Things have been a little crazy these days. foodgawker is growing each month and is keeping me really busy. To add to the insanity, I launched craftgawker last week. It's identical to foodgawker, but focused on arts and crafts. So that's the reason why it's been quiet around here.

But then I got slapped on the hand by BlogHer (our ad provider) for not posting in over a week. I felt like a kid in high school who got in trouble and is being sent to the principle's office. BlogHer's "reprimand" is actually a good thing, otherwise I would have neglected SND even longer.

Anyway, we have a really simple dish of roasted vegetables for you. We made this after a trip to a local farmers' market. It came together by picking up the best looking vegetables at the time. Hungry Bear wanted to prepare them simply to highlight the freshness of the vegetables.

The roasted vegetables are a great side dish and can be served hot or cold. We had them for lunch with some artichoke garlic herb bread and sunny side up eggs. It was simple but really good. Regarding the bread, if you are ever cruising Route 1, definitely stop at Norm's Market in Pescadero and pick up a loaf or three of freshly baked artichoke garlic herb bread. It's fantastic!

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One of my favorite ingredients is hot Italian sausage. Hungry Bear loves sweet petite peas. Add some mushrooms, garlic, orecchiette, a sprinkle of Parmigiano Reggiano and you'll have a tasty pasta dish that can be prepared in 30 minutes.

Hungry Bear likes pasta dishes without tomato sauce because the individual flavors of the ingredients are not dominated by a tomato taste. Recently, we've made most of our pasta without tomato sauce. Our current favorite pasta is an orecchiette with hot Italian sausage.

This pasta dish is simple to make. We really like the spiciness from the hot Italian sausage complimented by the sweetness of the peas. The orecchiette gets coated by the juices from the sausage and mushrooms, so the pasta dish isn't completely dry. I try to make the dish a little healthier by draining off some of the fat/juices from the sausage. But if you remove too much juice, you'll lose a lot of flavor and there won't be enough juice to coat the orecchiette. It's a fine balance between flavor and fat.

To complete the meal, make a side of sautéed broccolini with garlic. You can also combine the broccolini with the pasta and have one big bowl of happiness and deliciousness!

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Sunday Nite Dinner (SND) was at Jane and Mark's place this past week. Jane texted me Sunday morning and asked if we wanted to have SND at her place. This is usually how SND happens. Typically, someone wants to cook dinner and calls around to see who is available to come over.

Jane was planning on making Peruvian roast chicken and guacamole. I told her Hungry Bear and I would go to the store and pick up vegetables and make a veggie dish and surprise, surprise -- a chocolate dessert.

So this week's SND menu was created...

• Fresh Guacamole and Chips
• Peruvian Roast Chicken with Aji Verde Sauce
• Stir Fried Broccolini with Olive Oil and Garlic
• Chocolate Pudding Cake topped with Dr. Bob's Tahitian Vanilla Ice Cream

When Hungry Bear and I arrived at Jane and Mark's place, they were in the process of prepping the chicken. The recipe for Peruvian chicken with aji verde can be found in the Food Network Kitchens Cookbook. The recipe requires one whole head of garlic. Thankfully, Mark is the ultimate prep chef and his garlic mincing skills have become legendary.

The chicken is stuffed with garlic and seasoned with salt and pepper. A paste consisting of garlic, cumin, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and vegetable oil is applied to the chicken before it goes into the rotisserie oven. The chicken can also be roasted in a regular oven, but we prefer it rotisserie style.

As we waited the hour and twenty five minutes for the chicken to roast, we made fresh guacamole to snack on. I didn't follow a recipe, but this guacamole recipe is very similar in preparation. The guac and chips were delicious and we tried not to overeat. I think everyone was successful except for me. I have no self control when it comes to food. If it's in front of me, I'll eat it.

For the vegetable dish, Hungry Bear made broccolini in her signature style, which is how she prepares most of her vegetables... stir-fried in olive oil with garlic and salt. It's a very simple method, which is quick, healthy and very good. We like to let vegetables stand on their own, instead of masking them with a heavy sauce.

The best part of the Peruvian chicken is the aji verde sauce that goes on top of it. Jane made the aji verde, which is a quick mix of cilantro, Cotija cheese, jalapenos, garlic, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, water and kosher salt. There's no cooking required, just a quick puree in a blender is required.

The Peruvian roast chicken came out of the rotisserie extra moist, even the white meat. The chicken with aji verde on top is simply amazing. I love pouring the aji verde on everything... chicken, rice and broccolini!

We ended SND with chocolate pudding cake with chocolate chunks. It's a nice treat to get an extra hit of chocolate goodness from the melted bittersweet chunk.  The pudding cake was warm, chocolaty and gooey, but it was missing its usual crispy, chewy top layer. It was probably due to the variance of oven temps between my oven and Jane's... now we know.

Sunday Nite Dinner was very satisfying. Since there were only four of us, it was a pretty low key SND, but it also means more food for us and leftovers for Jane and Mark!

SNDsters: Mark, Jane, Hungry Bear, Chuck

Updated January 30th, 2008: Added a link to the chocolate pudding cake recipe.

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