Tomorrow we’re having something simple: pasta with mussels.
My ingredients:
garlic
extra-virgin olive oil (evoo)
fresh tomatoes (not the tomato paste)
white wine
basil
parsley
pine nuts (I like nuts on my food)
mussels
Pasta? I’ll use spaghetti. Maybe linguini. I like to try different pasta shapes: bow ties, wheels, spirals, shells, Mickey Mouse, and — hahaha — penis pasta (lol. I can only find these in Italy). But for bivalves like mussels and clams, the long strand of noodles work best for me.
Hopefully, it’ll look like this:
source: dreamfields pasta
What’s cooking in your kitchens tomorrow?
Last week I got inspired by your post about Thai yellow curry, so I gathered some ingredients from home before heading up to my cabin, then bought the rest of what I needed at the market on the mountain. My plan was to make pumpkin curry using chunks of butternut squash because that doesn’t turn to mush when cooked. Other vegetables, for color, I planned to add were red bell pepper, broccoli, and mushrooms. I also bought some cashews to toss in for good measure.
So why am I reporting this in past tense? Because while trying to cut the rind off a slice of butternut squash, I instead sliced into two fingers. Alone at my cabin, and with no nearby neighbors home, I had to clean snow off my car one handedly, then palm the steering wheel on mountain curves as I drove myself to the hospital emergency room. On my left hand I now have two stitches in my ring finger and four stitches in my middle finger.
Meatless…at least that was my intent.
OMG @Welmaris! That must have hurt. I’m so sorry. I hope you are feeling better and your stitches healing well. Well, it was meatless but apparently, not bloodless.
I hope it’s getting better now, @welmaris.
@packmule3, what the heck does penis pasta look like? 🤣
For non-chunky sauces, I like the ones called radiatori and the ones called fusilli bucati, which are spirals. My daughters liked them because they were curly like their hair. We sometimes get orichiette (little ears) or dischi volanti, a sci-fi favourite as a laugh. Trofie, which are lovely little twists, are traditional in Liguria for pesto sauce.
I love to shop for interesting pastas in imported food stores. Often there are shapes not available in local supermarkets. I’ve noticed that local selection is different in the UK and in the USA. Also different shapes are popular in particular areas of Italy, so even there you may not find some shapes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiatori
https://www.pasta-garofalo.com/uk/product/n-64-fusilli-bucati-corti/
Here, we are going full-out gourmet and having fish finger/stick sandwiches on panini with home-made tartar sauce (and ketchup option) with fresh veg on the side.
Are you okay, @Welmaris?! 😢
Oh my gosh! I don’t know how you manage to get to the ER on your own. I would’ve passed out in pain.
And how can you make a joke about going meatless! 😂 Seeing all that blood gushing from you should have turned you off anything with muscles, tendons, and flesh.
Wait. Where did you get a concussion? Was it in the cabin, too?
Get your cabin blessed or offer something to the forest gods, Welmaris! 🙂
Yes, @Packmule3, I’m doing okay now. Stitches are due out on Tuesday; after that this episode will be history. And there was no gushing of blood. The moment the cleaver came down on my fingers I knew I’d done something bad, so I grabbed a wad of paper towels and put pressure on the wounds. I also kept my hand elevated above the level of my heart as much as possible. I’m the daughter of a nurse: not just any nurse, but one who served in the Army Nurse Corps through WWII in the European Theater. She’d seen some stuff. She modeled for me how to deal with medical emergencies.
Concussion? I can’t remember suffering one at the cabin, but then again I often whack my head with cabinet doors, corners of furniture, etc…at home as well as in the mountains.
As for bad juju up here: my knife-usage stupidity comes from carelessness and bad form. Can’t blame that on the cabin. All the other challenges I’ve recently been facing, arranging cleanup and repairs of damage from an ice storm, are to be expected in a forest at an altitude over a mile high. Sometimes Mother Nature asserts her will.
A couple food notes:
Since I’m not cooking much these past few days, I’m enjoying packaged salads to which I’ve been adding smoked salmon for protein.
And I want to remind everyone of an upcoming important calendar date: Pi(e) Day, 3.14! (This makes more sense in the USA where we usually write dates month, day, year.) To celebrate I’ll have pizza or chicken pot pie for dinner, then a slice of dessert pie (fresh strawberry, probably).
3.14 is pi (pie) day!!! Our company is giving pies to us by curbside pick up on Monday!!!
This is our favorite Filipino comfort food for meatless Fridays. It’s called “sinigang sa Sampalok” – sour soup using tamarind mix you can buy at Asian stores (Knorr brand).
It’s very easy to cook, it’s like boiling water, put tomatoes and onions, add shrimps (we also add salmon), the tamarind mix, fish sauce to taste and veggies. For the veggies, since not all are available locally, we skip the rest and use bokchoy instead.
Here’s a video: https://youtu.be/bzGm-9FyKzw
I love it being really sour! We even add more tomatoes or half can of tomato sauce.
Thanks, @Janey.
Will the tamarind powder have instructions on how much water and tablespoons of the powder to use?
The YT clip didn’t say.
I think I’ve tried this before. Didn’t it have crushed pineapples and bean sprouts, too?
I thought the long radish was a white carrot. 😂😂
@PM3, the 40g packet is for 8 cups of water. No crushed pineapples and bean sprouts – That sounds interesting though. It’s like Thai tom yum soup from a sourness standpoint but a bit plainer on the other spices. Let me know what you think if you’ll try it.
@PM3, a 40g packet is for 8 cups of water. No crushed pineapples and bean sprouts. It’s like Thai tom yum soup from a sourness standpoint but a bit plainer on the other spices. Let me know what you think if you’ll try it.
Sheesh @Welmaris! I hope the stitches are not uncomfortable and you’re healing well. Thank goodness you’re the stoic, practical and non-hyserical type. I actually admire how intrepid you were in firstly buying a cabin up in the mountains, and then of course when you have to keep going up to enjoy it and maintain it. Your retelling of your experiences of the wildfires near your cabin, the storms that brought down big branches, the damage that could have happened … got me cringing.
Truth to tell, I’d like to just visit a cabin and spend a couple of nights there with a bunch of friends or family, but I don’t think I’d want to be there alone for long, especially in Winter.