There Really is a Point to All of This

When I cook, my meals usually consist of one dish. There's a very simple reason for this. Two reasons, actually. One, I feel like cooking a full meal for myself is just silly and two, I have a lot of trouble making sure everything comes out at least remotely close to the same time. This was reiterated in my mind when I made Sicilian spaghetti last night.

I turned on the oven, started the pasta water and washed some dishes. Then I diced up the garlic (I never use enough - next time I'm just going to cut up the whole head) and didn't start the oil until I was finished because the water wasn't even close to boiling. I even took a little break at this point and sat on the couch to watch a little tv. I was trying, really.

Back to the kitchen to heat up a generous amount of olive oil in a large skillet. I rinsed the shrimp for several minutes to thaw them out. Then I roasted the garlic a little too much. I need to use even more olive oil next time. Jake taught me how to make this and his garlic always turned out perfect - I'm still learning. I put the garlic and oil in a little bowl and heated a bit more oil in which to cook the shrimp. The water was nearly boiling so I threw in the fusilli pasta and then spent some time with the shrimp. When they were pretty and pink, I tossed them in a dish with the garlic and oil and then checked the label on the garlic bread. Thirty minutes? No, no, no - I've made this bread before - it didn't taken that long! Argh. I sat down to drink to watch a little more tv.

A few minutes later, I checked the garlic bread label one more time and found that I was reading the directions for soft bread. Crunchy bread only takes eight to ten minutes and higher heat. I very obviously have problems with written directions. I turned the heat up, rinsed the pasta and poured it in with the shrimp along with a bit of reserved pasta water which I managed to slosh on the floor. Then I looked at the spaghetti and realized something vital was missing. I didn't remember this dish looking so plain....

Now, I've wanted to make this dish since Thanksgiving but there's been an asparagus drought in Dayton, Ohio. I usually buy it from Trader Joe's but when I found that they were out I checked a couple of other places...empty shelves. Friday night I finally found it at Joe's again, thank goodness.

I forgot about the asparagus.

I threw some more water on the stove to heat, put the garlic bread in even though the oven wasn't ready and chopped up the asparagus.

All in all, it was pretty close. The spaghetti was ready about ten minutes before the bread which wasn't my worst but still...it's a skill I might never master. Along with reading directions. That's a very recent development, though.