Red Wine and Pasta, together at last

The Italians have it right. I wanted to start this post with that sentence but really, it's care of some Serious Eats newsletter that I bring you this best week's recipe from that week long long ago, a recipe for Spaghetti All'Ubriaco, which they tell me is Italian for drunken spaghetti.. Yes! Spaghetti cooked in a mixture of half red wine and half water, then splashed with extra wine right at the end (among other added things).

Rrrrrrrrrrr....

I was so intrigued by the recipe and inspired by the poster's enthusiasm that when I got home after work the same day, looked at that whole wheat spaghetti displayed in this glass jar on my fridge, and this leftover wine I had on that there counter, it was a no-brainer.. I needed to combine this and that and check out what the fuss was all aboot.

I'm terrible at following recipes, I most always meddle and fix it to my liking, as is the case with the linked recipe.

2 cups water

2 cups drinkable cheap red wine, plus 1/4 cup, reserved/separated

2 person portion of whole wheat pasta (kamut, spelt are healthy too. I estimate, sorry! Maybe I need this spaghetti measuring tool to crowd up my gadget drawer.)

1 leek, thinly sliced

1 large garlic clove, sliced

2 tbsp fresh parsley (I was out)

1 tbsp butter

olive oil on hand for splashing (in the dish, eh)

Start by lightly caramelizing the leeks in a bit of olive oil. Not sure how? Caramelizing happens when cooking something over low heat for a long time. This brings out the sweet nutty flavour of certain foods, so toss the leeks in a splash of olive oil big enough to coat but not drown, and let them sit over low heat in a pan until they change color and become increasingly delicious. Set aside, and by aside I don't mean in your mouth, not yet.

Oh... they were so plentiful before... caramelization: size < flavour.

Boil the liquids, add pasta and cook al dente, stirring often. Meanwhile, brown the sliced garlic in another splash of olive oil and the butter.

Drain the liquid into a bowl, marvel at the beauty of your cooked pasta, add the 1/4 cup of wine to the garlic in the pan, plus a generous portion of the red water. Turn up the heat so the mixture starts simmering, add the al dente pasta, the caramelized leeks and parsley, and toss the pan around until the liquid is absorbed.

Done! Add some shredded/grated cheese if you like. As usual, I did not.

Tv chefs have taught me that cooking alcohol abolished the alcohol content, but according to serious studies, alcohol added to a mixture and boiled for 15 minutes retains 40% of its alcohol content; another prime example that you can't believe everything you see on tv. With this newfound knowledge, I've decided this is one dish I'll be happy not to share with kids.

Taste? A tastesplosion in a major way.

This presentation has been brought to you by this wine and that pasta.

Cutting the Grapefruit.

I was editing a small video I made about cutting grapefruit a while ago, and after a hour of reading and an hour of practicing with Adobe Premiere, I saved my project. When I tried opening the wrong saved file, my computer wouldn't recognize the file type. Thinking I did something wrong and too tired to care, I went to bed and forgot about it. Until I stumbled on it today.

That being said, I love stumbling on things, especially when it's something I made and didn't know I had, like this video here.

What to do with pinch bowls?

The topic of pinch bowls came up today, or more like "what to do with pinch bowls". In reality, what can't you do with these cute silicone bowls. I purchased eight last year when Domus (the closest kitchen supply store) had a massive 40% sale. As you may know, I'm a bit of a condiment fan; they've come in handy when I want to have six different sauces for my plate of McCain low fat fries or when I'm pre-measuring spices.

What other uses could they have? I wasn't aware how minuscule small eggs could get until I saw these, care of the dude who picked them out of the grocery refrigerator...

... and now I'm wondering if I could use my pinch bowls to poach these teeny eggs, instead of getting one of the poachers I've been debating over.

The poaching idea: to be continued..

We Now Interrupt For This Special Public Service Announcement..

When removing roasted almonds or cookies from an oven always use both hands to lift the pan out of the oven and both hands to close the oven door. DO NOT try to open, remove with one hand and close with the other simultaneously. This will not, I repeat, will not work in your favor.


"If fooled, you can't get fooled again..."



WRONG! As the saying goes, Fool me once, shame on you, pan. Fool me twice, shame on me.. in the shape of a burnt almond ouchie.


"How the frak do you burn yourself twice roasting almonds??"


I've been asking myself the same question, twice a day, which is how often I change my arm bandage. It's been three weeks. Lesson learned, ok?

Food Monstar's Fruity Fruity Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies!

Today, I accidentally mixed up my Extra Strength Cold & Sinus Day pills for the nighttime ones. Gah!

No matter though, the great part of today was watching your friends and co-workers anihalate your the little baked labour of love cookies that you spend a couple hours slaving away over the day before while enjoying your first day of the real NFL season (even if Farve defected).

I originally made this recipe last Christmas, when I baked ten different variety of cookies, packed them all up into their own suitcase (there were that many) and hauled them back home for the holidays. These suckers stayed moist and chewy unrefrigerated for two weeks. Ok, in reality it was three, but in case I'm liable for the well being of my readers, I'll protect you and say two. Refrigirated if you must. (Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.)

Quit stallin', me. Here's the recipe which I found via some magical google search for oatmeal and coconut cookies and which I can no longer find a link for. All I know is that I found, I switcherooed two items, and ta-da...

the Food Monstar's Fruity Fruity Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies!

3 cups oatmeal flour (process Oatmeal/Quick Oats in blender/food processor until pulverized)

1/2 cup whole weat or all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt (optional) (why do recipes say optional?? I forgot to add it this time, but I'd usually straddle the optional line and put half in.)

1 cup toasted almonds, chopped (don't know how? raw alonds can be toasted at 350ish for about 8-10 minutes on a cookie sheet. They're ready when they have browned and smell delicious. Remove from oven, let cool.)

1 cup finely chopped dried fruits (mango, papaya, apricots, maybe kiwi, think about adding raisins and Thor will get you then and there. NO RAISINS!!!)

4 tbsp water

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup honey

16oz. can of crushed pineapple, partially drained

Wait, what? No butter? No. No butter. Here's how it all comes together.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.

In a blender, mix water, vanilla, honey and pineapple.

Add to dry ingredients, mix until combined.

Drop by spoonfuls onto parchement lined cookie sheet. Cookies retain their shape when baking, so try to spread them pretty flat.

Bake for 14 minutes, remove from oven, yada yada yada the whole cookie cooling spiel. (Let sit for a few minutes on the pan and transfer to cookie cooling rack.) Reapeat!

These babies will not brown so much, please don't attempt to burn them. They're deceivingly delicious! Try them! The masses agree!

..And by masses I mean the friends that I begged to eat these. "I don't know.." some skeptically said.. then they went back for thirds and there were none. Ha! That'll teach em.

The marvels of Pita Pizza

Have I never posted anything about my staple summer food? Pita Pizza can be whipped up in a matter of minutes, fill you up with fresh summer seasonal ingredients without weighing you down. No more excuses to head outdoors and enjoy what Ottawa seems to be calling it's summer special:"SUMMER SPECIAL, BACK FOR ONE WEEK ONLY, ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN."

Pita sandwiches are good, but I prefer to lay it flat, use pizza sauce instead of mayo and bake it for 10 minutes in the oven. It's fantastic for those 'use what's left in the fridge' days.

In this edition:

Medium pita bread, sprayed on the underside with PAM or olive oil. If you're daring, sprinkled with garlic salt or your favorite spice combo.

Top with:

Pizza sauce

Deli turkey, prociutto & roast beef

Asperagus & green beens

Fresh parsley

Garlic, pepper, red pepper flakes

Add cheese at your own risk.

Assemble, carefully pop it in the oven directly on the rack at 375F, and remove once the pita bread has hardened enough to support the weight of the pizza, and veggies and meats have grilled.

Très simple!

Also good for breakfast, topped with thin fried omelette instead of veggie/meat.

All hail Japanese snacks!

Sometime (immediately) after BC came back from a month long stint in Japan many years ago, my world of snack knowledge expanded exponentially to include all things Japanese. Suddenly I knew that Pocari Sweat was not something you expel from your body after a mean run, Pocky was not the name for the sound Pilsbury Doughboy makes and that rice chips were no longer something my dad used to purchase at Bulk Barn.

Pocky was the instant hit for me; a thin bread stick coated with chocolate, and better yet, with dozens of simple and fancy varieties. I simply could not get enough. I tried every new flavour I laid eyes on, almost obsessively so, until the day I could no longer eat the white stuff (milk). That's about when I discovered Pretz.

Sure, chocolate is RAD, small portions of cookie-type bread stick covered in flavourful chocolate and sometimes nuts or swirls is RAD, but most often, milk chocolate are used and therefore forbidden. I had seen Pretz lying around the same section of the Asian grocery markets I visited, but with flavours like Tomato, Salad and Roast, I was not tempted. I mean, Roast flavour?? Is that beefy? chicken? pork? miscellaneous? What? OK, fine, what the heck, I caved for the roast flavour. It was delicious in fact, not at all something my grandmother would make. Wiki describes it as "butter, honey and coffee". Who wouldn't like that!? I was sold and became a Pretz convert there on after.

Here are the recent additions to my Pocky/Pretz collection:

Beer Pretz (Spicy Chicken) was good, but not all that finger lickin' good. Not a substitute. Should have been called "flavourful flavour".

Curry flavour!! So delish. I drop this one in a cup with the next flavour and roll the dice of flavours when I randomly grab one from the cup.

Corn flavour!!!! My number one. As my brother once said when he tasted it: "What the hell? It tastes exactly like corn." That's right, juicy, buttery, salted corn without the stuck bits in your teeth. Warning: Highly Addictive.

Mmmm.. Cappuccino? Or is that Double Double? At any rate, it was creamy goodness packed with the devil food (milk).

Blueberry Pocky!

Chocolate Banana Pocky! *the unfancy kind.

Honey & Milk Pocky!

Morning Time Pocky! Cornflakes, milk & yogurt, blueberry chips. In my top five.

Pumpkin flavour! Not so yum. Tasted like staleness dipped in honey. Too sweet, not enough spice and pie flavour. The worst. I mean it.