About Me

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Ten years into widowhood, after one year of incredible happiness and nearly 14 years of single blessedness. Retired, and mostly enjoying it. Still knitting. [Zen]tangling.again after a brief hiatus.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Gnocchi, gnocchi.

Who's there?
Pasta.
Pasta who?
Pasta point of no return on fixing dinner tonight.

You may safely assume that I am having a better week. I am cooking (from scratch thus far) pasta with hamburger. A pound of dead cow into a medium pot with a generous dusting of granulated garlic and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Or as fresh as it can be when the address label on the jar of pepper berries is for a pre-2008 address.

Meanwhile, I heated water in two Pyrex measuring cups in the microwave and eventually poured it over the meat. Brought it to a nice rolling boil and tossed in the contents of a jar of geriatric mystery pasta, courtesy of my late mother-in-love,  or possibly Beloved. If you look at the pasta bits endwise they look like S's. About an inch long,  uncooked. Robust. 10 minutes is not long enough to tenderize them. So I gave them another 5 and am hoping they won't dissolve into mush.

They did not. Still feisty but not crunchy. Small (8 oz) jar of Beloved's tomato sauce, canned on Middlest's birthday. Just a whisper of sauce. And about half a bottle of pre-shredded Parmesan because (a) I suddenly realized that I was famished, and (b) I am out of the really good stuff and wanted to use this up so I could justify the purchase.

Verdict? Seriously yummy and reasonably healthy. With a week's worth of lunches to anticipate.

And while I was puttering in the kitchen, the Young Men's president was mowing my yard. One of the older teenage boys will be taking this over. And I will be contributing to his mission fund. I don't want to be a quorum service project. And I don't want to hire an undocumented worker like so many folks do. I want a kid I know and trust, and whose family I know and trust, so I can give him a clearly marked key to the gate and a check every week or two. And everybody wins.

Time to put away the leftovers and go curl up with a small stack of good books. Tomorrow will be here before you know it. And I will be bargain hunting after work. So it's not so much a matter of beauty sleep as it is of girding my loins.

My goal is to bring home a nice assortment of basics and accessories for my wardrobe and spend less than $100. Got an email from my sister today. She is tossing a bunch of scarves into the box with my birthday preset. I get to raid her closet from  2500(?) miles away!

1 comment:

Tola said...

we call that concoction beefaroni. last time i made it, i unearthed a pound of sausage instead of hamburger. that, a pound of pasta, and a jar of sauce plus a sprinkle of cheese is a nice supper for the two of us, plus a lunch or two. with a good juice or smoothie mix as a beverage, you have a fairly well-balanced meal.

i dont have a yard, but i am looking forward to finally meeting our new ward and finding out if an older Primary boy or a Deacon would come over after school once a week and schlep my trash and recycling out.