I Admit I am Powerless Over Pasta

Is there a 12-step program for me?
I have been a pastaholic these last few weekends.
Last night, for Andy and his son Matt, I made fresh fettucine with cracked black peppercorns incorporated into the dough. And if that's not naughty enough, I tossed it in a decadent sauce of heavy cream, ricotta, parmesan, and stilton. Threw in a few peas for the English guys, of course.

I almost feel as if I need to go to church today to repent. I think I'll take a 5-mile walk instead.

Collaborative Carrot Soup

I've created a compilation recipe for carrot soup, based on recipes from Bob Cleveland (Andy's dad) and Debra Wagoner (my friend and neighbor). I'm going to use it for our dinner tonight, and add a few of my own embellishments:



5 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 small potato, peeled and cut into chunks
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp. minced ginger root
4 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp. curry powder
1/2 cup coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste
chopped cilantro to garnish

Saute the onions in about 2 tablespoons of oil. When they have become translucent, add the garlic and ginger. Saute one more minute. Add broth, potato and carrots. Simmer until the carrots and taties are very tender, probably about 30 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth.

If you don't have an immersion blender, go out right now and buy one, you culinary slacker! Alternatively, you can blend the soup in batches in a blender, but what a pain in the patootie that is!

But I digress. When the soup is smooth, add the coconut milk and heat through. Garnish with cilantro and serve to your sweetie with a kiss.

Remember The Lighthouse?

Lisa Kotula made a comment the other day about missing the spinach pie from The Lighthouse, which is now the Six Burner on Main and...is it Vine? I can't recall the cross street, but I feel sure I could drive home there with my eyes closed, as I probably have many times

George Vlasidis was the ever-present owner who seemed to never go home. The Lighthouse was a family place, with lots of George's kids working there through the years. His wife was always there, too, though you rarely saw her come out of the kitchen. George was intermittently gracious to respectful and loyal patrons and appropriately bossy to presumptuous college actors who strode into his restaurant and started pushing tables together without asking permission.

There was a decade or so when The Lighthouse was THE after-show hangout for the theatre community. I don't really know why. It was a place where you could show up with a big group. Perhaps it was the menu that had something for everybody--authentic Greek dishes, a big selection of pastas, sandwiches, appetizers, etc. The food was not fancy or very creative. It was plentiful and cheap. They just had a real potpourri to pick from and their prices were great. I particularly remember their marinara sauce. It was divine, thick and rich and perfectly spiced with just the right amount of tender tomato chunks and made fresh every day by either George or his wife.

For a time, it just seemed to be the place to go. I'm sure that there's some hip new place that has become the new theatre hangout. I wouldn't know, because I hardly ever do shows anymore, and I go out after shows even less! But I have many fond memories of The Lighthouse.

Making Lasagna

Making pasta is like having a play-dough fun factory! I made spinach lasagna this afternoon. Lasagna's easy because it doesn't have to be perfectly shaped. I am in love with the new pasta machine.

Andy devised a drying rack by removing an oven rack and propping it between 2 chairs. Worked pretty well! And look at that gorgeous green color.




This recipe takes a long time to prepare, especially when you make the noodles from scratch. It's one of those dishes that takes a good 3 hours to make, and a scant 3 minutes to devour. It is wonderfully rich, but mild on the spice front for those of you who like mild. I would probably spice it up somehow the next time I make it.

I forgot to get a picture of the sliced and baked eggplant that goes into this lasagna, but I did get a pic of Andy brushing the tomato slices with a mixture of tomato paste, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The recipe just called for plain old sliced tomatoes, but at this time of year, fresh tomatoes need some serious help. So Andy dolled them up and baked them for about 25 minutes to concentrate the flavors, which proved to be a great idea.

Fresh mozzarella was layered with the tomatoes and eggplant, and the sauce was a parmesan white sauce accented with nutmeg.





I can't even begin to calculate the calories in each serving! One may debate whether it's worth the time to make your own noodles. I think it is, just because you can achieve a very thin but resilient noodle that I have never been able to buy in a store.



So that's an account of our second pasta making journey. I'm sure there are many more to come!

We're off to the pub for breakfast.

Yep, you heard me right.

Tomorrow, Liverpool plays Manchester United. Big match. No self-respecting Englishman will want to miss this match. That means Andy and I are going to Penny Lane Pub on Fifth and Franklin for breakfast, soccer watching and probably beer. Terry, Penny Lane's owner, is from Liverpool. For special game days like tomorrow, the pub usually serves up a good proper English brekkie, like bangers and eggs and taties. Liverpool is Andy's favorite team, and Andy's dad's fave as well.

Are you getting a sense of the build-up here? My boyfriend was pouncing on the bed this morning at 8 a.m. telling me to "guess what we're doing tomorrow! And guess why I'm kissing you on the cheek right now!" My guess was "that we are going to a bar to drink beer and watch soccer first thing in the morning?"

Then later, we are planning to make homemade lasagna. We're going to take another crack at the pasta machine, which excites me to no end. There's a recipe in Ann Willan's Perfect Pasta for a gorgeous spinach lasagna with eggplant and a mornay sauce. I'll try to take pics this time!

Just Something Pretty

A Very Expensive Dinner

We decided tonight that we would have pasta with tomato sauce. You know--something simple and satisfying.

Then we got a wild hair and decided to take the plunge and buy a pasta machine, which we've been wanting. So now it's a trip to Sur La Table. And we can't go to the snooty mall in our sweats, so it's showers and primping before we leave the house. We buy the pasta machine at Sur La Table, then we must go to Fresh Market and buy semolina flour to make the pasta, because after all this trouble, we'll be crushed if it doesn't turn out right! We buy all the stuff to make ravioli, spending nearly 40 bucks at Fresh Market. The plan is a mushroom-shallot-ricotta-goat cheese filling and Andy's amazing red sauce.

Andy's red sauce is a work of art. I can't say enough about it right now--it needs its own blog entry.

Making pasta dough looks easy in the book. You put a pile of flour on a surface, make a well in the middle, put the wet stuff in the well, and gradually mix it with your fingers until it's a lovely ball of dough. Easier illustrated in a cookbook than done! I ended up scooping the mess into the Cuisinart and finishing it in there. It turned out great, though!

The short story (I know, much too late for that) is that our simple, no-fuss pasta dinner took about 7 hours and cost about $118.00.

I am looking forward to playing with the pasta machine again! I really love it, and it works beautifully. And now that I've actually read some directions on how to use the thing, I'm even more optimistic about my second attempt. Next time I make pasta, I will take pictures.