Hump Day

I slept lousy Tuesday night. I woke up every hour, almost on the hour, from 11:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. I did fall right back asleep, but I was still tired when I got out of bed.

It was much warmer on Wednesday (24 degrees!) so I wore my jacket, instead of the heavy pea coat.

But it started snowing around 10:30 a.m. It didn’t look like much (and it wasn’t) but when I left for lunch, it was slippery. So, I just ventured down to Time Out. I got one of the specials: grilled ham and cheese and a side of macaroni salad. The sandwich was good, but the macaroni salad dressing was watery.

It kept getting warmer and when I drove home at 5:00 p.m., it was raining!

I thought briefly about leaving the truck outside and working on Carl’s project (as it was warm) but I was too tired. So, I just pulled the truck inside.

I got this year’s Yellow Pages off the porch and put it in the trash. Does anybody still use these things? Personally, I just Google for things these days.

I watched the weather on the news and it wasn’t good. Not much snow in the forecast, but we’re headed back into the deep freeze, starting tonight. Brrr!

Dinner Backstory: A week or two ago, a couple of co-workers went to lunch with a supplier at an expensive Italian restaurant. Now, personally, I don’t think a free lunch is worth having to listen to an hour’s worth of sales bullsh*t, but to each his own. I asked my cubicle buddy what she had and she said spaghetti with meatballs. Spaghetti and meatballs? When you could have had any number of fantastic Italian dishes? Including my favorite, linguine with clams? It boggles the mind!

But, that stuck in my head (linguine with clams, not spaghetti and meatballs). I have some good recipes, but they all involve buying live clams. So, over the weekend, I Googled it (LOL) and found a recipe that just used pantry items.

So, for dinner tonight, I started some salted water in my pasta pot.

Meanwhile, I put two tablespoons of olive oil in my 12-inch skillet. I added in one onion, fine diced. While they got translucent, I fine diced six cloves of fresh garlic.

I opened four (6.5 ounce) cans of minced (not chopped) clams. I drained two into a bowl and the other two down the drain.

When the onions were ready, I added in the garlic for another 30 seconds (I hate burnt garlic). Then I added in the clams and the reserved clam juice. I also added a stick of butter, salt and pepper and two tablespoons of dry white wine.

I stirred that and then turned it to simmer (20 minutes or so, until the sauce had reduced 1/3). I dropped the linguine into the pot and cooked that until al dente.

I chopped up some fresh parsley while I waited.

When everything was ready, I added the pasta to the sauce, added the parsley and stirred it well. I plated it and added some Parmesan cheese to the top.

I was too hungry to make garlic bread, so I just ate it.

Fantastic! Craving cured!

I had planned on watching the hockey game, but I was just too damn tired. So, I went to bed at 9:00 p.m.