Flavor Flav Spaghetti

Flavor Flav was born the same year as my dad. That's really funny for some reason. I'm not gonna post "Cold Lampin' with Flavor" or anything, y'all can seek that out if you want it.

This pasta was pretty good. I like the contrast between soft pasta and snappy vegetables, but you could always bake the veggies first. I meant to put in some black olives but forgot. You should use more onions if you've got em, too.

makes approx. 3-4 servings

INGREDIENTS:

8 oz. rice bran spaghetti

2 small red onions, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 beet, peeled and diced

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

1/2 large parsnip, peeled and diced

1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes

5 oz. Vegan Gourmet mozarella

salt and pepper, to taste

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

3/4 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. rosemary

1/2 tsp. parsley

red wine vinegar

oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Boil the pasta for 2 min., then let sit, covered, for 20 min.

2. Sauté the onion in a pan with some oil. Add the garlic, followed by the beets. As you finish dicing the carrot and parsnip, toss those in.

3. Drizzle red wine vinegar over the vegetables, sprinkle salt and pepper. Turn up the heat a bit and let cook for a while.

4. Pour in the diced tomatoes with a little bit of water. Add the seasonings. Simmer for a while.

5. Cut the block of cheese into cubes and mix in.

From "Chips" in Reg Johanson's Courage, My Love:

& the letter from MasterCard: "We are unable to process your application due to derogatory information obtained from the Credit Bureau". / somebody's been talking shit about me / nobody appreciates a class traitor any more

Telephone Spaghetti

On this day in 1876... I'm just gonna let Wikipedia tell it, because their wording is so endearing. "Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the telephone." Kooky! There's also a thrilling little narrative over at the Timeline of the telephone page about how Bell and some guy named Gray were neck-and-neck for the patent.

This spaghetti could've really used some more vegetables or mushrooms or olives or something, but it came together out of a desire to hold off shopping until Wednesday, when I get a 5% student discount. Mom taught me well. So here it is, a simple sauce with a special sweet touch and some spaghetti noodles. (Yes, that's the most obnoxiously alliterative sentence I could come up with.) To cook the noodles I used the energy-efficient method provided on the packaging.

makes approx. 2-3 servings

INGREDIENTS:

6 oz. spaghetti

2 small red onions, diced

3 shallots, diced

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 clove garlic, pressed

1 15-oz. can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 15-oz. can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes

3 spoonfuls peach compote

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. rosemary

1/2 tsp. parsley

1/4 tsp. sage

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add spaghetti. After 2 min., shut off heat and let stand, covered, 20 min.

2. Sauté onions and shallots in oil in a pan. After several minutes, add sliced garlic. Stir to avoid burning the garlic. Add the minced garlic, then after a couple minutes the pressed garlic. Give it another minute or two, then pour in the two cans of tomatoes. Let it approach a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add peach compote and seasonings. Simmer 5-10 min., or until noodles are done or you can't wait any longer.

That is all.