Blown away on Saturday!

I woke up at the usual time (5:30 AM), dammit! It was the weekend and I should be sleeping in!! But, I couldn’t fall back to sleep, so I got up and made some coffee.

When it got light out, I checked the weather: light rain, cool and windy. In short, crappy. The wind is the big story today, as we have a wind advisory (gale warning on the lakes) from 10 AM until 6 PM. They are predicting sustained winds of 20-30 MPH, with gusts up to 45 MPH. The rain and wind should bring down a lot more leaves, but I fear it will be too wet to cut them up with the mower this weekend.

I filled in my ToDo list and a grocery shopping list. Then I wrote and posted the Blog entry. I went out to make some breakfast, but I found I’d frozen the rest of the bacon (I used it on the grilled chicken breasts, as you may recall). So, I took it out to thaw and changed breakfast to brunch.

However, that didn’t work. It was still frozen by the time I figured I had to get going on my errands. So, I made a fried egg, topped it with American cheese and put that on a Kaiser roll with some mayo. That was my “brunch.”

First, I went to the Post Office for stamps. Then I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond in Westland and bought a new electric toothbrush that was not only on sale, but I also had a 20% off coupon. Sweet!

Since I was that far, I went to an independent gas station near Jake’s old house that sells gas CHEAP! Sure, I had to wait in line a while (you always do) but I filled up my car with the mid-grade gas I need at a price per gallon that was less than just regular sells for near my house.

Finally, I stopped at Meijer’s for a big shopping trip (mostly to replenish my pantry items and paper products). That took forever and a big chunk of change, BTW. When I finally got back outside, the wind gusts were so bad it was difficult to walk, much less push the cart. Unbelievable! I was back home by 3:30 PM.

I unpacked the many, many bags of stuff and then started the last load of this weekend’s laundry. While I was waiting for it to dry, I screwed down the top of the platform.

For dinner, I made Giada De Laurentis’ “Tagliatelle with Smashed Peas, Sausage and Ricotta Cheese.” Of course, I couldn’t find any “tagliatelle” but she did say you could use any other wide, long pasta so I went with Fettuccine.

Here’s what I did: I brought water in my pasta pot up to a boil and then salted it. I added in the Fettuccine and cooked it until it was “al dente.”

Meanwhile, I heated up some olive oil and added in two cloves of chopped garlic. I took one pound of hot Italian sausage out of their casings and broke that up into the oil. I browned that about five minutes and then removed it and set it aside.

I added in a pound of thawed frozen green peas and smashed them with the back of my wooden spoon (they make a cool popping sound). I took the pan off the heat and added in the drained pasta (be sure you reserve at least one cup of the pasta water) and one cup of whole milk ricotta cheese.

Note: be sure its whole milk ricotta cheese or it won’t melt right!

I tossed the pasta, cheese and peas together to coat, adding pasta water 1/4 cup at a time to keep the pasta moist. I returned the sausage to the skillet and added in about 1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil and 1/4 cup of grated Pecorino Romano cheese. I tossed everything to coat and plated it up immediately.

And, what were the recipe results? I didn’t like it all that much (you might). The ricotta sauce was too thick (even though I added pasta water to it several times) and I’m not that big a fan of hot Italian sausage.

I straightened up the kitchen and then quit for the night at 8:00 PM. There was nothing much on TV, so I left the Tiger’s game on low and read a book. When the game ended (we lost, 15 to 5! A complete rout!!) I turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Note on the winds: Sunday morning on the news, they said that over 52,000 homes were left without power in the Metro area and the majority of these were in Redford Township. Thankfully, my power is still on...