Or, as the poet Robert Burns said: "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley," which, when translated to vernacular English, means "dammit, I got home too late to barbecue the chicken."
It was a good idea, though, but I worked later than I thought, traffic was bad, and Jackson had taekwondo at 7:45 tonight. I walked in the door, said "spaghetti and meatballs" in an authoritative voice, and put water on to boil. Twenty minutes later, thanks to the magic of Prego and homemade meatballs from the freezer, we ate.
Of course, I'm the odd one out about spaghetti, since I prefer it with olive oil and a bunch of veggies, and tonight was no exception. I threw mushrooms in the olive oil with chopped fresh garlic (I don't think Edward Cullen will fall in love with ME anytime soon), sauteed it for a few minutes, and, while still hot, threw in chopped fresh tomato and basil. A bit of salt, and since the avocado on the counter was calling to me, I cut that up and dropped it on. I finished everything off with shredded Parmesan cheese.
Avocado has such a lovely creamy taste that I'll eat it with almost everything, and I have a really good guacamole recipe too. Credit where it's due: Boudro's Restaurant on the Riverwalk in San Antonio was the source of this wonderful guacamole. Every summer for three years in a row, I went to San Antonio to host a big client party, and I always made it a point to eat at Boudro's. If you get to San Antonio, you should too -- their food is amazing. I could go on for two pages about the fried oysters, but we're talking about guacamole right now. They do it tableside, and I took notes. You'll need:
two ripe avocados
juice of 1/4 orange
juice of 1/2 lime
chopped cilantro to taste (I use about a tablespoon)
chopped red onion to taste (again, about a tablespoon)
a sprinkle of salt
fire roasted tomatoes and chipotle peppers* (about a tablespoon here too)
*A note on this one. Boudro's does their own roasting of the tomatoes and peppers, but that's WAY too much work. I found La Herdez Salsa Casera in Albertson's, and it provides almost the same flavor.
Anyway, dump everything in and mix it up, mashing the avocados to the consistency you're comfortable with. I like chunks -- my daughter likes smooth. We settle somewhere in the middle.
It's a great summertime treat!
Ah spaghetti. That brings back memories of a trip my wife and I once took to Spaghetti Warehouse. Not the world's best pasta, but decent for mass production.
ReplyDeleteWhat I remember most about this particular trip was 2 boys of my wife's best friend were visiting from Virginia. We took them to Spaghetti Warehouse whereupon the youngest naturally ordered spaghetti. But he decided he wanted his way and he wanted to hold the meatball hold the cheese and most especially hold the spaghetti sauce. He promptly began eating the dry spaghetti one strand at a time.
When a couple of teenage girls sitting nearby started giggling, he looked at them, grinned mischeviously and promptly threw back his head and dramatically held each spaghetti strand up high and slowly lowered it to the gaping maw.
That was so funny!! I think Ryan is still attracting the girls. ;)
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