Monday, January 14, 2013

Last we spoke, I was 26 days into a 100 day project. Then, as usual, I had knee surgery and my life was derailed for a few months.

Now it's January and time for my annual three blog posts! This year I'm resolving to post once, in January. And, if you're reading this: RESOLUTION ACHIEVED. We're all very proud of me. (I'm also resolved not to have knee surgery this year. We'll see how that goes.)

I just returned from a week in New York, during which I drank approx. 8 bottles of wine, ate out at least 15 times, and partook of various Puerto Rican feasts, gracias to my/Ken's in-laws. In fact, the last night I was in town when I stopped by to say adios, the table was covered in food: Rice & beans, Dr. Pepper (!) chicken wings, and the most delicious roast chicken of all time. Even though I was on my way to meet friends for dinner, and at 9 a.m. the next day, I had to both try a wing ("It's just a wing!") and take a to-go container of food with me ("For breakfast!"). Frankly I'm surprised I didn't incur additional weight charges on the return flight.

Now that I'm back in the land of the ice and snow, I've resolved to cook more. I was feeling uninspired, but a quick Epicurious search yielded this recipe for Fracatelli with Pecorino and Mustard Greens, which looked both easy and cheap (even with ingredients from the nearby fancypants grocery store).

The verdict? Two enthusiastic forks up! I would be impressed if someone cooked this for me, and even more impressed to learn that it's possible to prepare a tasty homemade pasta dish in around 30 minutes for under $5 (I already had a hunk of pecorino and always have an ample supply of butter). I'd never heard of frascatelli before but it couldn't be easier to make, and if your pantry is better stocked than mine, you might not even need to buy semolina flour, which would bring your total down to under two bucks for the mustard greens. (I used chard instead, which tasted great, was still only $1.49 for the organic AND rainbow variety.)



Perhaps I should just resolve to cook once this year so that I could cross that one off too, and focus on avoiding trampolines and slippery floors.