Kitchen Time

It was still raining when I woke up at 1:00 AM, but it had stopped by the Wednesday morning alarm. Now its falling temperatures and high winds!

They said on the news that we set a record for rain yesterday - 0.97 inches. Previous record was 0.69 inches, set on March 10, 1992.

Consequently, the lake in the back yard has expanded. When I went home at lunch, I took a picture and posted it for you. I am hoping the winds today dry some of it out!

Back home at 5:10 PM, I changed clothes and started the Wednesday night laundry. But, not before treating the cats and taking a pound of bacon out of the freezer to thaw. I really, REALLY feel the need to make some fresh, new, real dinner tonight.

Then it was time to prep for other meals. First I rinsed and then made some brown rice (I'm gonna try the fried rice again, but this time it will be "pork" and brown rice, using the other two pound chop that I had marinated for three days last week). I also cooked up another batch of the Irish porridge. So, I have two pots on the stove cooking, neither of which will result in my dinner! What the hell is wrong with me?

I pulled the rice and the steel cut oats off and let them cool while I hung up my work clothes. So, by 7:30 PM, I had a pot of porridge and a pot of brown rice cooling and a large saut� pan with a pound of bacon, cut into one inch slices, rendering. You see, I don't have any pancetta, so we are going with bacon to make my Penne a la Carbonara (come on, you remember, the Coal Miner Wife's pasta?)

So, when the bacon was close to crisp, I topped it with fresh ground pepper. I poured off the excess fat (into the coffee cup I save bacon fat in, in the fridge, like my Mother used to do). Meanwhile, I had six eggs I brought up to room temperature. Now, if you remember, I threw away all the milk, buttermilk and heavy cream Monday night. So, instead of heavy cream, I added 1/2 cup of condensed milk to the eggs, along with about 3 tablespoons of fresh, chopped parsley and 1 1/4 cups of fresh, grated Parmesan cheese. I beat that all together while the salted water for the pasta was heating up.

When the water was at a heavy boil, I added a pound of Penne pasta. When it came back to a boil I turned it to simmer and set the timer for 11 minutes.

I drained but did not rinse the pasta (it needs the natural starch for the sauce to stick). I put it back into the pot and stirred in the bacon chunks, mixing well. I added in the egg/cream mixture and stirred it in (its important to work quickly while the pasta is still warm, so the eggs and cream will cook, but not curdle). I topped it with a bit of fresh parsley and more grated Parmesan cheese.

I plated a bowl of it and went in to watch "The Chopping Block" on Channel 4. It's a new cooking competition show and, I think, the first one ever on prime time, regular TV. Dinner was excellent and the show was pretty good, too.

During one of the commercial breaks, I went out and put away the porridge, the rice and the leftover Pasta a la Carbonara. I decided to let all the pots and pan soak overnight and when the show ended at 9:00 PM, I got ready for bed.