Post-baby pasta with kale, bacon and blistered tomatoes

Just over 7 weeks ago, I gave birth to our first child. Linley Rose arrived after 40 hours of labor and one crazy c-section. But I survived and love her despite the experience. I think it is an understatement to say that having a kid changes your life. Once you fumble through the fog of those first few weeks, you begin to try and grasp at familiar tasks of your old life, like eating and stuff. It took me 7 weeks to get back in the kitchen to even attempt to cook something fun and this still was a bit of a rush job due to my screaming monkey who began wailing as I was rounding third on dinner. But I was able to push through with the help of my faithful partner in parenting crime. Despite his lack of milk producing ducts on his chest, husband does a damn fine job of keeping our little bean happy. As such, I produced my first, post-baby meal. I call this a meal because heretofore I have had enough time to cook either a meat or a veg but not both. With this I managed to squeeze in both bacon AND kale and as such, a meal it is. We both gobbled up two bowls each of this wondrous dish. I'm pretty sure it tasted really good BUT given my entire body seems to live in the twilight zone of sleep deprivation, I'm not always sure of my senses these days. But anything with cheese, pasta and bacon has to be good, right?

PS - you could totally make this vegetarian by excluding the bacon and sauteing the kale in olive oil...I will refrain from asking the obvious question (who the heck doesn't eat bacon?)