Carbonara for One

3 oz. strand pasta

1-2 tsp olive oil

1 egg

2 strips of bacon, cut into matchsticks

1 shallot, minced

1 Tbsp parmesan cheese, grated, plus more to serve

1 Tbsp cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

Prepare the pasta according to package directions. While waiting for the water to boil and the pasta to cook, heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute the bacon and shallot until bacon is slightly browned and shallot is softened. Remove from heat and set aside until the pasta is ready.

Break the egg into a bowl and add the cream and parmesan cheese. Beat together with a fork and season with salt and lots of pepper.

When the pasta is done, drain it and add to the pan with the shallot and bacon. Place over low heat and stir together. Add the egg mixture and stir for a minute. Serve immediately with more parmesan.

These corn frittery things need work, but I think they have potential. It would be good if I could get them less greasy. The solution would be most likely deep frying, but then I’m not sure what I’d do to do the dough to make them more cohesive. It’s something to think about. Maybe baking them would work. I don’t know.

After we noshed, Jon decided that he was still in the mood for Thai, so he, Russ (his coworker), and I went out to Bangkok Bay in Redwood City. I have a tendency to think that every place I like is the best place, but really? Bangkok Bay is so damn good. We had the Panang Curry Beef, Spicy Pork with Basil, Pork with Garlic and Something Else, and a Thai Pancake for dessert. Jon and I think that the pancake should be easy to make. It’s like a slightly thicker crepe with sweeetened condensed milk and sugar.

Thai Corn Fritters

1 can of corn, drained

1 egg

1 small red or green chile

1/2 cup flour

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 clove garlic

2 Tbsp water

2 scallions, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

Canola oil, for shallow frying

Place the flour, egg, chile, soy sauce, garlic, and about half the corn kernels in a food processor and process until a smooth, thick batter forms.

Stir the remaining corn, water, scallions, cilantro, and basil into the batter. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a small amount of oil in a wide, heavy pan. Drop generous tablespoonfuls of the batter into the pan (you will probably fit about 4 at a time). Press and smooth out with the back of the spoon. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, and drain on paper towels (or some other sort of draining rig). Makes 12-16.

Earl Gilmore Memorial Margarita

Juice of 1 lime

1 cup tequila

1/3 cup Triple Sec

Crushed ice

Salt (optional)

Combine in a shaker, pour into glasses, and serve. If you are so inclined, before pouring, wet the rim of the glass with lime juice and dip in salt.

Awesome. You all should read this article, in which Ms. Lucianovic (ie. Television Without Pity’s recapper Keckler and writer of the foodie blog The Grub Report) speculates on the next Martha Stewart, praises Alton Brown, and slams Sandra Lee. Disses Snadra hard-core.

She’s so very cool.

Here’s another link for all the Semi-Homemade-Haters out there. TWoP poster InnerCanuck has started an anti-Sandra blog here. She is intending to test the recipes and report on them. I tried three during my testing phase- one was disgusting, one was intoxicating, and one was actually pretty decent provided you used actual ingredients. (Yes, two of those are the same link.)

Oh, the boys sure did like the cookies last night. All 33 cookies were gone by the end of the night.

And, really? So very easy. I don’t have either a stand mixer or a hand mixer, so the creaming was done with a fork. It came together really quickly and didn’t kill my arm.

No one died last night, although Rob’s character, Cooper, did do his best and come close volunteering as a human pincushion. He may die next week, as he’s fallen victim to the charms of our enemies. My character got confused and dropped his rage, which meant that he was boned in terms of combat (penalties to armor class, attack rolls, damage, and some saving rolls) for the duration of this fight. I’m thinking we’re still going to be in combat at the beginning of our next session.

Oh, crap! The haste bonus to AC is going to be gone when we start next week. That’s minus another four. Damn it!

Note to DMs: if you decide to plan an adventure in the astral plane, make sure you are fully up on you trig. And make sure all of your players are, too. Stupid three-dimensional thinking. Floating in three-dimensional space around a small planetoid that has decided gravity is down (not towards the center of the sphere, but just DOWN), fighting on a ship that has crashed into the side of the planetoid with it’s own decisions about gravity… oh, it gives me a headache. We had to get out a stress ball and stick pins into it do determine where we all were and which vectors we were taking to get to places.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups AP flour, sifted

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

Preheat oven to 375.

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside. Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars; beat in vanilla and egg. Stir in flour mixture, blending well. Shape mixture into 3/4-inch balls and press to create discs; place on greased/parchment papered baking sheets. With a fork, create the traditional grid pattern on top. (Other ideas for the pattern: use the pointy end of a meat tenderizer or a cross-hatched potato masher.)

Bake at 375 for 9 to 11 minutes.

Yield: about 30 cookies.

I made peanut butter cookies today. Why? I had all the ingredients, Rob said he liked them, and there’s D&D tonight. I would have made oatmeal raisin cookies, but was rather lacking in the oatmeal area. I’ve got steel-cut, but that wouldn’t really have worked (although it’s kind of amusing to think about).

They tasted okay to me. If they go over well with the lads, I’ll post the recipe.

Well, that was disappointing.

Last night I made Steamed Wonton Bundles, using a recipe from a Thai cookbook I got for the holidays last year. And they were incredibly uninteresting. Very bland and the texture was all off. I will not be posting the recipe.

I guess I’m going to do some experimenting of my own to make these things real. Good thing the ingredients aren’t expensive.