Curtains for Roy Orbison Cheezy Noodles with Healthful Stuff too

On December 6 in the year of my birth, Roy Orbison had a heart attack, possibly due in part to the fact that his music was suddenly popular again and he was playing shows and filming videos around the world. I've never really listened to his music, but I love Blue Velvet. You can watch a clip of the scene (you know which one) here.

serves: 3

prep. time: 20-30 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. rigatoni

8 oz. baby spinach

1 bag frozen peas

6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

nutritional yeast

mylk

water

flour

black pepper

salt

cayenne

DIRECTIONS:

1. Boil water

2. Heat some flour in a saucepan with some oil. When it starts to toast, pour in mylk. Add other stuff. Make as much as you want. Add more of things to taste, add more flour to thicken, more water to thin.

2. Preheat oven to 400F. Put spinach in a baking pan and pop it in the oven for a few minutes. Cook pasta, adding peas in for a few minutes at the end.

3. Once everything's ready, toss it all together in the pan and bake for 5 minutes or something.

Not a science.

80-ton Sperm Wale vs. the Essex Orzo

On November 20, 1820, a sperm whale attacked and sunk a Nantucket whaling ship in the Pacific way the hell away from the coast of South America. Whales are intelligent. They know that boats are responsible for the cries of their pod members, for their blood in the water. Whales are also huge, and if they want to break up some wooden planks they'll do it without much trouble. If ever there was poetic justice in the human war against nonhuman animals, it could be located in the vicinity of the sentence "The whale crushed the bow like an eggshell." Righteous. After the Essex sank, the crew refused their captain's advice to sail west based on the fear that the islands might be inhabited by cannibals. Seven of the crew were eventually cannibalized by their desperate mates. The word "irony" almost doesn't do the story justice.

Last night I made an orzo dish and A. put together a tomato and cucumber salad with black pepper and red wine vinegar.

serves: 2-3

prep. time: approx. 20 min.

INGREDIENTS:

1 c. orzo

4 oz. tempeh, cubed

6 oz. white mushrooms, chopped

8 oz. baby spinach

1/4 in. segment of ginger, diced

curly parsley

Bragg's liquid aminos

juice of 1/2 lemon

lemon rind shavings

cayenne

garlic powder

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring 3 c. water to a boil. Add the orzo and boil, uncovered, for 15 minutes, or until done. (Took me longer than the package said it would.)

2. In a pan, saute the tempeh, mushrooms, ginger, and spinach (in that order) with oil over medium heat. Add the other stuff a few minutes before the main ingredients are cooked through.

3. Combine.