Skillet Spaghetti with Spring Vegetables

This recipe comes from BHG's magazine April 2013.

Becky and I went to the Relish Cooking Show in Akron last night, check below the recipe to see how it went!

Ingredients: 

-4 oz. dried spaghetti
-2 Tbsp. peanut or vegetable oil
-12 oz. asparagus, ends trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces (2 ½ cups; 14 spears)
-6 cloves garlic, sliced
-3 cups red cherry tomatoes
-¾ tsp. salt
-¾ cup chopped fresh basil
-¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper
-½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
-Lemon wedges

Cook the pasta according to package directions. You'll want to reserve about half a cup of pasta water. Drain and rinse.

In a small skillet caramelize some lemons. I sprayed a small amount of cooking spray into a pan, then cooked the lemon slices one to two minutes on each size, until carmalized. 

In a large skillet fry the garlic for 30 seconds.

Add the asparagus and saute for 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, salt and basil, stir fry for 30 seconds.
Add the spaghetti and mix well.
Add the pasta water until the desired consistency is reached.

Serve with Parmesan cheese and the lemon slices.

You could add additional lemon juice if desired.

My mom asked me to make this recipe because she saw it in Better Home and Garden's magazine. I thought it was good, plus J. and my dad enjoyed it. However, my mom hated it. She didn't like the basil in the pasta especially. I thought it was a nice summery pasta recipe, because of the citrus flavor. I will use less tomatoes next time though. Overall, I think this recipe was fine, my dad liked it so much that he took it to lunch the next day.

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Relish Cooking Show Akron, Ohio 2013

There were so many samples at the Expo from local Akron-area resturants.

These cupcakes were our favorite, the one on the right was Mexican vanilla and it was delicious!
These were from Cupcake Binge. 

We got to hang-out back stage at the VIP party, with wine complementary of  Breitenbach (we loved the  Frost Fire wine, it was a sweet white.)

Then we sat down to for the show.

We had awesome third row seats with a great view of the stage.

We had such a great time last night! We enjoyed meeting Chef Brian Morris and we learned a lot of great techniques from his show. With our VIP tickets we were able to enjoy a special VIP party where we got our Relish cookbooks signed by him and with those VIP tickets we also got some great gifts such as coupons for local restaurants and some sauces to try in our dishes compliments of More Than Gourmet. This was the second time Relish came to Akron and we will be going back!

After the show we went to the Brickhouse Tavern for some post-show appetizers and cocktails. The Blood Orange Whiskey sour was delicious, I would highly recommend it!