[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 →

No Red Meat by Brenda Shriver

Cover of No Red Meat by Brenda Shriver

This is one of the books that I gave to Corrine when I moved from Baltimore to Chicago and she gave back to me a couple of years later. Prior to its vacation at her house, I’d owned it for several years. Maybe five or six? I can’t remember, but I think I bought it at Half-Price Books in Dallas while visiting my friend Turtle-Maria’s family around my 21st birthday.

I bought it because I simply stopped eating red meat1 for a good long time. I think this was a year or two into that phase, but I also don’t remember exactly how old I was when it started. Just that I was already in college and living on my own. I’d be curious if my mother would have been willing to cook for my diet if I’d been living at home when this started.… Continue reading →

Well, was it a new recipe or not?

Cover of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman

Just in the knick of time to have it in today!

Well, I made pancakes this morning/afternoon (we slept in very late). It was the “Everyday Pancakes” recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. We’ve made a Bittman “Everyday Pancakes” recipe before, from “How to Cook Everything.”

These, frankly, we more dense. I don’t know what I did differently. Overall, just less delicious. I definitely didn’t cook them in enough butter. Boo.

So, would folks like to see a new write-up and a call for this to be a new recipe or no? If I get no input, that’s cool. I’ll make a decision.… Continue reading →