Date Night In with a Cashew and Mushroom Pate.

It feels like I'm never cooking new blog-able food anymore! It's kind of sad. It's been so terribly hot here lately that cooking meals that require the oven or effort sounds painful. Since I last updated we had caesar salad one day, taco salad another day, and then tonight... my husband made crepes! Oh, how I love crepe night. I worked my first full shift on my own today. I opened and closed the store and I have to say I really kind of enjoyed it. I missed my family, but it was fun to organize books, tidy books and leaf through (mostly cook)books. I'm a list person... I make soooo many lists. I have so many notebooks for various different things. One is for shopping lists, one is for menu planning, one is for recipes, one is for budgeting, one is for trip planning, one is for to do lists... you get the idea. I love lists. Working in a bookstore is like bliss for me! The paperwork, the filing of books... I can't get enough of it!

At any rate, it was strange to be gone all day from my kids. I called home at one slow point and it was so nice when I got to hear all the kids emphatically yell "Hi Mummy!" through the phone. Awww, I love them so. It was also really nice to have Kyle making dinner for me for a change. I didn't have to do anything! But of course, I did decide to make our date night food. :) We're cuddling up to watch some Lost and the movie 'Charlie Saint Cloud' while chowing down on some Cashew and Mushroom Pate that I found in my June 2008 issue of Vegetarian Times magazine.

I'm so lucky, I get two men to share my date night with. :)

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Cashew and Mushroom Pate

1/2 cup cashews

1 1/2 tbsp margarine

4 cups mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp sherry

2 tsp chunky peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350.

Roast the cashews on a baking sheet for 7-10 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.

In a wok, melt the margarine, and add the mushrooms, garlic, onion and spices. Cook for 10-12 minutes until the mushrooms are golden and the liquid has evaporated. Add the sherry and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

Add the mushroom mixture, peanut butter and cashews to a food processor and mix until smooth. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.