Yep, still not down with roast.

Saturday evening, Randy gave me a break from cooking and cooked a roast. As I mentioned in my last entry, I have bad memories of roast but was willing to give it a second try. So while I hung out at my friend Carrie's (where we played MarioParty and made jewelry), Randy prepared a feast for my return.

With the roast, he made boiled carrots and potatoes as well as pea's pudding and homemade gravy:

This is another one of those times when Randy was dissatisfied with his gravy. He also wasn't too pleased with the pea's pudding - thinking he should have kept the peas in longer. I enjoyed everything except I have come to the conclusion that I still don't like roast. Nothing against how Randy prepared it - it will just never be a meal I enjoy. So while my tastebuds may have matured, they still don't react favorably to roast. Good to know.

Saturday I also received a surprise visit from my friend Emily (who is living on Fogo Island being a librarian) so my plans of having a quiet Saturday with a glass of wine or two was transformed into a (welcome) visit from a friend with food and booze galore. I didn't know that Emily was coming until a couple hours before she got here so I didn't get around to preparing any appetizers. However, as she was coming over with her boyfriend and a couple of her friends that night, I put out some chips (plain Old Dutch and Sweet Onion Miss Vickie's), chip dip (Epicure 3 Onion Dip), a bowl of peanut butter M&M's, and some mini chocolate eggs. I had a great visit with Emily and downed the better part of a bottle of wine along with a few beer.

Due to the lovely hangover I awoke with on Sunday morning, I was in absolutely no mood to cook on Sunday. I snacked on various junk food all day (including hot wings flavoured pretzel bites, mini eggs, and Grape Gatorade) and settled on some toast with cheese whiz for supper. Delicious, but hardly picture worthy.

On Monday, I made homemade beef hamburgers and sweet potatoe fries. I didn't follow a recipe as such for the burgers, just added a pound of extra lean ground beef, one egg, and a bunch of breadcrumbs. For the sweet potato fries, I sliced a sweet potato, tossed it with some olive oil, sea salt, and fresh ground pepper. I then baked them for 10 minutes, flipped them, and then baked for another 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I devoured the sweet potato fries before it occured to me to take a picture, so I only have a picture of my lonely little hamburger:

Today, I made a recipe from my Emeril 20-40-60 cookbook entitled 'Linguina Alla Carbonara'. The recipe is modeled after a Linguine recipe from Mario Batali's New York City restaurant 'Otto'. For this recipe, you'll need:

- Salt
- 1 pound linguine (I didn't have any on hand so I substituted whole-wheat spaghetti)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 6 ounces bacon, cut into 1/2 inch wide pieces
- 1 yellow onion, minced
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 3 large egg yolks
- 3/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

I managed to get a picture of Randy chopping the onion for me (I'm too wussy to do it):

And he got one of me chopping bacon...mmmmmm.....bacon.......:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cool the linguine until al dente, about 9 minutes:

Make sure you have all your other ingredients prepped and ready to go:

While the pasta is cooking, assemble the remaining ingredients and make the sauce: Heat the oil and butter in a large saute pan over medium heat.

Add the bacon and cook until it is beginning to crisp, about 5 minutes (I actually let it cook for 8-9 minutes)

Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and set aside. Drain the pasta in a colander, reserving a small amount of the cooking water, and return the pasta to the pot. Place the pot over high heat, add the bacon-onion mixture, and stir until the pasta is coated with the mixture and heated through, 1 minute.

Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl and add them to the pasta, along with the grated cheese. Remove the pot from the heat and toss the pasta until it is well cooked. If needed, add a bit of the reserved cooking water to toss the pasta. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately.

You can't tell very well from the picture but the combination of the egg yolks and parmigiano-reggiano cheese created a creamy-type sauce without the use of cream itself. This is a tasty pasta dish if you are looking for a rich, comfort food and are not concerned with calories or fat.

Tomorrow, I plan on experimenting with my leftover puff pastry again, only this time filling it with scrambled eggs, and sausage with a side of hashbrowns.

Shoutouts from the past few days go to: Reese peanut butter eggs, chocolate chip banana bread, spicy pretzel bites

Here's Sebastian chilling out on the kitchen chair I brought out for our Saturday guests: