Linguine Alfredo w/ Pan Seared Asparagus & Zucchini

Dinner tonight was phenomenal, thanks to a mistake I made when asking Samantha to pick up ingredients.

I’d asked her to get me corn starch – in my mind I went…

‘Hmmm, Alfredo.  That means I need a roux.  Oh wait, no.  Sauce.   I’ll need to thicken it.’  I paused. “Ok Hon, I need Corn Starch, Whipping Cream and fresh Parmesan.”

Oops.  I know that you make Alfredo with a roux, I just botched it.

So, I looked high and low through our temporary home (House 1.5)  to find flour, but wasn’t able to.  A little quick googling on our part later, and I had a plan.  Here’s my method and ingredient list in case you (or I) want to re-create this awesome meal in the future.

Veggie Side – Pan Seared Asparagus & Zucchini

• 1 Bunch Asparagus
• 1/2 Med. Zucchini
• Finely Diced Onion – 2 Tbsp
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Generic “Italian Spice Blend”

Cut or snap woody ends off of Asparagus.  Slice Zucchini into meddalions and then cut the stack of medallions in half.  Heat Olive Oil in pan with pepper and some Italian Spice.  Add Zucchini and fry for a minute until they just start to soften.  Add onion and stir.  Add Asparagus (I cut mine in half) and stir-fry until desired texture is reached, about 5 minutes.

Main – Linguine Alfredo

• Fresh Noodles (Linguine this time)
• Whipping Cream  – about 250 mL
• Corn Starch – 2 tsp.
• Finely Diced Onion – 2 Tbsp
• Fresh Parmesan Cheese  (About 4 Tbsp.)
• Olive Oil – 2 tsp.
• Butter – 2 Tbsp.
• Pepper
• Generic “Italian Spice Blend”

Start pot w/ boiling water for noodles.  If using dried noodles start them now before sauce, if using fresh, ignore this step.

Melt Butter w/ Olive Oil in small saucepan.  Add onion and simmer for a minute or two until softened.  Add pepper and Italian Spices

Make slurry of Corn Starch and 2 Tbsp cold water, add Whipping cream to slurry and set aside.

Add noodles to water (if using fresh) and stir while they boil.

When ready to prepare, add Whipping Cream mixture slowly to Oil and whisk.   Heat over medium heat until sauce starts to thicken.  Add Parmesan Cheese and continue to whisk.  If sauce gets too thick you can add some more cream to thin it out.

Plate Noodles beside Veggies with about 5 or so Tbsp. of sauce on top.  Sprinkle fresh Parmesan on top and plate some veggies beside it.

Bon Appetit!

Just a note – my original Alfredo recipe is very similiar – the only difference is that I add about 4 tbsp of flour to the oil & butter when simmering to make a roux.  Stir and cook for a minute to give the flour some taste.  Then slowly add the whipping cream (without additives this time) all the while whisking briskly.  It should come together and make a nice thick sauce.  This normally is my preferred method, but this new one actually made a better sauce.

New Header

I made a new header. Well, actually I’ve made 3 or 4, but the strawberries are currently my favourite.

I took this earlier in the summer @ Samantha’s parent’s property.

I think I’ll leave them for now.

I may have found someone to illustrate the children’s book I wrote for Ivy – more as the news develops.

Don’t be alarmed…

this is just a test.  I’m playing around with new themes and stuff – I need a changeup so that I love this thing again, and then I’ll want to love it and hug it and feed it and cuddle it and post on it more often.

Let me know what you think, header image is temporary, one of my photographs will replace it.  I’m going to try to integrate my twitter account as well as my flickr account and update the baby ticker thing-a-mah-jigs.

…have a new place to live…soon.

Jeff and Sam, Plus 2 (+1), Plus Chris (Sam’s Brother) have a new place to live soon.  We bought a new house, and just cleared conditions today.  Here is a picture – hopefully it stays up a little while.

Front of house we're buying

Front entrance....yes it is yellow, but not as bad as in this pic.

We should get possession somewhere around Sept. 19 – if you want you can come help us move!

My blog has been left unattended

Totally.

I’ve been really bad at updating.  I dont’ know why, it isn’t as though life has become un-interesting.

Samantha is pregnant again, most of you should already know that.

I’ve been getting creative with our camera, entered a couple of contests, going to enter a couple more.

I havn’t been writing much, but I did write a book for Ivy.  I’m thinking of finding someone to do the artwork for it (sort of for free, possible profits involved….call me or email me if you’re interested!) and then self-publishing it via one of the print-on-demand publishers out there. (no, not vanity publishing, real, for sale sort of publishing.

I’ve been entering contests like mad to win either a new motorcycle or a fancier camera.  Not that I need either, but y’know.  In that vein, I’ve found some neat photos via Scott Bourne (and that link will enter me in more contests, as will this one, to his sister blog “Managing My Digital Life“) but also, his reviews, photos and contests are amazing.

My other photo stuff I’ve been doing is on Digital Photography School – and the amount I’ve learned about composition there is phenomenal!  So much I really can’t keep it all in my head.  I need to go out and take more pictures and practice!

Anyway – a blog post to remind myself to make more of them.  I hope you enjoy, I hope you read, and I hope you call me or email me if I havn’t talked to you in a while – life has an unfortunate habit of putting friends and family out of touch.

As an update of how life is going and how the children are growing, here is a photo I recently entered into a portrait contest. (I’m not so good at portraits, the good composition elements here are luck!)

Dylan

Pi Day!

It’s totally pi day! Word up!

It’s also Ashley’s birthday, so Ivy is super excited because she gets to go to a princess party.

Was up early this morning beginning an outline for a story – it it something worth finishing and trying to get published? Or like every other project I start will I get halfway there and lose interest. We’ve yet to see.

Back?

After a long hiatus following the wedding and honeymoon I appear to be back. We all know I’m not that motivated though, so we’ll see.

Lots of things are happening. Samantha and I have decided to put our house on the market – sell low, buy low. We figure we’ll work out on the upside if we take a small loss on what we could potentially make on this house, and buy a bigger one cheaper than we could in a better market as well. Trading up so to speak. We will need another bedroom soon anyway, right?

I have all sorts of ideas going round in my head about trying to write something again – we’ll see if that pans out.

The cool thing I forgot to blog about before my hiatus was that I was interviewing for a job with the School District. That didn’t turn out – but I hear they’re hiring again.

Um…think that’s it for now.

Coffee tastes good at 7am. ;)

Ciao for now.

Dinner, Games and Songs!

Well – dinner was pretty awesome.

Then we played Rock Band. \m/

Now Chris, Emille, Samantha and I are sitting around the living room playing Singstar on the PS2.  I figured I’d share a couple of the songs we’re singing, and you can draw your own conclusions of what our teenage years were like.  It’s the 90’s edition – so this is all stuff we all listened to during high school and elementary school.

 

First – Samantha

Then Chris…

Then Emille…. is upset that there is no Aqua on the disk.  In the meantime though he says this one represents him ok….

 

And finally – yours truly!

 

 

So – watcha think?

 

*Note.  No alcohol was consumed in the making of this evening.  The occasional note may have been harmed.

Some Quick Updates

Yep – just some quick ones.

1) Something interesting is happening.  I can’t talk about details yet, but I’ll let you all know when I know the final details – probably Wednesday afternoon.

2) As you probably know, Chris is back and out of the hospital.  He’s staying with us for a while, while he recovers.  We’re pumping calories into him at an astronomical rate.  Hopefully we can have him good and fat soon.

3) I’ve signed up on sparkpeople.com  It’s a fitness and nutrition tracking site.  I’m trying to sort of diet = 1850 calories or less per day.  So far it’s going pretty good. 

4) In that regard I’ve recently put a post up on my fitness blog – runfatboyrun.wordpress.com  I’m planning to add to it more regularly again.

5) I’m writing this on my laptop with no internet connection.  If all goes well this should publish when I get to an internet connection later in the day.  What fascinating modern times we live in.

6) Going to Kamloops soon.  Have an appointment with a specialist about my back disease.  I’m hoping for some sort of miracle drug that takes away my pain and lets me sleep full nights again.  That would be cool. 

7) Spore is pretty cool.  I’ve been playing offline only in  my “liberated” version.  Now that EA/Maxis has said that they’ll be changing the copy protection to allow five activations and are putting in place a tool to “de-authorize” activated computers (much like iTunes) I’ll consider buying it if I don’t get it for my birthday.

8) Which is coming up soon!  I’m getting oldish.

9) Dylan is officially a 6mo.  That’s pretty cool.  She’s loving real people food – although she only gets to gum bread and rice crackers and stuff to death.  The occasional bit of rice cereal.  Y’know – baby stuff.

10) People are coming over tonight.  It’s officially a wedding planning exercise, garnished with a fresh beef roast and veggies.  I think Scott is planning to add a topping of Rock Band Fun after we get the work part done.  Since Ivy pooped in the potty it’s also going to be her potty pooping party we’ve been promising her since we started this whole potty training affair.  And what an affair it’s been!\

11) Ivy pooped in the potty!!!!!  YAY! Word! Dude! Party Time! Excellent! (guitar solo) Sweeeeeeeet!

12) I rode my bike to work today.  Chilly.  I had to scrape frost off the seat, put on a scarf, and wear ski-doo gloves.  It was pretty cold, but once you get to 100km/h at least your helmet unfogs!  Awesome!  I’m guessing this will be one of my last commutes this year on the bike, and prolly one of the last times I get to ride before I have to winterize the little baby and put it away for the winter.  Sad me.

I miss my Fiancee

Fiancee?  One “e” or two?

Either way, I miss her.  She’s been in Kamloops with Chris since last week, Wednesday or Thursday if I recall correctly.  We went down to see them on the weekend, and that was good.

Chris is looking way better.  His weight is up.  He’s less yellow – not Bart Simpson anymore, or atleast, not as badly.

He’s in Vancouver for a surgery today – ERCP – something to do with inflating baloons in his liver to expand the bile ducts.  I heare some surgeons are so adept with the tools they use that they can tie tiny baloon animals inside a patients bile ducts.  I hope the one he has is one of those.  Chris could use a miniature elephant keeping his ducts open.

Anyway – I miss Sam.  We got our basement windows done, which means that I lost my phone service until I rewire the jack that used to be mounted on the old window sill.  I also seem to have lost my cellular telephone somewhere, which means that even if Sam called me I can’t answer.  I wrote her an email, but at the time it takes for an email to trudge it’s way down the intertubes to Kamloops I might as well be sending smoke signals.  Or something almost but not quite entirely unlike that.

I think she’s coming home on Friday.  Maybe Thursday night if all goes well and she’s so desperate to come home that she can’t sleep.  We’ll see

If you’re reading this Sam – I miss you.  I love you.  Come back home to me soon, and safely. (oh, and bring Dylan.  Ivy and I miss her. :) )