Daily Archives: September 29, 2010

[46] Pasta Carbonara

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

You’ll notice this recipe looks a touch out of order. Specifically, you might be wondering, “Where is recipe #45?” Well, I didn’t get any response on whether “Everyday Pancakes” out of “How to Cook Everything” and “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian” were multiple recipes or a single recipe. So, for the moment, I’m counting them as separate recipes, but not giving a post to something you’ve already heard about unless something truly interesting happens, or I figure out a very good new technique or something. That’s boring. So, let’s move on to more interesting topics.

I picked last night’s dinner idea mostly out of my brain, assuming one of my cookbooks would have a recipe. Actually, to be honest, I assumed more than one would. I was wrong, and so we ended up with yet another Bittman recipe.… Continue reading →

The Complete Book of Italian Cooking

The Complete Book of Italian Cooking, edited by Anne Hildyard

Once upon a time, when I was very young, my parents left me in the care of a family friend, Kevin. I was, in fact, too young to remember the events in this story, so everything I’m relating to you is effectively second-hand. (For example, was my sister there too? I just don’t know.)

Kevin very kindly made me spaghetti for dinner that night. While I know better now, I apparently hadn’t yet learned some of the finer points of etiquette as regarding visiting another person’s home. So when he put the plate of spaghetti in front of me, my response was the appropriate and polite “Thank you; looks delicious!”, but rather, “Yuck!” My understanding is that I then insisted I didn’t like any spaghetti but what my mother made and refused to touch his.… Continue reading →