Over the weekend Austin and I made pasta again (thanks to the pasta machine loaned by my coworker). The pasta itself was good but not exceptional, but the sauce was so awesome I wanted to just eat a bowl of it plain. The sauce had a nice richness due to the cream, but it was nowhere near as heavy as an alfredo sauce. Don’t be afraid of the vodka-ness of it, there is no taste of vodka in the finished sauce. Apparently the alcohol just helps pull flavors out of the tomatoes and then evaporates in cooking (via).

The sauce was based on this recipe, but like usual I had to go and mess with it a little. There is no such thing as a 35 oz can of tomatoes, as far as I am aware, so I used two 28 oz cans instead. Because if you’re going to make something tasty, why not make a lot of it? I think the recipe could easily be halved, though, if you wanted 4 servings instead of 8.

The (modified) recipe:

1 head of garlic
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 28oz cans of whole tomatoes
1/3 cup vodka
1 can artichoke hearts
Some tasty morsels of meat like prosciutto or pancetta
1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Cut up the garlic (about 10 cloves), add to a big pot with 1/4 cup of olive oil. Add the red pepper flakes and saute for a couple minutes until the garlic is just turning brown.
2. Turn the heat off  (to avoid splattering) and add the tomatoes. I used a hand blender to mush it all up at this point. This also helped distribute the garlic a bit, but I think you could use diced or crushed tomatoes and cut your garlic smaller if you wanted to avoid this step.
3. Bring to a boil for a couple minutes, then add the vodka, diced artichoke hearts, and meat. And a little salt if you feel like it.
4. Let it cook for a while (15 minutes or longer) while you prepare the pasta, then just before serving add the cream and bring it back to a boil. Top it with parmesan cheese and parsley (parsley very optional).

YUM. You will not regret it.

From Nigella Lawson, but I used this NYT recipe. The flavor was nice, but I’m not a big fan of how dense homemade cakes are. Perhaps the issue was the slightly inaccurate conversions from metric. I wish I had seen the original recipe first. Everyone else seemed to love it, though, so maybe I just have weird tastes.

I’ve had a puff pastry from Trader Joes in my freezer since… well, since I lived in my last apartment. It moved with me. I have a bad habit of forgetting about things in my fridge. When I was moving out of my last house in Kalamazoo, I found a carton of eggs that had completely evaporated inside their shells. I didn’t even know eggs could do that.

Anyhow, it was definitely time to use up the puff pastry, as well as some pancetta that was about 6 days past its sell-by date. I decided to try a recipe from epicurious for a puff-pastry spinach quiche. I used the recipe pretty much as written, except I added my pancetta (about 1/2 cup), an extra egg, and I used milk instead of half and half (which I’m sure makes it practically a diet recipe). Then I garnished the top with a layer of thinly sliced mushrooms because, why not? I did manage to refrain from adding any garlic, which makes this the third recipe in a row I have made without garlic.

I thought if I baked the puff-pastry first, it would be, well, puffier. Instead, it kind of shrunk up and no longer filled my tart pan. So I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it and threw it back into the oven so that I could eat it on its own later, as a snack. I then laid the second pastry down in the pan, and just added the filling and baked the whole thing at once. It turned out awesome.

Okay, okay, looking over the ingredients list it’s pretty obvious why this would be a good recipe. Eggs, puff pastry, and three kinds of cheese typically do add up to tastiness. I ate two generous slices last night, and packed it for lunch today. You (Jenny) might be thinking this doesn’t sound like a recipe you would like, but you are wrong. You should make this.

I was walking to the subway and came across what i thought was dog poop, but it was strangely flat on one side. I got closer only to realize it was a severed finger! The human kind.

I didn’t take a photo of it to post here; you’re welcome.

I cannot figure out why this building would have a sign notifying people that there are steel plates on the roof. The sign does not appear to be placed near any logical point of access to the roof, but it is visible from the elevated train platform (where I took the picture).

Are steel plates some kind of electrical hazard? Is there some reason why miscreants would be deterred from entering a roof because of steel plates? Perplexing.

Unfortunately. I can’t add the koala to my list of potential pets, since the Washington Post tells me it is “actually a rather grumpy creature with a loud growl and sharp claws. It rarely comes down from the trees and doesn’t like walking.” Bummer.