Icarus's blog: "Augurs, Martyrs, and Agnostics"

My dog is doing that thing where she licks me for 20 minutes straight
We've decided to find it charming.

Let's get one thing out of the way real quick.
I'm sick.
Again.
Same thing.
Pretty scary.

Let's talk about food.

Tonight I stayed in Indy while my parents went up to see their dottering mothers.
I am a bad son and grandson.
What I didn't tell them is that
I'm sick.

And not just in the middle of a major depressive episode.

I had some dreadful leftovers for lunch (my mom cannot fry potatoes)

And I had managed to talk the woman into getting some anchioves

so-
That means ziti aglio e olio e peperoncino
Or at least jalapenos.

Since we didn't have peperoncino.

Look
put anchioves in your italian food, you'll thank me later.

So

3 anchioves (in oil)
3 tbs of olive oil (I used butter- cuz I'm a bastard)
salt
pepper
tsp of tomato paste
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/3 of a jalapeno minced fine

and what the fuck
let's throw in 1/4 a cup of chopped green olives
and a
tbs of paprika
and 1/2 tbs of red pepper

I like Ziti
especially that grippy kind with the grooves

Cook the sauce and veggies and the fishies til the paste and everything's a brick red color.

drain the pasta- throw it in the pan with the sauce
flop it around

Now, I didn't actually put this pasta in the strainer- I just poured it out as much as I could without losing any noodles
when it went in the hot pan the pasta water sizzled and evaporated for a bit
it wasn't
QUITE
thick enough
so I put a heavy sprinkle or 3 of italian breadcrumbs.

Why?

Because ye olde times only RICH motherfuckers had
cheese

And
I've been thickening my stews and sauces quite a bit with that fact in mind lately.

They would've tasted better if I had toasted em
or made em from real bread

but whatever

I also used this trick recently in my fan favorite Sockarooni sausage sauce.
Yeah that's inspired by the jarred stuff from Newman's own
yeah I put a WHOLE roasted bell pepper or anaheim and a whole ceranno chile in it
yeah I make mini meatballs and put dry mustard and paprika in the sauce

yeah
that's another post.

So

breadcrumbs.

anchioves.

Don't be afraid.

...
I cook a LOT of Italian >>

Anyway

that was a course.

Mom had some leftover sweetpotatos au gratin in the fridge from 2 weeks ago

I pulled em out
squished em in my hand (had about 2 cups worth)
poured in a cup of milk
shot of cream
a cup of chicken stock
2 heavy pinches of dried oregano (that my mom grew)
salt
pepper
2 teaspoons of redpepper
and some grated romano.
and a teaspoon of sour cream
a minced clove of garlic

It was sweeter than my butternut squash soup.
And if someone tells you to put any of the following in your squash or rooty soups:
ginger
cardomom
cinnamon
honey
sugar
brown sugar

YOU'RE MAKING PIE FILLING NOT FUCKING SOUP!!!

Y'know what this soup needed?
a whole chile
cumin
prewilted radish/turnip/kale greens
or arugala, watercress, or spinach
and maybe some horseradish.

 That's right. Spicey squash soup would be fantastic.

I think french toast and ham are for lunch tomorrow.