buttered noodles and parmesan

hello everyone and welcome to my first post on the blog. This is brian, not kathy, if you haven’t figured that out. Don’t be fooled if a previous post or two was added by me, it wasn’t really me. Sometimes the lovely wife doesn’t realize I’m logged in when she makes a post.

Anyway, lets get back to the food. I know that is what everyone really wants to hear about.
Buttered Noodles and Parmesan, what is there to say. . . Well, for starters, this was my staple food, besides Chipotle, for many years. It was a quick meal after work, or before bed if I forgot to eat during the endless hours of World of Warcraft. Now days, I make it most any saturday that kathy has to work, like today. She is busy working a conference at Wycliffe Bible Translators, so I’m home all by myself. Well, walter is here, but since he can’t cook, I’m not going to count him. After a long morning of playing domestic man, vacuuming, dusting, washing dishes and making the bed, it was nice to sit down and enjoy a big bowl of noodles. Buttered noodles and parmesan is my comfort food.

Recipe

  • Noodles – whatever kind you want in whatever quantity you want. I used Barilla Piccolini Farfalle this time. Egg noodles are nice as well.
  • 1 tbsp butter.
  • Parmesan cheese – The real stuff or the dry stuff from the can.
  • Red pepper flakes to season
  • Italian parsley – Not needed, but it makes it look nutritious instead of a big beige loaf.
  1. Fill a pan with water. Liberally salt the water. Place on High heat and let come to a boil.
  2. Dump the pasta into the water. Cook until al-dente. (The time listed on the package works good for me)
  3. Drain the water, add butter and red pepper flakes and toss to coat.
  4. Plop into a bowl and cover with parmesan cheese and parsley.
  5. Take pictures of it.
  6. Eat!!

Hope everyone enjoyed my first post. Z

cooking channel

food network has launched the cooking channel, which is advertised as for food people by food people.   Basically, it is a little dirtier with mostly edgier (not American born?) with probably an averagely younger age and probably distinctly more cheffy cooks.  One of the shows is Dolce Vita by David Rocco which is basically like the italian food show that has food you desperately want to cook and eat – so we did.  Saturday afternoon Z made his Bolognese sauce.  Can I tell you how incredible it was (and is, had it for lunch today!)  The vegetables (carrot, onion and celery) had melted into the tomatoes (Pomi strained – totally recommend them!) and perfectly married with the beef and pork.  Incredible.  It also didn’t hurt that the chef totally reminds me of a friend of ours in Rome.  I am sure I will watch an obnoxious amount of the cooking channel – at least until the show’s begin to homogenize and dull down – but I hope that they don’t.
(I tried to get an action shot of cheese dropping on top of the noodles and seriously…I need a lesson.)

and back to food?

 

z and nick fished in the surf during sunset on st pete beach.  They caught a small, 20″ or so, shark.  I’ve heard it tastes like scallops but we caught and released it.  We have taken a break from really major cooking while my sister and her husband and kids spent time here, favoring more of the burgers, picnics and pizza.  We are back to our usual tonight and had comforting and luscious bowls of cauliflower gruyere soup at home.

summer nights

 

Z fishing in the surf with Nick at sunset on St Pete Beach.  Just wait till you see what they caught. We spent a while (not exactly we, but I was there, floating on a noodle) tossing the net catching minnows in the afternoon.  There are good and bad things about all of this.  The Memorial Day weekend had free (no license needed) fishing declared by the governor.  Good News.  The fishing was free because of the impending oil slick.  Bad News.  I really pray that they cap (cleanly) the well soon and that this summers’ predicted hurricanes don’t push the oil onshore.  I feel for the fishermen in Louisiana.  It may change the way we view seafood and the bounty of the gulf.