Farfalle al limone

Last night I made a new pasta recipe, Farfalle al limone. I was hurting to be in Italy so bad as I dumped the pasta into the salted water. But I was proud of myself because I had to remember the verb for "to boil" and "to cut" as I flipped through my Italian cookbook looking for a good sauce to use. It all came back to me and I sat on my countertop reading the words out loud, just to hear how the ups and downs would sound off my tongue again.

2 fresh lemons

1/2 cup of heavy cream

basil

salt/pepper

onion salt

butter

farfalle pasta

The thing about cooking and not baking is that you can be creative, you can add a pinch and not an exact measurement. Simply melt the butter and lemon juice together, add cream and basil, add onion salt, stir well. Cook pasta. Drain pasta, reserve some pasta water. Pour sauce over pasta and enjoy! I enjoyed it.

There is a reason Italian food is so delicious, the ingredients are simple, the process is simple. You are meant to cook and relax not cook and stress. Up next, penne all'arrabbiata.

All The More:

Attention is a funny thing. Whether you're giving it or getting it or craving it, it never seems to be exactly what you want. It is shallow and so your emotions are shallow. We can't be blamed for this. We're only human. We only want somebody to know us, or to pretend to know us, or pretend to want to know us.

You can only be lonely for so long before you want somebody to ask you how your day was and who your favorite band is. We all want to be spooned eventually.

We're made to feel badly about wanting it, attention that is. And it makes us want it all the more.

This Is How I Like to Spend My Saturdays:

I feel so good, I've gotten back into running and hiking more often and it feels great! Luckily it was just me and a bottle of wine last night and not me and 5 shots and dancing until I can't move. It's always easier to exercise the next morning when I've been a wino and not a party animal...

Tonight I ate like an adult:

I've taken a cue from Amanda over at "Lullabies to Terrorize" (her blog can be seen here http://lullabiestoterrorize.blogspot.com/) and have begun to do a 30 day challenge for myself in honor of new beginnings. Essentially the idea is to do something full on, with passion, for 30 days, that you've not been doing in your past life.

For me this means cooking healthy, unique dinners. I really like to cook but us single-tons have a way of heating up a Lean Cuisine and making it look appetizing. This ends today.

Day 1:

I've challenged myself to cook dinners at home during the work week. Tonight I had my best friend over for a little movie/wine/dinner marathon. I made chicken in a creamy chive sauce with broccoli and red potatoes.....and wine.

The recipe can be viewed here at EatingWell.com

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/sauteed_chicken_breasts_with_creamy_chive_sauce.html

Come se dice in Italiano..."Buon Appetito!"

I'm going to do good things for myself this year:

Making out with a total stranger on the dance floor last night was not my finest hour. Now I can put that kiss and the rest of last year behind me. Bring it on 2011, I'm going to do good things for myself this year.

L'anno nuovo comincia il 1 gennaio:

Felice Anno Nuovo a tutti!

This is really not my thing, I don't like to make resolutions because rather than feeling like attainable goals, they have a way of turning into lists of regret and unfinished business. Little ghost lists that haunt you until the next year rolls around. But for the sake of growing up, for the sake of pretending to be an adult, I thought I should jot down some ideas (notice how if you call them ideas and not resolutions, they can't come back and bite you in the ass)

1. Firstly, I'd like to pay off my credit card--or if not pay it off, at least stop contributing to my debt by buying more boots.

2. Secondly, I would like to slow down--when I eat, when I drink, when I drive, when I meet someone and when I think.

3. Thirdly, I would like to let go of the feelings that I had for Russ and make room in my mind for somebody new.

Maybe last year I slept with people I shouldn't have, or yelled at people I could have been kinder to, or made promises I couldn't keep, or had cookie dough for dinner, or felt melancholy for no reason at all. But I also worked with some really sweet kids, and landed a new job, and settled down on my own, and bought a new car and made some good friends.

The great thing about being 24 and not 64 is that there are so many ups and downs, everything is so uncertain that in the blink of an eye you might be very far off from where you first began.

The above list is nice but really all I hope to do in 2011 is be a good person, the kind of person that makes my parents point me out in a crowd.

Neko Case:

Sometimes I wish I could just crawl into her songs. Her voice is like a thick piece of cotton I wish I could lay my head on. Neko at The Rialto remains one of my favorite shows ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FhVbyeWFvo