"Unofficial" Pasta Cabonara

One would think that since I haven't made anything blog-worthy in a while, the "come back" dish would be a sophisticated, technically-difficult something.  Well sorry, Charlie.  I'm at the point where I hang out in my sewing space until I'm so hungry that when I go to the kitchen, I eat the first thing I see. I've gotten away from meal planning.

Two handfuls of Craisins later, I decided on pasta cabonara – my way.  If I'd bothered to look up a recipe, I would have realized that I wasn't too far from the real thing. However you make it, it is simple and delicious.

Let's do it. You'll need some al dente spaghetti. I mix regular with whole wheat. Boil the whole wheat for two minutes by itself and then add the regular spaghetti.

While the pasta boils, fry up some bacon. I'm rolling with turkey bacon.  Doesn't that look great?

Try not to eat too much as you chop it up.  I was proud of myself – I only had a small pinch. Excuse the blur.

Beat an egg.

The following is not an exciting picture, but it's what I have to show for the next steps.  Take a ladle of your hot pasta water and warm a mixing bowl.  Pour the water out and get ready to move quickly. This may not be necessary, but this is the way I do it. (I don't want to lose any heat.)

Add the egg to the warm bowl and get the hot pasta in there.

Toss the pasta & egg and watch the magic.  First it gets frothy.

Bacon!!

If I were following a recipe, I'd add chopped garlic sautéed in bacon drippings. Since I didn't do that, my next step is to add plenty of black pepper, Italian seasoning and Parmesan. (This was an on-the-fly meal; I didn’t have any fresh parsley.)

Let us pause to thank Italy for its contribution to food.

I mean earnestly thank the Italians.

I leave you now to ponder the goodness of bacon, eggs and pasta.

Tools of the Trade

• All-Clad Asparagus Pot
• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
• Shun Santoku
• Glass mixing bowls

Buy The Book #4: Cook's Illustrated 2003 Annual

Whenever I can knock out a killer breakfast, I am a happy camper. One of the things I do love for breakfast is cornmeal pancakes. Many a day I opened a box of Jiffy for pancakes and not cornbread. That is until I discovered lemon-cornmeal blueberry pancakes in 2003.

This was the year I bought my first CI Annual. If you haven't figured it out, I believe the folks at Cook's Illustrated author the best recipes. Perhaps a third or more of my cookbook collection is from CI. I think this recipe is the one I use most from the 2003 volume. It truly is a breakfast favorite.

Let's get started. This is all you need to make these wonderful pancakes. I would've preferred fresh blueberries, but it's winter. I'll make do with frozen. And yes, the use of prep bowls really does help.

Start by stirring your lemon zest and lemon juice into the milk. Yep. You're making buttermilk. Let it sit for a while to thicken. You can easily use buttermilk and just add the zest. I feel Sunday biscuits coming on, so I'm saving the real buttermilk for that.

Mix the egg and melted butter.

Now, mix all of your dry ingredients. I do this in two stages, cornmeal and flour and then the baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt into the cornmeal and flour.

Dump the egg mixture into the milk and give it a whisk. Next, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and mix in the milk mixture. I start with a whisk and then switch to a spatula. Please don't overmix. Lumps are okay. Completely smooth batter means tough pancakes and who wants that?

I used a large scoop to portion the batter. I don't care about perfectly round pancakes. This is a good thing because I can't make them! I do have some egg rings that I could use if I needed to impress somebody. After the batter is in the pan, sprinkle the blueberries across each pancake.

I am pining for a Le Crueset double-burner reversible grill and griddle. Until then, a large skillet will have to do. I added a little more oil than I should have and the heat was up a touch higher than it needed to be. Therefore, the first batch fried a little. Once you see the edges of the pancakes start to dry out (you'll see the bubbles), give the pancakes a flip. On my stove, liquids tend to pool on one side, so one pancake got a lot of hot oil. Can you tell which one?

When the bottom side has set, remove the pancakes to a plate and work it out with some syrup and butter. I also had some maple glazed turkey bacon going on the side. Add some rich coffee made from freshly-ground beans and you'd think you're at a fancy restaurant.

A couple of things would've made this better -- breakfast in bed and breakfast before noon! No matter. All was right with the world after the first bite.

These also freeze well. I stack them between parchment paper. I intentionally undercook each batch after the first, so that the frozen ones will be a little more forgiving when reheated.

Tools of the trade:

• All-Clad 12" Nonstick Fry Pan
• Glass Prep Bowls
• OXO Food Scale
• French Whisk

My Favorite

Now this may not be the prettiest meal you ever eat, but it's so good. This is my favorite weekend lunch. Even my little brother likes it (the taste not the texture). Then again, neither of us likes grits. However, I will throw down on some polenta.

I've been trying to figure out why I like polenta, but not grits. With the exception of my friend Lauren's shrimp and grits, people have presented plates of bland white grainy stuff with butter floating on top seasoned with salt and pepper. Uggh. My polenta has dimension. (at least in my mind).

Let's do it. For the polenta, bring three parts chicken stock and one part milk to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Add one part polenta. If you've never cooked polenta or grits before, you have to make it rain. The polenta needs to be sprinkled in smoothly. Whisk immediately to avoid lumps. Switch to a wooden spoon. Sorry. No pics because I didn't want lumps in my food.

Once the polenta is done (I use the quick-cooking kind), check your seasonings and add a generous amount of Parmesan cheese. Sometimes, right before I add the cheese, I throw in chopped fresh sage. None in the house on this day. I've been making this dish for at least five years and I always think my texture is off, so I'm not going to attempt to describe it to you. I swear it's because I didn't grow up eating grits.

You have to multitask with this dish. Fry up some bacon (turkey for me). Remove the bacon and save the fond.

Add anchovy paste and a touch of olive oil. Kudos to whoever thought of putting anchovy and tomato paste in tubes. Looks kinda gross doesn't it?

The paste will melt into the oil.

Chop some garlic and add it to the pan. I forgot, but red pepper flakes would be a great addition right now. While the oil infuses and the garlic softens, chop some kalamata olives. Grab some capers (packed in brine) and oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes.

I add the olives and capers together. Toss them around and let them heat through. I think I see steam wafting. My point-and-shoot photography may be improving.

I add the sun-dried tomatoes last. If you add them earlier, they start to reconstitute and get soggy from the moisture in the other stuff. I like their original chewy texture.

Give everything a toss and heat through.

Plate the polenta. Too stiff, huh?

Top with the veggies.

Finish with the turkey bacon and chopped basil. Pure heaven.

Tools of the trade:

• All-Clad 8" Nonstick Fry Pan
• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
• Shun Chef's Knife
• All-Clad 1-Qt Saucepan

Lazy Breakfast

Okay. Breakfast rocks! Y'all know I have a love affair with breakfast based on posts about scones, waffles and sausage, beignets, hashed browns, pancakes and fritata. On one of the food sites, someone asked for breakfast recipes for a crowd. I recommended a recipe from Everyday Food, a breakfast strata. I decided to make one this morning. I changed the recipe based on the ingredients I had: turkey bacon, frozen chopped spinach, feta and Parmesan cheese.

Make the custard first: beat the eggs and add the milk. I seasoned the custard with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Add cubed bread to a buttered baking dish. One of the reasons this was a lazy breakfast is because I had bread cubes in the freezer. Whenever you have leftover bread, don't throw it out. Freeze it! You now have a base for bread pudding, and strata. You can also make bread crumbs if you need to.

Back to the post at hand. Next, I layered the turkey bacon, spinach and cheese. I finished with a layer of bacon.

Add the custard. Oops! I didn't make enough. I tried to halve the recipe, but I overdid it with the filling.

That's better!

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or up to overnight. Bake at 350 for 90 minutes. The beauty of this is that you can make it night before, leave it in the fridge, get up the next morning, put it in the oven and go back to bed while it bakes. (I didn't sleep; I got on the phone.) Make sure you set the timer!

Look at this!!! Puffy! Golden brown!

I got one word for ya: Wow!!!

Tools of the trade:

• 2-Cup Pyrex Measuring Cup
• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
• Shun Santoku
• Square Pyrex