Me Make Pasta

My friend Maureen has an amazing blog on real vegetarian cooking at The Vegetarian Salmon, and she keeps pestering me to cook more, so even though I suck at the cooking, the motivating to cook, and the blogging about the cooking, I'm (sort of) really trying to do better.

Last week I bought some awesome olives from the olive bar at Gigante and bought a yellow squash with the intention of doing some sort of pasta thing. There's this pasta that's probably been in my cabinet since I moved in in 2002, but it doesn't go bad, right? Well I never got around to it, and the squash got squishy. So that didn't work, but this week, I again got my intentions up and bought another squash and some fresh garlic.

I'll start backwards. The dish was OK the night I made it, but I had leftovers today and it was really good. All the flavors had soaked together in the pasta and it was pretty darn tasty. I guess that's a semi-success. Here's what it looked like.

Here's what I did.

I cut up the squash while heating some olive oil and a pressed garlic clove in a small pan. Then I set the water boiling. As the oil heated, I cut up the squash. Then I threw it in and started pitting and cutting the olives. I sauteed the squash for a while. I just tasted it until it seemed good and cooked. I think there may be some more cook-ish way of telling, but this seemed to work. I heated up some leftover TJ's Arrabiata sauce as the pasta went in the boiling water. Eventually I added everything together in a plastic bowl (Maureen says this is bad, but I'm not sure why), added some fresh Parmesan and my signature garlic bread

(Take a pre-sliced, frozen multi-grain baguette and throw some butter, oregano, basil, garlic, and garlic salt on it and bake until it looks good.)

I know I used the wrong pasta, and apparently the wrong bowl, but this wasn't bad. I put together food I liked, it was pretty easy, quick, and it sort of worked.

Important Cooking Tips for the Newbie

My friend Jeff sent me this after he read the blog. I already know some folks won't agree with all of it, but let's all be friends here. No flaming on my blog. Feel free to add to it for my benefit.

• don't burn the garlic
• don't burn the butter
• fresh homegrown tomatoes + mayo + toast = heaven
• one glass of wine for the pot, one for the cook
• never wash cast iron with soap
• rice is 2:1; water:rice
• risotto is 7:1
• brown rice is good but takes 3x as long
  

(these are starting to get focused on the vegetarian reader)

• homemade hummus is just as good
• double the garlic (unless it's served raw)
• ingredients are important.
• chocolate is good.
• a little cream fixes many mediocre sauces
• if you like soup, get a hand blender
• everything's better with cheese (except seafood - delicate flavors can be overpowered)
• know your audience - watch the spice
• add salt to onions and mushrooms to sweat them in a saute
• never walk away from heating milk or sugar on the stov, unless you want to clean the stove
  
• don't skip the salt in baking
  
• kids like choc chip pancakes
• goat cheese is good in an omelet
• julia child's original PBS show with the omelet should be required viewing
• serve a nice drink while you're cooking to distract your guests
• chili loves beer
• frozen peas are better than canned ones
• many soups are better the second day
• canned broth is better than a bouillon cube
• keep your knife sharp - it's easier and safer than a dull one
• never put a good knife in the dishwasher
• every cook needs 2 good knives: a small paring knife and a 6" chef's knife.