Pastarama

I suppose followers of this blog must sometimes wonder about how often we have pasta. My reply? I've always considered it one of the major food groups (along with chocolate and ice cream).

Yet again, it's the mooshed-up avocado for sauce, but the pasta's not our usual whole wheat or multigrain.

Tonight it's store-bought 'fresh' linguini, and creamy white. Amazing how just a different shape and texture can alter an old favourite -- in this case, enhancing it, though it probably helps that I tossed in a couple of additions. We had one of the homemade bockwursts left from last night's barbie, so along with some mushrooms, I sliced it up and added it to the mix.

Salad, of course. And with luck, maybe one of those other important food groups for dessert.

A recipe for sunshine

Although I can't guarantee it for anyone else, today's planned corn on the cob seemed to bring the sun out from behind the clouds. Most of the day was downright blustery, but just before supper, the skies magically cleared.

There were a few buns left from last night's burgers, so the homemade sausages on the barbie made much-better-than-average hot dogs. And yes, we had the promised (and worth the wait) corn, as well as a salad flecked with blue cheese.

Best-laid plans

Drat. Sometimes they just don't work out the way we'd hoped.

This morning looked sunny and bright, so I thought, Yippee, burgers on the barbie! I even bought two ears of corn for the occasion.

But then. just a little while ago, it started raining -- and not just a fuzzy drizzle, this looks like the real thing.

That was enough to make me turn on the oven and slice up some potatoes for baked fries. Only right after I popped them in there, I remembered the corn!

The Dear Man is such a trouper, he made the burgers outside anyway, claiming they don't taste the same otherwise. He also cooked up one of the eggplants from the garden, so instead of sliced cheese topping our burgers, we've got sliced eggplant. Not as weird as some toppings -- in Australia, the traditional add-on's a fried egg.

Oh well, tomorrow night it'll be corn and somethin'...

Something light for a busy day

It's been a busy day here -- things to do in the city, a pickup at the airport, and then finishing off a project I've been working on here at home.

When it got dark enough to turn on some lights (earlier and earlier these days), I decided it would probably perk me up to eat something.

Break time meant something quick (just me tonight, and that project I'm working on is sooo near completion...), so one of those hurry-up stand-by meals just sort of happened.

A tin of tomato soup, mixed up with milk -- then, for comfort's sake, a bunch of broken up crackers.

Early birthday celebrations

Tomorrow is the day that's actually the Dear Man's birthday, only he's not going to be home for supper tomorrow night. Instead, he's spending the day doing what's dearest to his heart -- playing golf. He's participating in a tournament and a fancy dinner is part of the event.

I've got heaps to do tomorrow too, so it's just as well to have our celebratory meal tonight. Dear-hearted man that he is, his request was a simple one: he wanted an assortment of takeaway from the local Greek place. Really, how hard was that? It's no wonder he's known as the D.M.

Dessert (not a birthday cake) was also super easy. A couple of pieces of baklava, accompanied by a first-time (for both of us) taste treat, fresh dates. The dates didn't taste anything like what I'd imagined. More like tiny, rather juiceless apples. Still, they went perfectly with the honeyed baklava.

Wild Friday Night

I'm sorry to disappoint, but the wildest thing about tonight is probably the addition of the wild mushrooms to tonight's pasta sauce. We found a small but interesting assortment of mushrooms in the forest last weekend.

The ones we're using tonight are cracked boletes. They have a rich flavour and nice texture, and provide a good contrast to the spicy sausages that also helped flavour the sauce.

And hey, who knows. It is Friday. It may still turn a bit wild after all.

Short order supper

If my mother were alive, she'd attest that when I was little I liked doing things for myself. An example of this was placing my own order when we went out to eat. Apparently my standard choice was a grilled cheese 'sammich' and a glass of chocolate milk.

Tonight sees me hosting an event where four writers will be doing short readings of their work. To ensure I get out of here early enough, supper's a short order affair.

It's the same order as long ago, grilled cheese, though I'll admit the 'sammich' is a slightly more grown-up version -- on multigrain bread. There's even a sliced up tomato tucked inside.

But yep, I still like a glass of chocolate milk to go with it!