Gourmet Peasant Food

I made this the other night and fell in love with it all over again.
It is so easy and tastes so fancy.

Originally invented and posted on The Daily Coyote one Christmas long ago, it’s essentially macaroni and cheese (yes, mac & cheese for Xmas dinner, but keep reading, trust). Measurement guidelines are given at the bottom of the post.

Bring water in a pot to a boil and pour in pasta. I generally use elbows or little shells. For gluten-free pasta, I recommend Tinkyada ~ it’s all I use and gluten-eaters love it, too. Also toss in some dried porcini mushrooms. Boil until the pasta is al dente.

Drain pasta and mushrooms. Slice the mushrooms if they’re in big pieces and keep it all in the strainer for the time being. In the now-empty pot, melt a bit of butter, then toss in grated, sliced, or hacked-up bits of parmesan (real parmesan – that stuff in a can is not allowed!), then dump the noodles and mushrooms on top. Return to med/low heat and stir until the cheese is completely melted.

And now the pièce de résistance. Drizzle a few tiny drops (as in JUST A FEW TINY DROPS) of black truffle oil over the mixture. And a dash of sea salt. Stir once more, then taste. Then collapse on the floor in ecstasy.

Truffle oil is expensive and only a minuscule amount is required for enormous flavor. There’s no reason not to go in on a bottle with a few friends and split the cost, then divide the oil up in jam jars or something. Store this oil in a dark, cool place.

And for those who need a bit of guidance re/the recipe measurements, I’d say it’s 1 part pasta, 1/6 part dried porcini, and 1/4 part parmesan. And one or two teeny tiny droplets of truffle oil per serving. So good!

Like An Acid Trip Without The Acid

~ plain text version is HERE ~

Basket Case

It took me all summer to get this photo of Eli sleeping in a basket. I had the empty basket on the shelf in my camper as a kitty spot ~ the girls love baskets. But one day, I happened upon Eli sleeping in the basket! I quietly reached for my little pocket camera to snap a pic, but when I turned it on, the noise woke Eli and he glared at me and leapt out of the basket and swaggered away. This happened numerous times over the course of the summer. He kept returning to the basket to nap, but was adamant in his refusal to have this adorable habit documented. It became a mission of mine to get a photo. And I finally did. Just don’t tell him so!

I Love This Rug!

there’s also this one:

from Floor To Heaven

Drive

This morning, I drove the ambulance on a call for the first time. I didn’t want to. The PRESSURE! Not just one life to be responsible for, but three! The patient’s, my partner’s, and mine. And everyone else on the road, for that matter. And the rig is huge ~ it’s an off-road, 4WD, mountain ambulance. I sat straight up in the driver’s seat, clenching my abs so that the rest of me – mind and body – would not be so tense.

Five minutes in, I was loving it. Lights flashing, I sped by two highway patrol. Cars, trucks, and semis slowed and parted in deference. I didn’t even have to wait at the wretched construction zone ~ the flaggers waved me through, and the pilot car, midway through a one-lane-only stretch, pulled his string of vehicles over to the shoulder as I zipped by unhindered. This, I thought, is what it must be like to be Mick Jagger.

Driving back from the hospital, I was relegated to “normal person” status: no patient, no lights flashing. I was alone – my partner stayed in town to go linoleum shopping with her husband – and while I was sitting, waiting, waitingggg at the construction zone, I found a camera in a side pocket of the ambulance. And I took pictures. And then I fixed the date. It hasn’t been 2010 for a while.