Me and My Big Mouth: “A” is for Arugula and Annoyed (slightly) LOL

I’m so excited to be able to introduce people to an ingredient that they’ve never heard of before.  When I picked it, I almost wanted to cheat and pick another because I thought folks might say it’s too easy, too common of an ingredient.  But, it looks like I was wrong.  I’ve had some tell me they’ve never heard of it.  There are others who’ve heard of it, but have never tried it.  I’ve even had a few people tell me they thought arugula was cheese.  How cute is that?!  If you’re unfamiliar with it, I hope you’ll give it a try if you can get your hands on it.  Outside of it being a good, healthy ingredient, it’s got great flavor.  For those of you who are already arugula fans, I hope I’ll be able to share a preparation of it that you haven’t tried before.

You might remember on January 1^st that I said how “readily available arugula is in grocery stores?”  Well, it’s day #4 into this week of featuring arugula, and for some reason all of the arugula has mysteriously gone MIA in my local stores. Since Sunday, I’ve only found two little bags of it!  I can usually find arugula just about anywhere at any time.  There’s normally multiple brands to choose from, and can be bought living, bagged, or in bulk.  But, for the past few days EVERY store I’ve walked into, the sign is there but, there’s no arugula to be found.  Even the wasabi arugula’s gone, and there’s always plenty of that.  I had my heart set on sharing a recipe combining regular and wasabi arugulas in a dish together.  The regular arugula’s, peppery and bitter while the wasabi arugula has a nice spiciness to it; it’s a tasty combo. 

If I were the cocky type, I’d say that the reason I can’t find arugula is because my blog is so popular here in Kansas City that everyone ran to the stores and swooped all of the arugula up in anticipation of trying out a recipe I’m to post this week.  But, I know that’s not the case. LOL  People are probably just snatching up any salad greens they can get their hands on  because so many folks have made that oh so popular New Year’s Resolution #1: lose weight.  However, I must say that every other green seems to be on the shelves.  It’s just my arugula that’s missing without a trace.  I’d even considered buying a last, lonely bag of mesclun mix and picking out the arugula.  But, this particular brand was extremely heavy on the frisee.  I love frisee, but it’s all about arugula this week.

So, I’m a bit annoyed that I can’t find my arugula.  I am thankful for the two little bags of arugula I did manage to get.  I struck gold in the flavor department by cooking it down and adding mascarpone, dried mango, and sautéed chicken.  Unfortunately, like all greens, it cooked down so much that there wasn’t really anything to photograph.  But, it was DELISH!  Tomorrow, I WILL travel far and wide, and I’m not coming home until I have at least four large bags of my featured ingredient.  I’ll redo the aforementioned recipe, post a pic, and get to cooking and posting some other dishes as well.  See you tomorrow!