I feel like making a recipe tonight!!

[Sparkly]

H2S and I just got over a nasty gastro-intestinal virus. (I'll be happy to send you a detailed description of all the symptoms minute-by-minute -- just ask!) He's been working really hard and for no real reason, I felt like surprising him and making an actual recipe. I think the last time I did that was so long ago, Stinky had hair on his head, we only had 25 copper pots, and GD: P was peaceful...

So I browsed through some cookbooks -- who knew we had so many!? -- and found several interesting-looking Italian dishes that'd be good. They all had something I wasn't sure I could find at the store, so I wrote a shopping list in sections -- like, "unsalted pistachios" and the rest of the ingredients under that, depending on whether I could find unsalted pistachios. "Crimini mushrooms," and the ingredients for that one, etc.

We also have a "Food and Wine" magazine with an article on inexpensive American wines, so I wrote some of those down, too.

I got to the grocery store and -- hello! -- realized I'd forgotten my shopping list. :( I was too low on gas to go home and back again and didn't want to deal with that, so I went without it. I remembered most of the items, but couldn't remember which things went together in which recipe. ("Shallots! I know something needs shallots, and escarole was involved but maybe not with red onion which may need sage leaves...") So I just got everything I could remember.

Then to the wine store, to look for "Saint Something Something Dry Riesling" and "Spanishy Sounding Name Zinfandel." Did my best.

I got home and realized I did pretty well, all things considered -- forgot the pistachios, got canned beans when that recipe wants dried, there was actually no need for the mozzarella, and I sure hope the green item I got is escarole.

Now I have to decide what to make, based on what will become more disgusting in decomposition if I don't use it tonight.

Hmmmm....

[NMDemDist2]

1. hell Sparkly, wing it!

give him a glass of the something Riesling and rock on with your bad self

:hi:

[hippywife]

2. Heck!

Give him two big glasses and he'll eat anything you fix! :rofl:

I hate when I go without a list. Good luck! :hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Macaroni with escarole, pine nuts, and raisens. The wine was St Michele

The meal was perfect.

Love was the extra special ingredient not mentioned in the book she followed.

I'm a very lucky man.

[NMDemDist2]

4. yes you are Stinky

:pals:

[Sparkly]

5. Aw, shucks!

I'm sure he was just referring to the copper pot collection.

Anyway, I have lots of fun leftovers now. Tonight I'm making the one with the cannellini beans, since Stinky says it doesn't matter if they're canned. It starts with garlic and sage leaves sauteed in olive oil. I would never have thought of sauteeing leaves of any sort. Then add peeled, chopped tomatoes, then the beans, season and simmer, and that's about it! It all goes on Rigatoni.

All these things are really simple -- just different flavors and combinations than we've gotten used to as the "usual things," you know?

Just waiting for Sparkly Jr. and her boyfriend to return to eat now... (He wanted to get takeout at a Red Robin?? I think he's embarrassed about eating too much so he always feeds himself separately in addition to whatever we have. He's over 6 feet tall and must weigh 150 -- you know how guys can eat when they're young anyway... Some just forget they aren't young anymore....)

I didn't say that. :hide:

[Stinky The Clown]

6. you know how guys can eat when they're young anyway... Some just forget they aren't young anymore"

Blowitoutchershortz

[Sparkly]

7. Okay, I finished my last recipe tonight and my fit of cooking is over.

I wouldn't have made all these different things if I'd remembered my list and just shopped for ONE.

Anyway, tonight I used the shrooms, shallots and red onion (with some "fresh" Buitoni fettucine substituted for papardelle, and pine nuts substituted for unsalted pistachios, neither of which I could find) in a recipe from "Food and Wine" magazine. I went for it and used all the butter and EVOO the recipe called for, which was just wicked!

The feature in this magazine was about "promiscuous" foods -- so called because they pair with many different wines. I told Stinky I was quite the "Promiscuous Dish" myself in my past, so there. Or maybe it was just watching Jean Harlow in Dinner at Eight last night... Well anyway.

So we started eating this and I kept wondering where the sauce went. I was expecting some bigger flavor, and the mushrooms didn't look like enough compared to the pasta, etc. But after a few bites, it started growing on us -- and it was fantastic!

Stinky said it was his favorite of the three I made, in these three consecutive evenings, evenings which he should not get used to, because my wild hair is now gone and I'm back to putting frozen things from Costco in the oven.

Hey, did somebody reply above? Must be somebody I have on ignore. :evilgrin:

[Stinky The Clown]

8. "Must be somebody I have on ignore"

Yeah ..... :/

[NMDemDist2]

9. dang woman!! well, you've used up your cooking ration for the quarter

or is that the year??

:yourock:

but watch out, they get used to that home cooking stuff. Mine has anyway......

and unlike at your house, if we had to survive on Mr. K's cooking we'd starve. He has a deal with the Fire Dept. He doesn't go into the kitchen, they don't have to come visit...


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