Wednesday night dinner
We’ve been spending a good deal of time and money at fine dining establishments lately, and (as evident by our Balvo experience), been coming up short both in terms of food quality and in balancing the ol’ checkbook. So, in order to support our eating habits, we’re making a concerted effort to cook more at home. Because, god damn, we can cook! And besides, there’s too much good produce going to waste in our respective fridges. This can’t go on.
Wednesday night we decided to finally make good on our pledge. We had a whole host of assorted tomatoes from a neighbor’s garden, and set to work making a quick pasta sauce involving bacon and rosemary (taken from this month’s Cook’s Illustrated). Lavendersoda, having brought home the (thick-cut, applewood-smoked) bacon (from Viande), cut it into ½” strips and fired up the sauté pan. At the same time, noneifbysea began the process of sorting, peeling, coring and seeding the tomatoes. Just a scant two tomatoes in before we realized there was a problem. We weren’t going to have enough, and really, they just weren’t good.
So, lavandersoda, with bacon cooking in the pan and pasta water nearing a boil, acted quickly and smartly. Carbonara! A moderately skeptical Noneifbysea was sent to the market for parmeasan (how there was none in the fridge, I’ll never know), and soda added some white wine to the bacon and let it simmer out for a few minutes. In the meantime, two eggs were beaten with two cloves of market-fresh purple garlic and the pasta cooked. Once NIBS returned, the cheese was grated and beaten in, the pasta drained and returned to the pot, the egg mixture quickly stirred in. Toss in the bacon (with fat and reduced wine) and serve!!
While the pasta frenzy was in full effect, noneifbysea raided the fridge and pantry for some salad dressing making materials. A little Dijon, some FINI balsamic, olive oil and we were nearly there. Lavendersoda drizzled in a little walnut oil and we were ready to go. Organic red-leaf lettuce was never so happily dressed.
The final menu:
Fettucinne carbonara
Simple green salad
Baguette with goat cheese
Bordeaux (details to come)
We went low-key for dessert. Noneifbysea broke into a bag of Trader Joe’s Gingeroos! he picked up on the parmesean run. Lavendersoda savored her favorite chocolate treat- Scharffenberger Nibby Bar.
All in all, food was good! Damn good! Needless to say, lavendersoda was pretty proud of herself, what with the quick thinking and skillful steering of a meal once headed on a course for disaster (or at least to the pizza place up the street). And, as noneifbysea pointed out, this simple meal made our Balvo experience that much more offensive, that we could do something this good ourselves for 1/40th of the price. It should be a lesson.
Wednesday night we decided to finally make good on our pledge. We had a whole host of assorted tomatoes from a neighbor’s garden, and set to work making a quick pasta sauce involving bacon and rosemary (taken from this month’s Cook’s Illustrated). Lavendersoda, having brought home the (thick-cut, applewood-smoked) bacon (from Viande), cut it into ½” strips and fired up the sauté pan. At the same time, noneifbysea began the process of sorting, peeling, coring and seeding the tomatoes. Just a scant two tomatoes in before we realized there was a problem. We weren’t going to have enough, and really, they just weren’t good.
So, lavandersoda, with bacon cooking in the pan and pasta water nearing a boil, acted quickly and smartly. Carbonara! A moderately skeptical Noneifbysea was sent to the market for parmeasan (how there was none in the fridge, I’ll never know), and soda added some white wine to the bacon and let it simmer out for a few minutes. In the meantime, two eggs were beaten with two cloves of market-fresh purple garlic and the pasta cooked. Once NIBS returned, the cheese was grated and beaten in, the pasta drained and returned to the pot, the egg mixture quickly stirred in. Toss in the bacon (with fat and reduced wine) and serve!!
While the pasta frenzy was in full effect, noneifbysea raided the fridge and pantry for some salad dressing making materials. A little Dijon, some FINI balsamic, olive oil and we were nearly there. Lavendersoda drizzled in a little walnut oil and we were ready to go. Organic red-leaf lettuce was never so happily dressed.
The final menu:
Fettucinne carbonara
Simple green salad
Baguette with goat cheese
Bordeaux (details to come)
We went low-key for dessert. Noneifbysea broke into a bag of Trader Joe’s Gingeroos! he picked up on the parmesean run. Lavendersoda savored her favorite chocolate treat- Scharffenberger Nibby Bar.
All in all, food was good! Damn good! Needless to say, lavendersoda was pretty proud of herself, what with the quick thinking and skillful steering of a meal once headed on a course for disaster (or at least to the pizza place up the street). And, as noneifbysea pointed out, this simple meal made our Balvo experience that much more offensive, that we could do something this good ourselves for 1/40th of the price. It should be a lesson.
posted by canolive at 11:23 AM
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