Recent Photos and Fun

Making dinner for Ashley was really fun last night. My first real cooking night since I've been here. She left me in her apartment filled (I used that term loosely) with ingredients about to go bad, so instead of running to the market, I put my skills to work and made a kick ass dinner out of thin air. Took pictures along the way, perhaps I will share them with her and give her a lesson in using whatcha got!

Here is my tasty adventure...

I started, of course, with a nice big glass of wine to start my mental flow. First thought... you have this huge thing of basil, just on the verge, and I am going to use it! What you don't see is that she also has pasta, Parmesan cheese and good olive oil.

I asked myself... while these ingredients are great, they do not an exciting meal or cooking experience make. What else shall I use?

Hmmm.... Bacon?

Cooked up a little bacon, making it nice and crispy in the process and creating a wonderful base in the saute pan for the rest of this dining experiment.

Because of the conscious and heart-caring person I am, I did in fact drain off a good portion of the grease that was left in the pan, keeping just a little for it's extraordinary flavor quality. Believe me, if I could, I would cook everything in bacon grease, it's ridic for sure. That being said, I would like to live a nice long life and I know that is one life shortening (pun intended) ingredient indeed.

Next, I found red onion, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes and red wine vinegar. Sadly there was no garlic, but I made it work. Sauteing the chopped onions in the bacon pan until translucent, then adding the chopped bell pepper and cherry tomatoes, which I had quartered, with salt and pepper.

After they all had time to brown up, I deglazed the pan with a mixture of dark red wine (must have been a syrah blend) and red wine vinegar. I would have just used the red wine, but I was also drinking it and had to, for obvious reasons, reserve some for the chef.

The result of 25 minutes of simmering was this:

Once I knew Ash was close, I added thinly shredded basil marinated in olive oil, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to the sauce, letting it the basil wilt because the sauce was still hot and reserving some for garnish.

Tossed the pasta, sauce and some of the bacon pieces all up together in a big bowl, topping off the whole thing with the rest of the crushed bacon bits, basil and a sprinkling of cheese.

Charley got tired of watching me cook and not getting a lot of love, so he chilled while I set up the table.

I made the table up for two and my girly dinner date for two was complete. All I needed was the guest of honor. Beautiful isn't it?

It was yum, yum, yummy!