Karen O and the Kids’ “All is Love”, from the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack. Is anyone in the world not excited for this movie?
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The finished product, served alongside a store-bought Caesar salad. Super-quick and easy…the entire dinner for four took about 15 minutes. Go HERE for the video.
LINGUINE CARBONARA (serves 4)
What you need:
A box and a half of dried linguine (I like Barilla brand)
Linguine Carbonara is relatively inexpensive to make, and the recipe can easily be adjusted if more people decide to pop over for dinner (as I’ve found often happens when you announce you’re making this dish). The entire dinner for four ran me about $30, and could have been made even less expensive by using bacon instead of pancetta (which accounted for about $11 of the total) or a less highfalutin’ brand of parmigiana.
Friday evening’s table setting, with lavender roses courtesy of Kendrick in a Vera Wang vase that Parisa and Tim gave us when we got married, Z Gallerie bamboo placemats that I bought years ago in California, and our wedding-registry Kate Spade china. I kept the settings simple - no chargers, no side plates, not even any knives or spoons, because they weren’t needed for this meal - and used paper napkins. For a casual dinner at home, less is more.
I know the air conditioner isn’t pretty, but I tried to cover it - yeah, I know it didn’t really work - with my refurbished lamp. Also, in this picture you can see that I deliberately matched the lamp’s base to my candlesticks - a detail that I am excessively proud of.
Linguine Carbonara
On Friday night, I made Linguine Carbonara for Kendrick, Stephen, and Dave.
The first actually cold day meant the first time I broke out Lucy’s Gap sweater (yes, the Gap makes dog sweaters…or they used to, anyway). This is her headed out for an early-morning walk (hence Kendrick’s pajama pants in the background), and I think she looks impossibly cute.
Reader Haley just wrote to let me know that she used my tips on covering your old lampshades with graphic wallpaper. Check out those gorgeous results!
You can view my video on lamp refurbishing in its entirety here.
And…eight hours later, we’re back on dry land again. A fairly successful day in terms of fishing, a very successful day in terms of bonding.
I’m going to try cooking up the bluefish this evening, but I’ve done a little online research, and let’s just say I’m a touch skeptical (adjectives used to describe the fish include “pungent” and “oily”…yumm). I think I’m going to try brining them first to reduce the “fishiness” and then pan-frying them in butter and lemon.
Me, finally figuring out how to cast a line that doesn’t immediately tangle up in everyone else’s and/or go directly under the boat.
Dad caught a pretty big bluefish. I, unsurprisingly, caught nothing at all…but I seemed to be very good luck for the people on either side of me.
Me (looking around nervously at the fact that literally everyone besides Dad and I are wearing rubber boots and full-length waders): “So…what’s with all the waders and boots? Are we going to be getting particularly wet?”
Man in waders: “Nah, these are just for the blood.”
Me: “Ah.”
