Saturday, May 6, 2023

Three Beautiful Things 05-05-2023: Planning Family Dinner, Pasta and Clam Sauce, Monk's Up in the Air

 1. I focused a well-spent stretch of time today on recipes. I wanted to decide what I'll prepare when Debbie and I host family dinner on Monday and I hoped to either find or dream up something pretty good to make for dinner tonight. Debbie has been suffering from allergies and a sinus infection all week long and she's been bone tired. A pretty good dinner would, I hope, lift her spirits. 

I am going to keep family dinner details a secret because I like to surprise Carol, Paul, Christy, and Molly -- that said, it'll be a Greek dinner. (Tip of the hat to Stu for suggesting I fix a Greek supper.)  I found some recipes that will move me into some areas of Greek cooking I've never gone before.

2. I also tried something new when I cooked dinner late this afternoon. Realizing we had a couple tins of clams in the basement and based on a comment about food that Debbie made earlier in the week, I decided to use up the last half of the box of medium shells I opened on Wednesday and make a clam sauce for the pasta.

I found a simple recipe that intrigued me. When I think of clam sauce, I imagine a creamy white sauce. But this sauce is just a combination of butter, oil, garlic, clams (with liquid), basil, parsley (I used oregano), and pepper. 

This bowl of pasta and clam sauce comforted Debbie and more than satisfied my easy to please palate.

3. Debbie went to bed tonight soon after our next episode of Monk got started. We left Monk on a flight from San Francisco to somewhere in New Jersey. Monk doesn't fly well. That he suspects a passenger on board of having committed a murder, though, might take his mind off of his multiple neuroses about being up in the air and give him a case to focus on. We'll resume this episode later. 

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