Thursday, February 26, 2015

Chicken Carbonara

I'll admit it. I have an obsession. I watch ALOT of Food Network.  I mean I can spend hours on there watching all the different chefs and their shows.  Now of course, I like some more than others but I can watch all of them.  One of the shows that amazes me is Chopped.  The fact that these chefs can get a basket of random ingredients and just make something wonderful is mind boggling.  I don't operate like that.  People say think outside the box. Sorry folks, I like my box. That being said, I really enjoy cooking. I always have but there are a few things that keep me from cooking more.
1. I really don't like cleaning up the mess
2. I don't like having dirty hands
3. I'm not super confident in my abilities. 

On Oscar night this year, I decided to try a chicken carbonara recipe from Tyler Florence. This recipe was fast, easy and really good! I can tell if a meal is a success based on my husband.  When he said he wanted to take the leftovers to work the next day, I knew this was a keeper.  Here's the recipe and yes, I cut and pasted it from Foodnetwork.com

Total Time:
25 min
Prep:
15 min
Cook:
10 min

Yield:
4 to 6 servings

Level:
Intermediate

Ingredients

1 pound dry spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces pancetta or slab bacon, cubed or sliced into small strips
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 large eggs
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper
1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Directions

Prepare the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure that the spaghetti will be hot and ready when the sauce is finished; it is very important that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture, so that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs in the sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian "al dente.") Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the sauce if you wish.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to soften.

Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Pass more cheese around the table.

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence
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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Ventura

For the last 3 years, we have joined our best friends for some sort of a getaway for Presidents Day weekend.  This year we traveled up the coast to Ventura.  Now you could put the eight of us in a cardboard box and we'd find a way to have fun :)  Here are some of the things I found interesting to look at while we were out exploring.












 and my personal favorite from the weekend: 




Thursday, February 12, 2015

The Singing Butler

 
  One of my favorite artists is Jack Vettriano. I was introduced to some of his paintings years ago when my Grandparents put The Singing Butler over the couch in their living room. I thought I would take a few minutes and share why I love this painting.
   I thought it was interesting that my Grandparents put this in their house. First of all the setting is at the beach. The beach has always been a place most of our family has enjoyed going and we have spent many hours there. Secondly the couple in Vettriano’s work are so happy and in love. My Grandparents were married 67 years and had a love worth striving for. The man and woman in the painting are dressed so elegantly. Ever since I can remember my Grandparents were always well dressed and had a great sense of style. Lastly and I can’t forget to mention my Grandfather enjoyed a dance here and there and from what I hear, was actually pretty good. I’ve heard many of the women in our family say he was a great dancer and he was their favorite partner (aside from their husbands of course)
   I’m really not sure why my Grandparents liked this painting. Maybe they looked at it everyday and it made them smile. Maybe they saw themselves in the couple dancing on the beach. Maybe they knew that after they were gone this picture would bring so many smiles to our families faces when we saw it. Maybe it’s even done all of the above. Well played Grandmother and Grandfather… well played. It is only appropriate that I end with the expression that hung above their front door “Sursum Corda” which simply means “Lift Up Your Hearts” 


 Here are some other painting from Jack Vettriano that I like