief flash of brilliance in the memory department. And yes, I am using the word brief deliberately again - long enough to allow me a moment of success at whatever incredibly important, earth-shattering task I am engaged in, whether it's math homework, working out my calendar for the coming week, or nuclear physics experiments. However, brief enough to prevent me from feeling like I'm twenty again....dammit.

This weeks flash of memory was in the form of a taste test of sorts. When I was younger, kid-free and obviously not concerned about money... perhaps it was the lack of ballet class fees, the gas requirements of a minivan, or that I didn't need to buy adult sized shoes for a growing teenage boy whose feet are growing about an inch per week... Anyway, I digress. Clearly I wasn't exactly concerned about over-expenditure, as I would occasionally buy lunch at the deli counter in Whole Foods. I know - very frivolous. One of my favorites was a penne pasta salad with smoked mozzarella. Why my memory decided to recall this the other day is a mystery to me. Clearly it had nothing more important to do. However, it did cause me to attempt to recreate the dish for dinner. I know we are on our post-Christmas purge, but if I don't serve some kind of carbohydrate, then the boys around the table may starve, or at least complain about their potential emaciated demise loudly and long enough to cause me to want to scratch my ears out.

I have to say that the result was pretty amazing - I could claim that it resembles the original with incredible accuracy, but that would be assuming that my memory of how that tasted is reliable, which I'm not quite ready to do, even if I do enjoy embracing its occasional flashes of brilliance. Nevertheless it is pretty tasty, if I, and my addled memory, do say so ourselves.

Penne Pasta Salad with Smoked Mozzarella
Serves a small army... or at least 5 Farrars as a side, plus 2 for lunch the following day

1 lb wholewheat penne
1 12 oz jar of roasted red peppers, drained and patted dry
3 cups fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
3/4 cup halved black olives
8 oz smoked mozzarella, cubed
6 green onions (spring onions), green parts only, finely chopped

Dressing:
1 cup reduced fat buttermilk
1/2 cup low fat mayonnaise
2 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
2 TBSP fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh dill, finely chopped

1. Make dressing by whisking all ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Cook penne according to directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.
3. Combine penne with other salad ingredients, and then toss with the dressing - this recipe makes too much dressing. You'll probably need about 3/4 of the quantity. The rest is great on a spinach salad :-)